My Spotless Mind

Orisha Elegua

2007-07-02T17:42:00.001-07:00

Elegua is also known as Esu in the Yoruba Pantheon of Orisha. Orisha are the deities of the Yoruba tradition. He was brought to the Diaspora via slavery to the Carribean in places like Cuba where the Lucumi/Santeria tradition continued the Yoruba worship of orisha in the New World. He is the messenger who takes one's prayers and sacrifices to the foot of God in heaven.

Elegua opens and closes the road or way for us in life. He stands in the crossroads and 4 corners. No ceremony is started without paying tribute to him first. He takes many forms and has many names. He is considered a trickster and can be a difficult teacher when there is a lesson needed to be learned.

There are said to be 256 roads or paths of Esu/Elegua. These paths correspond to the 256 Odu in Ifa. Many have not made it to the New World with the slaves. They remained in Nigeria. No priest or priestess in the Yoruba/Lucumi faith is without an Esu/Elegua. Each person who receives an Elegua receives one specific to their path and needs. Divination is done to determine what path of Elegua is to be given to the person. Elegua is one of the few orishas that you don't have to be fully initiated to receive. One can be an aleyo, outsider (literal translation) or not initiated and receive and Esu/Elegua if they have issues he can help with. This is one of the aspects that what makes Elegua so unique.

He is a very complicated deity. He is known as one that can create confusion very easily. So he always has to be pampered and treated with reverence to avoid hassles created on his behalf. Anytime there is a sacrifice or ceremony he has to be given something first. He is the appropriator of ceremonies. Without Elegua being acknowledged first chances are the outcome desired in a ceremony will not come to fruition. He is considered one of the primary Warriors given in the Ibora or set of Warriors given by a Babalawo. A Babalawo is an Ifa priest initiated in the secrets of Ifa. He gives the set of Warriors to those who need it. The warriors in the Diaspora consist of Elegua, Ogun, Ochosi and Osun. In Nigeria Osun is not given with the warriors. Priests and Priestesses of Orisha may give Elegua to their godchildren but not the whole set of warriors. It is with this Elegua the godchild is initiated to Orisha with when they decide to get initiated.

Contrary to what most people believe not all roads of Elegua like children or want to play. Some can be very serious and dangerous if annoyed or played with. One has to know the road of their Elegua and his particular characteristics. They are not all the same.

The Dark Secret About Healing and Recovery

2007-06-29T06:41:00.001-07:00

I wrote this book to show a flip side to "The Secret," by Rhonda Byrne. Her material is wonderful, but she misses an important point: there is a dark secret that prevents us from experiencing all the good we so rightfully deserve.

My book is partly a self-help guide and partly an inspirational tool. Most importantly, it makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the profession of Social Work and to the new field of Life Coaching.

We can have a healthier, happier life if we are willing to choose the Positive. However, this process poses significant challenges for us and our culture.

We are living in times of wondrous opportunity and great folly. The world still looks to America for hope, direction, and solutions. America remains a land of majestic beauty, a beacon of unlimited opportunity, prosperity, and abundance.

But America stands before us transfixed by the rhythm of automobile engines, entangled by a war of liberation and retaliation, surrounded by a haze of unnatural vapor and murky waters, mesmerized by the soothing images on color television sets and personal computers.

See the flashing lights; hear the wailing sirens of ambulances racing through our city streets to remove the bodies of children playing drug war games. Look at the women unsafe from attack while jogging in city parks or strolling through neighborhood parks or even office corridors. Youngsters are assaulted by gunman in schools, airport terminals, and McDonald Restaurants. Robbers steal and prey on the unsuspecting in subway stations, private homes or parking lots.

Meanwhile, numerous high school graduates can't read or write, and many college graduates can't find decent jobs. More of the clergy break their vows and end up in court or prison. Half of all eligible voters in our country rarely vote.

Millions of Americans who work, struggle to meet their basic needs for food, shelter, clothing and medical care. Forty-four million Americans don't have healthcare insurance. More than half of our bankruptcy claims are due to overwhelming healthcare costs; yet our political system passes laws to make filing Chapter 7 even more difficult.

In the last year alone, a million people have joined the ranks of the poor. The mentally ill and our homeless continue to overwhelm local social service networks. Medicaid and prison costs threaten the solvency of state governments. Furthermore, mass media floods us with the uneasy images of emaciated third-world children, assassinations, terrorist bombings, casualties of war, looming pandemics, natural disasters, and fear.

The good news is that life doesn't have to be an experience of constant pain and unhappiness. Unfortunately too many people, after initially trying to make some healthy changes, simply give up and return to their old ways of living. And life does appear to be very negative for so many of us.

By profession, I am a social worker who has learned to believe in our right to heal and find peace. This book will try to convince you of these facts: we can learn how to make changes or improvements in ourselves as well as our culture.

For the last 30 years of my adult life, I have reached out a loving hand to countless many that suffer and hurt. In spite of all the pain, sorrow, human misery, and hardships that I have witnessed, I am awe-struck by the incredible spiritual growth I see, including miracles that have appeared in my life's journey.

Do you need a miracle? Are you facing a challenge of sickness, loneliness, pain, loss, excessive habits or lack? Surely you will agree that living in today's world is exciting, but you also know there is so much that is wrong, destructive, and harmful.

Spend some time with me and we will talk about healings, happiness, miracles, and social reforms. My healings can be the start of your miracles; our miracles can begin to transform social ills; our culture dedicated to social healing can take its rightful place in the service to the needs of the world.

This is a book about personal healing, social work treatment, and the need for social healings; but above all else, it is a message of hope. Yet, my approach requires that ultimately each person find their own inner pathway to healing. Along these lines I am reminded of a story from the Talmud: (4):

"A young Rabbi talked to his master: 'During the time when I am studying I feel filled with light and life, but as soon as I cease to study this mood disappears. What should I do?' So the Rabbi replied: 'It is like a man who walks through a forest on a dark night, and part of the way is accompanied by a companion who carries a lantern. Soon they come to the point where their paths divide, and they must go on alone. If each carries his own lantern, one need fear no darkness.'"

What I will share with you is not new but old and it is a lantern. If we are to survive in this world, I believe it is time to wake up and look around. Let us choose to see the Light. Let us sing the song of Light, and search for our emotional connection to the Light that flows inside and through us all. With this knowledge of spirituality firmly in place, we can claim our in-born right to healing, happiness, and freedom.

Like the ancient Greek philosophers emphasized; "Knowledge is not what a man has been told, shown, or taught; it can be only what he has found out for himself by long and rigorous search." (5). Absolute Knowledge—the Light, is subject to many different styles and modes of interpretations, just like music can be expressed in an infinite number of modes.

The more I share with others, the more I discover that Light is everything I know and feel plus more than I know and feel—the mystical element. Follow that which is positive, wholesome, and good.

Today I choose to share what Light means to me in the hope that you will find your own truth-vision. This is an exercise that will take patience, faith, and practice. What will soon become clear to you, from reading my book, is that the pathway to healthy change
overflows with peace, joy, and "bliss" as the mythmaker states.

I have divided my book into two parts. Part I will focus on: face stressful feelings and think positive thoughts. Part II will conclude with: take positive action and turn to Positive Power. This is a healing formula. One can use it to facilitate personal healing, to help others, and to make improvements in our country. It begins with the best we can humanly do in steps 1 through 3, and then requires our complete surrender in step 4 to the power of Light however one defines It.

I see my message as a beacon of Love-Light to those who want and need to have a better life. My book illustrates that when find the power to unlock our dark secret, we can all become more effective change agents, which will help our nation heal too. And then one can super-size "The Secret," to get the results we all are want and need.

More information is available at Lulu.com

Reincarnation & Karma - 4 Reasons People Think They Lived Past Lives as Famous Historical Figures

2007-06-21T14:48:00.001-07:00

Too often, there are reports of people claiming to have been
glorified historical figures in past lives.

It's a frequent misconception, perhaps encouraged in part by
somewhat unscrupulous psychics who tell clients how important
they were in their past lives. When people are regressed and see
their own past lives, it's common to perceive experiences as being
both rich and poor, male and female, powerful and powerless,
productive and unproductive, and so on. If people perceive
themselves as a famous historic figure such as Cleopatra,
Joan of Arc, one of the Disciples of Jesus, or even as Jesus
himself, there are four possible explanations for this:

1. The person really was the historic figure in a past life.

2. The person is identifying with personality patterns
associated with the historic individual to such an extent that
the person believes he or she was that individual.

3. The person's ego is adding to the session. For example,
perhaps he or she perceives through regression the ancient
civilization of Egypt and a woman who looked like Cleopatra,
or they may have been associated with Cleopatra, but the
regressed person wasn't actually Cleopatra.

4. The person is somehow connecting to the energy or
consciousness that was once part of the historic figure.

Regarding those who consider people who believe in
reincarnation and past lives to be escapists and cowards,
it actually takes more courage to accept and live within the
ideals of reincarnation and karma because it means you have
to take responsibility for everything you do, say, intend, and
feel for all that happens to you. There is no such thing as a
victim, you can't blame anyone for anything, and you "get
away with" nothing.

Furthermore, physical death may be the end of our body, but
we are far more than just a body. Our soul consists of energy
or life force. Science has proven that energy never dies and
can't be destroyed; it just takes a different form.

Past life regression can be used for entertainment purposes,
but more importantly, even if you don't believe in past lives,
it can be a very useful and therapeutic tool.

Finally, it doesn't really matter if the theories of reincarnation
and karma are valid or not, but if we all acted as if they were,
our world would be a much better place.

New Age Gurus - 20 Qualities That Don't Make a Good Spiritual Teacher

2007-06-20T10:09:00.001-07:00

Since the early 1980's we've explored metaphysical and
New Age offerings. We've compiled a list below to help
you navigate the metaphysical marketplace.

The following is an extended list of characteristics that,
although perceived by much of the population as inherently
"spiritual," do not automatically make someone a good
spiritual teacher.

*Membership to a sect/religion based in a foreign country

*The appearance of a wise, old sage; older doesn't always
mean wiser

*Musical/artistic ability

*The ability to offer an authentic-looking, heartfelt cry on
cue

*Having attracted a lot of money/contributions through their
adherents

*A foreign accent

*Enigmatic looks

*Lots of press

*Expensive fees

*Expensive seminars and retreats

*Mention of having studied under a "guru" in an exotic
foreign country

*Specializing in mysterious disciplines that are difficult, if
not impossible to pronounce

*Being a "best-selling" author

*An appearance on Oprah

*Appearing on other national TV/radio shows

*Having testimonials/endorsements from other "spiritual
authorities" (i.e., often self-proclaimed)

*A powerfully effective communicator/stage presence

*Having "cured" themselves of a terminal disease through
their magic powers that you can have too if you would just
pay their fees and buy their products

*Guaranteeing success in manifesting what you want
(especially if it contrasts with who you really are/your
true path)

*Cheer-leading ability

*Denying reincarnation and karma (usually because accepting
these basic spiritual concepts would negate some or a lot of
what they preach)

*"Never" saying anything "negative" and always smiling

*Written communication that appears to sound profoundly
deep, is difficult to decipher, and that leaves you thinking,
"What does that mean?" after the feel-good feeling fades

*Poetic ability

*The ability to make you feel warm and fuzzy inside

*Claims of having communicated directly with God, or guides,
or other spiritual beings--especially when the "communications"
are sometimes biased-sounding. For example, someone claiming
that "God" told them a certain politician/political initiative or
corporate initiative is evil, or that one must, for instance,
abstain from sex for the rest of his/her life in order to reach
"nirvana"

*The willingness to jump on the New Age bandwagon just
because a spiritual concept is popular

The Lap Dancer Who Changed My Life

2007-06-13T08:41:00.001-07:00

She was stunning, had a beautiful aura and the moment she stepped onto the bar I knew that I had to have a lap dance from her. Her skin was softer than a baby. As she proceeded to straddle me I couldn't help but begin to talk to her. She told me her name was Angelina and that she was a local resident in Amsterdam. I made a comment about how her skin was so soft and made a light note of it by asking her what her secret was? She laughed and asked how old I was. I told her that I was 30 to which she then asked me what my secret was to looking so young?

We continued to speak during the course of the lap dance and to be honest, I'd almost forgotten that she was supposed to be giving me a dance because I really enjoyed the conversation that we were having. Later that evening my friends and I were talking and I noticed that Angelina was sitting at the bar by herself having a drink. I decided to go over and talk to her. We ended up talking for the better part of half an hour. She told me that she was a mother of two even though she was only 23 years old. When she told me that I was totally stunned as not only did she look very young too, but she was doing lap dancing as her primary source of income!

As the conversation went on we learned a great deal about one another. I did ask Angelina if she enjoyed being a lap dancer to which she replied that she did, however, she had plans to go study and train to be a make up artist. She was very confident about herself, what she wanted to do and the dreams she wanted to fulfil. We continued talking about various things and life in general. At the end of the conversation, we gave each other a big hug and I said to her: "you're beautiful on the inside as well as the outside!" After that I wished her the best in fulfilling her dreams to be a make up artist and wished her luck for her marriage too!

Two days later my friends and I ended up being at the same bar again. After a while Angelina came onto the bar. Shortly after she noticed me, waved at me and gave me a big smile. She beckoned me over to have another lap dance from her. I reluctantly said yes but as she sat onto my lap it just didn't feel right any more! It felt like I had asked a friend to strip naked and dance for me! I felt very uncomfortable but to express that when you're in a bar surrounded by men jeering you on is not an easy thing to convey. When she finished her dance I gave her a huge hug and whispered in her ear: "I'm truly sorry, but I feel as if you're a friend now and that just didn't seem right to me!" She whispered back; "I know and I could tell, it's because you're different to every other guy I've met, it's ok!"

I paid her the money after which I waited and hoped to see her walk by after she'd finished so that I could speak to her further. Unfortunately I had to leave as my other friends wanted to go which meant that it is unlikely that I will ever see her again!

Just after we left the bar one of my friends was very tired and just wanted to sleep. We didn't have anywhere to stay that night so we decided that he and I would go to the airport and find a quiet corner where he could sleep. My other friends wanted to continue their night out and so we went our separate ways. After we got to the airport we found a good spot where my friend fell asleep. We had 6 hours to kill before our flight and even though I was tired I didn't feel like sleeping. So I sat down and decided to meditate. The whole experience with Angelina came back to me and I spent the better part of four hours and just thinking about what had happened. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes but I was determined not to cry! It had a huge impact on me what had happened.

I realised that if getting to know someone can make me have a conscience about dancing with this girl then there should be no reason why I find it ok just because I do not personally know the woman, or should I say, the beautiful spirit in front of me. Just like every other man on the planet, I love the site of a naked woman, but that isn't an excuse for me to satisfy my needs by paying a woman to dance for me. I spent much of that time crucifying myself for what had happened. For good reason too, however, I know that beating myself up inside was not going to change what had happened. Nothing could! It was then that I realised that it was part of the my journey of self discovery that things transpired the way that they did. It was no coincidence that I ended up being at the bar both the nights that Angelina was there, considering that she only danced 3 nights a week. It was what I chose to experience. If I didn't have that experience with Angelina there would've been a chance that I would've done the same thing again in the future and continued doing it.

I have no idea if what had happened also had an effect on Angelina. I would love to be able to see her again and tell her the impact she had on me. She probably will never know, but she, in that moment, was my Angel, Angelina.

The question now is where do I go from here? I am always going to be invited to strip clubs by my friends, unless I decide to change my friends! So will I ever go again? Yes I will for sure because as far as I'm I'm concerned it's one place where I still have the opportunity to do some good. Will I ever pay for a lap dance again? No, that is something I will never do again but I have no regrets about what transpired, in fact, I'm grateful! I made my choices, some of which were not the best but I've forgiven myself because out of them, I choose the path to grow.

Even whilst writing this I feel like crying, I know it will come out of me at some stage. But I also feel like a new chapter has opened for me and many new doors will open from this experience.

Thank you my Angel-lina! :)

The Perfect Threesome - You - Me and God

2007-06-11T08:17:00.001-07:00

I woke up this morning so it's already a good day. When I wake up every morning, the first thought is always about me. It may be how I feel, or what I was dreaming, or something like that. I'm talking about that very first thought when I am conscious. From that point, I have to reduce my self-consciousness and remember God.

I don't like waking up alone. I am single, but that's because I had chosen to marry someone who did not love God. I didn't understand that no one could really love me if they didn't love God. I have always known what I wanted. Now, finally, I realize what I need.

I am not a preacher. There have been times in my life that others may have even wondered if I even knew God. I have come to a point in my life where I understand that pain is anywhere in my life where God is not.

Sometime last year I had been reading my spiritual text and I realized that all of it was about relationships. My chosen text is the Bible. I have formally studied all major religions, their histories and current states. I choose to be Christian. I know that this is not everyone's choice, and that's not really my concern. As my mentor put to me last year, the source of my pain was always because of my separation from God.

All the stories and teaching I have been reading has to do with the relationship between God and me, God and others, God and this earth, along with the angels whether or not they had fallen. And then there were stories about relationships between people and everything else we call reality, both seen and unseen. I believe that when I began to see and understand these relationship stories I began to wake up.

My mentor and I do not have the same religious beliefs. He taught me not to be religious. We share a strong belief in spirituality. My salvation from the pain of living came when I learned how to embrace spirituality. When this happened, I learned how to love. I learned humility, and when that gets out of whack, I have to remember something simple. How long can I hold my own pee? I am not in control of anything.

God is in control. It follows that for me to have a relationship, whether it is friends, family, or a partner, then God will have to be in control to be able to relieve the inevitable pains that we bring each other. Remember I started by saying that any part of my life where God does not live brings me pain. I am allergic to pain.

I need love. I need God. And I need you. How God operates in any of my relationships is up to the three of us. Without those three ingredients our recipe is incomplete and who knows what we'll cook up. However, if God is the center of us, then when we look into each other's eyes, as lovers, as friends, and/or as family, then we will always see home when we need to. Anything else is superficial.

Faith Is Not Easy, But You Can Have It!

2007-06-08T14:38:00.001-07:00

For the past months my husband and I have been standing in prayer for a friend that is going through a very stressful situation in her life. We have been her mentor for many years.

She is one of those special people that receives and follows instructions to a tee. That is very rare. There are many people who constantly ask questions. They will listen to what is being said, but they never put into practice what they have heard.

Many of these people just want therapy; they do not want solid answers that require change. Change is not easy. It is the one of the most difficult things that we humans must learn to do. Just as our natural muscles ache when we over exercise or use them in ways in which they are not accustomed, the same is true when we stretch our spiritual muscles. They too cry out in pain.

As we read in Hebrews 11:1, "Faith is the substance of the things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen."

How do we believe for something we cannot see? In Romans 4:17, Abraham "called things that are not, as though they were."

In essence it comes in literally taking God at his word. Believing what He has said, no matter what we see, what we feel or what we hear. Faith is not easy, but you can have it!
If we never learn to see God in the small things, we will never see Him in the large ones.

Our spiritual eyes must recognize the fingerprints of God in every area of our lives. Our faith grows as we live through trials and circumstances where God comes through for us over and over again. These begin to form faith building blocks that become the strong foundation that our spiritual lives stand on.

Look back to the times that God has come through for you. Even if it is only once, His fingerprint is the same, it never changes. If you have heard His still small voice even once you can hear it again, for it never changes. If you have felt His touch upon you even once, you can feel it again, for He never changes.

Hebrew 3:8, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." Believing that is having faith! Faith is not easy, but you can have it!

The Parable of The Ten Virgins - Explained - Part 1

2007-05-20T20:22:00.001-07:00

Matthew 25:1 Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. 2 And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. 3 They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: 4 But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. 5 While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. 6 And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. 7 Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. 8 And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. 9 But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. 10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. 11 Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. 12 But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. 13 Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.

What is this parable all about, for I have heard all manner of explanations of it? None of which, I hasten to add, have ever made much sense other than to be used by 'ministers' or 'pastors' to spiritually abuse and bully their flocks. I am sad to have to say there are more than several passages of Scripture that are used in this negative and abusive way. As another example please see my article entitled "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling - Oh really, is that so!?"

This is the general 'Christian' ministerial consensus of opinion on this parable. The virgins are always (metaphorically) the membership of the congregation or body of believers, not the ministry. The five wise virgins are those members who are always at 'church' every Sunday putting on their Sunday best, including their Sunday best behaviour and Sunday smiles and sit there without questioning a word the minister/pastor says. They believe everything he says and in reality follow him and his religion not The Lord Jesus Christ. In contrast, the five foolish virgins are those members who do question things, are lax in their attendance and may even be 'church' hoppers or very unfulfilled and find their Christian religious walk all a bit too tough and boring. They find the daily cleansing, struggling to 'get right with God', finding time for their quiet time, always getting ready for the next renewal, salvation by process and/or self-improvement, very hard work indeed, even stressful. They don't understand the apparent contradiction of Our Lord's words "Take my yoke upon you for it is light;" they find the yoke they are bearing unbelievably heavy. Then to compound their wretched Spiritual condition, along comes old Bible basher Joe the Pastor and gives his sermon on The Ten Virgins and these poor people are now down on their hands and knees under the weight of his man made yoke. Just to make sure, this minister tells them that unless they shape up and get with it (salvation by works) they are just like the five foolish virgins.

So, what is the real meaning of this parable? Well it is fairly easy to work out if you use the correct symbolism and study a little into the traditions of Jewish weddings. First and foremost The Bridegroom is Jesus Christ and His bride is the Church. Now this is where mainstream Christian teachers go wrong and place the Ten Virgins in this parable as the Church when they are not. In actual fact The Bride is not mentioned in this parable at all and it is not mentioned deliberately because Our Lord Jesus Christ was making a very different point entirely and in places a very mockingly sarcastic point too.

Even in the first century, Jewish weddings had bridesmaids and that is what these Ten Virgins are – bridesmaids. Now what is the role of a bridesmaid? Why, to look after and take care of the bride so she's ready for the wedding – who else? Who is the Bride – The Church that's who. So who are these Bridesmaids? Ah now we're getting to it!! The bridesmaids are ministers, pastors, elders and teachers; those responsible for looking after the after the bride. Again, who is the bride? The church of course and the bridesmaids or virgins as they're called here are supposed to be taking care of their flocks and protecting them in fresh green pastures. Which means feeding them with what; the Good News what else; the Good News of real salvation, grace and the coming Kingdom of God? Please see my two articles on the subject of Grace.

In Adam Clarke's commentary He says the oil for the lamps is Grace and he is correct with his analogy for without Grace it is impossible for The Light (Jesus Christ) to shine. The five wise virgins are ministers or pastors who understand Grace and it flows from them. Their flocks carry a light yoke so they are very strong and secure in faith. This in turn means because these congregations are grace (oil) filled The Light (Jesus Christ) shines from them continually. On the other hand we then have the five foolish virgins who are grace killers; they have no oil for their lamps - no grace, so their congregations are oppressed and down trodden. These congregations are very legalistic in nature or full of rules and regulations - The Ten Commandments and some, and all laid down with a big stick from the pulpit every Sunday. This means the lamps of these virgins - ministers and pastors (Pharisees) cannot shine because there is no grace in their teaching. The Light and/or the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ has gone out of their teaching and possibly out of their lives altogether - their lamps have no oil.

One other thing, some people use this parable as metaphor for the saved and the unsaved i.e. the five wise virgins are saved and the unwise are not. This is a gross perversion of the use of this Scripture. How do we know that? Easy, all the virgins slept and this means all the virgins had metaphorically entered The Lord's Sabbath Rest - all the virgins were called by the Father to His Son so they were all without excuse.

Ok, last but not least we have the message of wisdom and foolishness in this parable whereby no symbolism is necessary. Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; (teach a false graceless unjust message) 19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them. 20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: 21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened (no oil, no light). 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, (no wisdom and the teaching of a non-gospel) 23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, (Man, who turns the worship of God into religion with all his rules, legalism and salvation by works) and to birds, and four footed beasts, and creeping things. (Brackets mine)

Mark 7:7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. (Salvation by works) 8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. 9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. 10 For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: 11 But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. 12 And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; 13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.

So there we have it, the wisdom of Grace versus the foolishness of men with their Graceless legalistic religion, vain traditions and rituals and salvation by works. The Pharisaical blasphemous interpretation of Scripture which puts True Believers into bondage and makes the lives of many of God's sons and daughters a living hell! I know I used to be one of them so I pray to The Lord Jesus Christ that they are all set free and soon.

In part two I will be dealing with verses 9 and 12 as they are also crucial to fully understanding this parable.

Charles Crosby.

Do You Fear The Falcon Of Death?

2007-05-19T16:48:00.001-07:00

As the falcon of death swoops down onto the bird (man) to release him from his bodily cage the bird screeches in sheer terror mentally as he is paralyzed by the grip of impending death. Wait, stop, is this how it is supposed to be when the bird of eternity is locked up in a fleshy little cage? We should be eagles of immortality feeling at ease in never-ending space. Unfortunately when a bird is long confined in a cage even if set free may still want to return, likewise when a man is so attached to his bodily cage desires to return even so after being set free by death. Caged and imprisoned for so long the bird has forgotten the freedom it had in the skies so also with the soul in man imprisoned in a body through many lives has lost his memory of home in the vastness of space.

Did you know that most people fear dying because they were told that it will be painful?
Why is man so stricken with horror and grief when he senses himself nearing or seeing death? When death arrives like a cruel tyrant it is very difficult for an individual to maintain a mental equilibrium when he feels his peace and harmony will be destroyed. It is not so hard for someone to give up an old overcoat when he has the chance of getting a new one, but because of deep attachments to their possessions, some people find it impossible to throw away even old used garments. Likewise, mundane people grieve when they are being ousted from their dearly loved bodies. Do you want to live with apprehensions? As long as you are alive you are not dead and when you die there is nothing to worry as it will be all over!

Spiritual masters tells us that when we die it is totally devoid of pain. When you go to sleep at night you do not feel any pain and when the last sleep finally comes there is no pain. As sleep expels the aches and pains of the hard worked day, death voluntarily releases us of all bodily pain and suffering. Death does not come as a punishment, but is the cessation of all of life's sorrows as a essential finish to our bodily confinement that our souls may depart this earthly realm and journey in a freer form to higher regions. The body may be buried or reduced to ashes in cremation but, the spirit will no longer be subjected to the torments of the body. Oh… what a relief, for the soul is now free in a body of light in the beauty and peace of the astral spheres with no more bills to pay or worries about getting injured or sick.

In breaking down the various steps of physical death, there are stages that occur in the body in this way. When the life force ebbs away from the muscles, the motor nerves becomes paralyzed and because of deterioration to the sensory nerves they are unable to reach the brain and because of paralysis the deteriorating man is unable to taste or smell. The optic nerves begin to fail and the dying man is unable to see and deafness sets in as the auditory nerves are cut off. The dying man will no longer be able to feel his body when the tactual nerves stop working. Do you remember when your arm or leg has gone to sleep? You can see that limb, but you could not move it and that is what happens to the dying man; he is aware of his dying body but because of paralysis he is powerless to move it. When all of man's organs become paralyzed, death is not yet complete even though the lungs, liver, and heart have stopped working as well as limbs. The dying man has no experience of pain during this slow-moving paralysis except for the lungs. This is the only organ that can cause pain in the form of suffocation, but this pain can only be felt mentally. There is definitely mental pain or terror for those who fear losing their physical body and who clutch to it in utter panic when life is ebbing away from the bodily frame and they resist unsuccessfully to keep on breathing. The majority of time even though man breathes constantly he is not conscious he is breathing as it is with the wise spiritual man throughout the death experience. When the lungs become paralyzed the spiritual man will not feel any suffocation because he realizes that the soul is not conditioned by breath. It is the opposite for the spiritually ignorant who thinks his life or soul depends upon his breath therefore it is he who will suffer the mental pain of suffocation. However even the advanced spiritual devotee dreads losing the mortal body and he temporarily forgets he is the immortal soul.

What are the metaphysics of life and death? Death transitions our soul from the physical body to an astral one and then the astral body transfers to the beautiful luminous astral world. Why is death considered a counterfeit sleep? Because now you are dreaming you are alive and then you will be dreaming that you are dead. Men of Self-realization know that mortal consciousness is a physiological mental experience. God is dreaming through us and our own nightmares are added into God's dreams making everything hypnotically real. For example, when you go to the movie theater and look at the beam of light, is there anything real in that beam? Yet when you look at the screen you become involved in the emotion and you begin to cry or laugh there is nothing in that light, right?

When you see the hero die in a motion picture, he has not really been killed. It is the same with man acting out a role in the cosmic movie of life. The killer and the slain hero on the screen are just the electric shadows of two forms. The falcon of death and the villain on the movie screen are alike, they kill no one! Do not misinterpret this philosophy with false reasoning thinking we should kill all our enemies. The souls of your enemies are also immortal. Furthermore, it is the same thing with creation. You and I are floating and it is God's ideas floating in a beam of light. It is incredible how we think we are so real. When the dreamer finally wakes up he realizes that all of his experiences were a mixture of various ideas in the dreamers mind. All motions of consciousness are on the screen of the mind and all of our mystifying and sweetened material entanglements keep us dreaming to make us forget our immortal consciousness. It does not matter how devastating our dreams are, the dreamer is never hurt by the circumstances of his dreams; he always finds himself safe after the dream experience. Similarly, the human-dreamer may be almost scared to death with the experiences of his dream-life, but as he is awakened in spirit he finds himself to be safe and sound.

Worldly men have no idea what the soul is or how it comes and goes into the physical body. Those who fear the cycles of life and death and what these experiences will hold, will have this explained over and over until they get the point. Unless men overcome these fears, repeat incarnation is in order until knowledge is gained on how to overcome them. Do not ever seek death; only a coward is afraid of learning life's lessons.

Those who in despair have surrendered their faith in God and the memory of their immortal nature and die in terror, take with them into their next incarnation a depressing pattern of weakness and fear. The astral blueprint they have created will attract similar calamities to themselves. However, the hero even though he loses the death battle but departs with dignity, finds his way back to his oneness with Omnipresent spirit and at death drowsiness will overtake him into a state of peaceful slumber; when he awakens from his much needed sleep of death from all the hard trials of his life, he finds himself aware of a new astral body and enjoys all of the beauties of the astral world encased in tissues of light forgetting the troubles of past earthly life.

Always remember that the totality of a human life is man's preparation for his final examination at the time of death and when one finds himself at death's gate, he will be reviewing in a blaze all of his habits and desires of his whole life. So quickly, he will be overwhelmed by one desire or feeling which will be in accordance with his life's character. He might have feelings predominantly happy for doing good deeds or guilty for doing evil actions or a feeling of being predominantly worldly for all of his material actions. The dominating feeling will determine where and which particular region of the astral world he will be directed to, and similarly after that to another appropriate incarnation back on earth. At the last moment of a man's life his thoughts will determine what his status is in the hereafter. If spiritual development is not deeply implanted, the severe pain of illness or the nearness of death sparks great fear. Death is freedom and the greatest happiness from all the agonies and suffering of the flesh. For exact details of the astral world, read chapter 43 in the book titled "Autobiography of a Yogi" by Paramahansa Yogananda, a spiritual classic, which explains this in detail.

Rewards in Heaven - A Message by Mary Magdalene in 2007

2007-05-18T11:44:00.001-07:00

My Name is Mary Magdalene, Jesus' friend on earth and a contributor of money to his ministry on earth. Today I have a message for everyone who wants to read it.

Very few people come to heaven and write accounts of it. Very few people live in heaven for 2000 years and have the experience of living in heaven write something to the world. Today Dormias is typing my words but I am the writer sitting to him giving him dictation. Do you think that is possible? Wasn't it my good friend Jesus said. " with man this may be impossible but with God all things are possible." I am a vision on earth sitting next to Dormias and telling him a story, so before you judge me or him, have a listen to what I have to say for a few pages.

I am not sure about you, but did you ever consider a life of one perfect day after another would get boring and frustrating? Have you ever tried to consider how you would cope if pain and hurt was removed from your life? What about struggles and failures and missing the mark? What would life be like with no tears, no failure, no grind of day to day working for an existence, no stress, no anxiety,and no fear? Could you live in that world? How would you cope?

Dormias wondered this as a human until he asked Jesus more about heaven. The concept he had heard in sermons kind of sounded boring and frustrating and he couldn't live with what people were saying about heaven so he had to ask Jesus for more information. Before he knew he was an angel born onto earth to live as a human for forty years before he knew he had this former life in heaven, the concept of heaven he had heard preached just didn't turn him on.

Fortunately since eight years of age he had a good line to Jesus and could ask questions. And when the time came for this question my beloved Jesus started to give him images and thoughts about heaven and what it was really like.

Today much of this is new to him; today I am going to paint you a picture.

Heaven is not full of people standing in the throne room singing to God each day.

Heaven is not a place where no sadness exists

Heaven is a place where people there can cry tears of sadness and tears of joy and ecstasy.

Heaven is not a place where people float on clouds and shoot arrows at each other or whatever that image humans have of it.

Heaven is very competitive. Let me tell you about a guy I know in heaven. A guy that most of you readers would know if I said his name, yet few Christians would accept that he is here if I said his name, so for the sake of unbelief and lack of theology and the heart of God in Christians and their doctrines I will not say his name.

There was this major world rock star that ended up here a number of years ago. He arrived and fell in love with the place. He saw the birds had brighter colours, that the grass was alive and sprang back when you stepped on it. He walked the roads and paths of heaven and took in the music and the love of the people and his mind was blown away. Never had he ever conceived heaven was like this and in his life he had not done much thinking of heaven.

A major rock star on earth, both a singer and a musician it wasn't very long before he was getting a bit bored. He loved the music but for quite a while he hadn't had any guitar in his hands and though he sang to the songs, he was a creative person and yearned to create. Jesus noticed this urge in him one day and sent an angel to escort him to a session where angels and humans were laying down some live tracks as a new song in the recording studios.

When he entered this place he knew what was going on but the technology blew his socks off. The microphone was responsive and knew the song you are to play and knew your mind and the way you wanted it sang. It wasn't on for the intake of breath, there were no technicians to hook it in, and there were no wires. It just was there as a prop for you to sing into until a musician was comfortable just to sing then it was taken away and the room itself did the job of capturing the audio.

He watched musicians play and singers sing and wept at the sound and the quality of the playbacks. There was no mixing desk, there was no one with a desk with all the inputs making the music come together, the room did it.

There were no amplifiers in the room hooked up to the guitars, the room just played the music that was being strummed on the instruments and an unseen mixer was mixing it all together.

The whole room could hear the sound and each musician was so happy and so relaxed. There was no stress or pressure in the room but lots of love and sometimes they would stop playing and simply worship the Lord in the middle and then continue and do another take. Gone was the usual stress and pressure of big budgets and time as time in this place was eternity and you could do ten thousand takes if you liked, all they were doing were doing praise and worship and experimenting and playing different variations and having a laugh.

He was pumped. An angel after about six hours showed him the sheet music of his rhythm guitar piece of the performance and gestured him to sit down and the angel left the room and didn't come back for what seemed like hours.

He had such fun and was so soaked with God's anointing and peaceful presence the feeling left him higher and more at peace then any of the known drugs on earth had ever made him feel in his entire life. Not only was he playing the best free flowing music to God he had ever played, but he was higher than he had ever been before in the process.

This musician found himself asking if he could get someone to play the guitar and he could have a go at singing the lead. As soon as he asked the angel entered the room a second later, smiled and picked up the guitar as though he's just been off having a meal out with mates and a long coffee and chat.

As there has to be no sleep in heaven he just spent two days in there and walked around and played the three guitars, lead, base and rhythm, sang the lead vocals and had goes at singing the backing vocals.

Then it came to time when the whole team left the studio and went to a yacht and sailed for two days listening and trying to vote on the best takes of the track. They voted all for the best three and then were told those three would be kept.

He was ecstatic and asked when would he hear the music played over the airwaves in heaven, and it was then that he got the biggest shock of his life, both in heaven so far and the life on earth.

"Oh only the very best tracks are played in heaven over the airwaves. Sometimes it might take your fifty attempts or a hundred for you to have one selected depending how good you are and how good your band and singers work together. These are the best three. These will be yours to play and listen to and share with your friends up here, and over time you'll grow closer and closer to Jesus and you'll play and sing better for him."

A stab of sadness impressed his heart and grew into hurt. Every song he recorded on earth was heard by millions of people and yet here in heaven his very best for two days might not even make it.

"It's okay my friend," the angel who gave up his guitar for him to play at first said. "We spent quite a while coming up with these lyrics and quite a while writing the music. In a year or so we will come back to this piece with you and we'll play again. Only the tracts with you are in the best three and this was our vote for your future. One day with enough practice and a closer walk with God we might get this one accepted. I wrote the rhythm part myself and I have been doing that for 4000 years. Our worship leader here wrote the lyrics and she has been here in heaven four hundred years praising the Lord and so these are good lyrics. But this is your first song my friend and you have to play with as much love and devotion to the Lord or sing with that passion to be as good as us, and so its going to take some real good and honest practice."

"Here's a recording of our bands last recording that plays in the courts of heaven. It has brought you to tears a number of times up here and taught you a lot about serving the King of Kings. It was written while you were living on earth and it was dedicated to you and your future up here. Now you are the newest member of our band and we will be doing all of our music with you"

He pressed the button and the song came on and once again the rock icon of the modern world was crying tears of happiness. This song was written for him and with him in mind. It blew his mind.

As he sipped a red wine with crackers and cheese, he mused to himself. "I wonder how many years before a song I contributed to makes it on the audio and I wonder if I could write one for my mother. She would love this place.

My people, this is Mary back. There are rewards in heaven. In heaven you will be doing what you always wanted to do on earth if you were given a chance and you will be doing it for the glory of God and the betterment of the faith of every person here.

That was over 20 years ago that story. Three songs have been recorded and played in heaven that he wrote the music for and played the music. He is excited as the last two have been in the last five years. It took ten years to reach the standard of heaven. It's like studying to be a doctor on earth, he had to learn and do a whole new sort of learning. He had to learn about playing in the Spirit. He had to learn to be less perfect and more trusting in his intuition and the Holy Spirit to lead him.

Oh he sails on yachts, he has spent time with me a few times, he likes to read and loves to hear teachings by some of the best teachers of the Bible up here.

Yes and he is inspired all day long as the praise and worship and other types of songs are piped in heaven, the very best songs in heaven by the very best musicians. He still plays guitar and sings, but he has taken an interest in the harp, one of heavens most anointed instruments and is learning to play really well.

Oh people, life in heaven isn't for all the Christians only. It's for you too. Check Jesus out in the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and ask yourself wouldn't you like to compete and have fun in place like heaven under his perfect judgment and mercy?

No money isn't a reward up here…living the life of your wildest dreams is!

Check out more what Dormias Angelic says on www.EzineArticles.com and bookmark his homepage there. I will be helping him remember the heaven he used to live in and he will be bringing some Holy Spirit inspired teaching each week.

I Have Become All Things

2007-05-16T16:43:00.001-07:00

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. (Hos 4:6)

As a minister of the Gospel, I have met, and have been introduced to, many a fine person. I myself, have been poor, rich(at times), having much, and having little. I have had all that I desired, and lost everything that I had worked for. I have been called a saint and a sinner. I have had no home, but now God has settled me. I have been cold, to the point of shivering, and have been alone, with no helper. I have known pleasure, and pain, sorrow and joy, hope and despair, hunger and filled. So I have learned over the years to be all things to all men. For I know the state of many, and how they feel toward all manner of life. I have had three heart attacks, and have been pronounced dead once. I have had cancer, but was cured by God. I have been ignorant, and wise. I have been blind, and with sight, I have been strong, but yet week. I was lost, but now I am saved. I have learned in my lifetime how to be bold, and humble. I have learned that for lack of knowledge many are destroyed, for as Paul stated, I have learned to be content in what ever state of life I am in.

For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.
And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;
To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.
To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.(1Co 9:19-22)

For me, knowing much about anything, is a blessing from God. I know much about little, but am still learning, and have endured many hardships.
For in this, I can understand many, and communicate with knowledge.
For a man to teach faith, he must have faith. For a man to teach trust, he must have learned, to trust. For a man to teach patience, he must have patience.
For a man to receive forgiveness, he, himself, must learn to forgive.
For though I be free from all men,(Free in the body, and choice.) yet have I made myself servant(Servant in the Gospel.) unto all(That will listen.), that I might gain the more.(That I might gain those that are lost for Christ.)
To some, my life , is rich, to others, my life is poor. Its all a matter of whom you ask, and how they perceive me.
Jesus was poor, but had all thing, He was alone, but never without the Father. He was hungry, but not without substance. He gave all He had, to gain the world.

And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews. I had to understand their ways, and laws, to insight them to learn about the Messiah. I had to learn, and come to love them as my brothers and sisters, though I was not of the House of Israel.
To them that are under the law, I had to learn the law, understanding why they have held onto their belief.
To them that are without law, being still under the judgment of God, to show them a better way, a better life and, a better covenant.
For I had to remember that at one time, I myself, was without law or obedience to no man. For at one time, we all worshiped devils and not God. This is fact and I lie not.

To the weak became I as weak, knowing how they feel, for at time, still today, I have known weakness, in body but not spirit. For as it is written, "The body is weak but the spirit is willing." I can climb the highest mountains, swim the deepest seas, fly threw the heavens as an eagle, but only in spirit. For what the spirit can do, the body is unable to preform. This is the lesson that mankind must learn before it is too late. For this body must die, but the spirit is eternal.

I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. To those that are learned, I myself, am also learned. To those that are rich, I also am rich(Not as this world considers richness.) To those that are poor, I myself am poor(Understanding their life, for at times I was poor.)
To those with infirmities, I have also been gravely ill, there-by understanding their hopelessness and despair.
For those of a different language, I have been given tools to communicate with them.
For by knowing death, I can sympathize with those that loose loved ones.
Though this spirit is held in this body of flesh, it can still become all things to all men, there-by understanding all.
Do I hate? Yes, but not as this world hates, for I am in the world, but not of the world.
Does God hate? Yes, but only unrighteousness and sin. Is there an easy way to become all thing to all men? No, for this action must come from the spirit, and not of the body. Though a man know all languages and manner of life, without guidance, from God, he is still a tinkling symbol and a house of glass.

We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. (Rom 15:1)
I am a success to some, and a failure to others.
I may be nothing to man, but I am a Servant to God. For do I try to please men or God? I am made all things to all men, not to please them, but rather to inform them of the righteousness and forgiveness of God.
For I cannot compromise my position(as an adopted Son of the most High.) with God to please men. For within men is no righteousness to be found. Ars.

Meditation - Beyond Belief

2007-05-13T08:09:00.001-07:00

I was raised a devout Catholic, and Jesus was with me at all times. He was my trusted friend and seemed to be part of me, which, by the way, is an accurate definition of an alter ego! Part of me knew that He wasn't real, just an imaginary friend, but that part of me I never wanted to face. I would have been too lonely and lost without Jesus.

I suppose that if I had been raised in another country, my imaginary friend would have been different depending on the culture, perhaps Krishna, but I was raised here, and my mother, as well as the priests who conducted catechism classes three times a week, made sure that I knew Jesus intimately. I was indoctrinated from the time I began breathing.

It was comforting having an imaginary friend, but one unusual day, when I was a bit older, I began to look at this whole question of religion, and how easy it is to fall into a relationship with an idea. I suppose we all romanticize in one way or another, but this Jesus or God fantasy became increasingly troubling for me, simply because I was never the type to believe anything without proving it true for myself, or at least after a couple of unusual experiences at age eighteen and nineteen.

There is great emptiness when we know that we just can't fake it any longer. It's as if we awaken from a pleasant dream and want to go back to sleep, but can't — the sun is up, and something quite sobering has entered our hearts. It all has to do with facing reality, which many can't do; they fortunately can remain in their warm and fuzzy world of illusions, but those who are forced to face reality, such as I was, well . . . they suffer.

Jesus held off the suffering for many years, and I would never have had the courage to go it alone if not for two amazing incidents — one in college, and one in Lake Erie. In college, I was reading a book that suggested I concentrate my mind for one minute without thinking. I tried it, as a lark, and was surprised that I was able to do it with no thoughts entering my mind whatsoever. It was a very unusual experience, and as I look back, the experience began to change something deep inside.

Not long after this, I nearly drowned in Lake Erie, going down for the proverbial third time when an incredible peace came over me. It was like nothing I had ever experienced, and nothing to do with Jesus or God; just a peace that I could best explain as a total release and an end to all concern and worry. It was a most beautiful thing, so beautiful that I can't describe it.

I was rescued, obviously, and after throwing up for a couple of hours on shore, my life, although moving along much as before, was altered. Something changed, and it has been changing ever since. I have never been able to explain exactly what I felt, or how I began to change, but I just didn't think the way I had before, or how my peers thought. I became a fish out of water and didn't know how to handle it, so I ignored the deep feelings and pretty much went on with life as normally as I could. However, deep inside, every belief that I had ever cherished began to break apart, like the shattering of thin glass.

Twenty-one years later, when through unusual circumstances I ended up in a Zen monastery, those feelings came rushing back. I was floored again, and what caused the feelings were similar circumstances to almost drowning – the mind, during a split moment in meditation, lost all of its content, all of its memories and planning, its thoughts and conclusions; there was only the emptiness, the same emptiness that I discovered when I nearly died in Lake Erie those many years ago.

Over the years, I have come to appreciate the freedom of meditation. Meditation involves no cramming of the mind with someone else's ideas, only an emptying of the mind where that certain wonderful freedom that I felt in Lake Erie can change one's consciousness. I don't know what that freedom is, although many have tried to explain it, label it with this word or that word, even built religions around it, but I prefer not to go there. I prefer to suffer with my unknowing.

But one thing I do know; that this suffering of mine involves an understanding of my predicament in what we call physical existence, and that eventually this special kind of suffering will lead to the end all of my suffering when I again touch that Reality that I have touched so many times before, both in life and in meditation, This I am convinced of in my heart.

And the heart is the most important place.

Ayahuasca Retreats In The Amazon Rainforest - An Encounter With An Amazonian Shaman

2007-05-11T13:13:00.001-07:00

After being virtually ignored by Western civilization for centuries, there has been a huge surge of interest in Ayahuasca recently. There is a growing belief that it is a kind of 'medicine for our times', giving hope to people with 'incurable' diseases like cancer and HIV, drug addictions and inspiring answers to the big ecological problems of modern civilization.

Ayahuasca is not a drug, it is regarded as a gateway to another reality, a reality which co-exists with our physical world. From this reality an experience of the totality of inter-connectedness can be personally experienced. Ayahuasca is also known as La Purga (The Purge) due to it's powerful physical 'clearing' effect, but it is more than just physical clearing it is also an energetic clearing of personal history as well. It is never to be taken lightly and only under the supervision of a shaman who is well versed in the ways of the plant.

Spirituality is at the centre of the Ayahuasca experience. Purification and cleansing of body, mind, and spirit in a shamanic ceremony can be the beginning of a process of profound personal and spiritual discovery. This process can continue indefinitely even if one never drinks Ayahuasca again. One thing is sure, and that is that every person gets a unique experience. We believe that by seriously looking at the way Ayahuasca is used we can improve our life experience and benefit more from this medicine.
Ayahuasca is the jungle medicine of the upper Amazon. It is made from the ayahuasca vine ( Banisteriopsis Caapi) and the leaf of the Chacruna plant (Psychotria Viridis). The two make a potent medicine which opens the doors to experiencing the energetic world which underlies the world of everyday. The vine is an inhibitor which contains harmala and harmaline among other alkaloids, and the leaf contains vision inducing alkaloids. As with all natural medicines, it is a mixture of many alkaloids that makes their unique properties. For example, Peyote, the cactus used by the North Native Americans, is said to contain 32 active alkaloids, so when one of those alkaloids, mescaline (LSD) is synthesised in a laboratory, contrary to popular opinion, the result is not at all the same.

Ayahuasca is a name derived from two Quechua words: aya means spirit, ancestor, deceased person, and huasca means vine or rope, hence it is known as vine of the dead or vine of the soul. It is also known by many other local names including yaje, caapi, natema, pinde, daime, mihi, & dapa. It plays a central role in the spiritual, religious and cultural traditions of the Indigenous and Mestizo (mixed blood) poeples of the upper Amazon, Orinoco plains and the Pacific coast of Colombia and Equador.
The plants are collected from the rainforest in a sacred way and it is said that a shaman can find plentiful sources of the vine by listening for the 'drumbeat' that emanates from them. The mixture is prepared by cutting the vines to cookable lengths, scraping and cleaning them, pounding them into a pulp, and then adding the chacruna leaves. The mixture is then boiled about twelve hours until it is a thick brown liquid.

To understand ayahuasca in the local context, one cannot avoid taking a look at the ecological environment, such as the rainforest, cultural environment and indigenous cultures. This has structured the cultural content of ayahuasca.

One of the more romantic stories takes place amongst the Shipibo people who live up the river in the heart of the jungle in the Peruvian Amazon.
This tale is centered around women, more so than men, as they look after the children and their health, whilst the men are out hunting and fishing. Men are more interested in plants that aid their inner spirits when hunting , whilst women are more interested in plants that will allow their children to grow.
There was one particular woman who was very interested in plants, who liked to pick the leaves of different plants. She would then crush the leaves into a pot and soak them in water over night. She would then take a bath every morning before sunrise (the way to find out about various plants and their effects is to bathe in them). She bathed in them every morning until she had a dream. In her dream a woman came and said, "why are you bathing every day?" She answered "I am doing this as I want you to teach me." The other woman said "You must seek out my uncle, his name is Kamarampi. I will show you where to find him". The woman led the other woman to her uncle. The uncle showed her how to mix the leaves of the chacruna, which was a bush she had taken leaves from to bathe in. He showed her how to prepare the brew of Ayahuasca, he told her to go and tell the people the knowledge of how to use the brew.

One of the many mysteries surrounding Ayahuasca is how the vine became to be used with the Chacruna leaves as although they both come from the same soil but always grow apart otherwise the ayahuasca winds around the Chacruna and kills it. No one knows this but we get a clue from how the shamans interact with the plant. Javier Arevalo a shaman from the Peruvian Amazon told us " that his grandfather and uncles used to sit around after taking ayahuasca and he said that ayahuasca was originally taken alone and in the visions they saw that chacruna was missing. Ayahuasca would say I am the doctor that gives the vision. His grandfather responded, how can we find this plant? The response in the vision was, you can find it by turning two corners. So they went around two corners and found a bush which attracted them which was chacruna i.e the ayahuasca showed them.

This is a fundamental principle, in the visions it is the spirit doctor of ayahuasca which tells them what is wrong with their patient, what medicine they need, or who has caused the illness or malaise.

Ayahuasca and the spirit of plants.

In the West there are lots of stories like 'Jack and the Beanstalk' reminding us that plants have spirit power, Alice in Wonderland explored this world too. There is a large body of knowledge of power plants even if the form has been adapted to fairy tales and 'domesticated', not to under rate the richness of Grimms' tales.

All the plants used in medicine today were known by our ancestors. McKenna suggested that the evolution from primates to humans was achieved when we left the tropical rain forest to inhabit the savannah regions. We learned to stand on two legs and consumed psychotropic mushrooms. Interaction of plant and animal, change of diet meant a change of consciousness. Goats have a habit of eating all kinds of herbs which is why in the Andes, you are not supposed to eat goat's milk or meat if you are having mental problems. In Lapland the reindeer eat the hallucinogenic mushrooms and the shamans drink their urine which has been "processed".

When a person drinks Ayahuasca, especially with a trusted shaman, there is a chance to learn and trust the plant. You discover that it works in its own way. It is a great moment getting to this point. Then there is the question of whether the plant trusts us, because it can be abused and used for getting the wrong kind of personal power. Without intention, vision, preparation, and a shaman, it is a drug not a healing medicine.

In the Amazonian world Ayahuasca, as indeed all plants, has a spirit which is angelic but also has human emotions projected like jealousy, vengefulness, wroth etc. When it is being prepared, the shaman has to watch over it at all the time to prevent bad spirits being introduced. The fire needs tending regularly throughout the 10 hours concoction and the shaman should diet during this time. It is said that the spirit of Ayahuasca is very jealous and that if the rules of its preparation are not respected it is resentful. We wonder if this is a cultural thing or would it happen to us Westerners as well. During our interviews we constantly found that the general rules about the working of Ayahuasca did not always match up with our own experiences. For example the addition of toe (bella dona) and tobacco to induce vomiting is supposed to make you have a clear head the next morning but we found sometimes it was the other way round. We found it hard to pin down which were the decisive factors.

Sexual abstinence is another thing which is emphasised yet this seems to be a very individual thing. It would seem though, on reflection, that the purpose and intentions of the shaman are among the more important factors, that he follows the diet during preparation and for the session. At all times he is placing his energy where the Ayahuasca is. This also means that not anyone can be present to watch the brewing process, their quality as people as well as whether they had dieted, practised abstinence or had a period, all have an influence. When we watched the shaman Javier Arevalo preparing, his wife would do the washing and shredding of the Ayahuasca. After it had boiled for a while, Javier lit a large mapacho (hand rolled jungle tobacco) and blew smoke over the top of the concoction. The two of us were invited to do this as well. When this is done you can feel a blast from the boiling Ayahuasca in your face. Later in the session, the shaman or the person who has blown the smoke, feels the return of this blast and passes it on to his clients.

It is also important that none of the clients watch the process of preparation. In particular, a woman passing by who was having her period, could leave a bad energy with the medicine. This is a vexed question, the origins of which seem to be traceable to Christian, Amazonian and countless other traditions.

Anthropologists call it taboo for want of a rational explanation, but as with all things of the primordial world, there are reasons inherited from ancestral times, which may have been forgotten. At the dawn of time, realities were very different from what they are today. Mythology may shed some light on the matter, but one thing is sure we don't really know! However it's reasonable to make the assumption that our ancestors were not frivolous.

We worked extensively with Javier Arevalo and we had many discussions on the role of the Amazonian shaman and the use of ayahuasca. Javier comes from Nuevo Progreso, a community of 50 families on the Rio Napo, Department of Loreto, Peru. Several generations of his family before him have been shamans and already at the age of 17, he knew this would be his future. However it was not until he was 20 when his father died from a 'virote' (a poisoned dart in the spiritual world) sent by a jealous brujo, (sorcerer) that he felt compelled to follow the arduous five-year apprenticeship to be a shaman.

Javier, what is the role of a shaman?
He learns everything about the rain forest and uses that knowledge to heal his people since they do not have money for Western style doctors. He uses Ayahuasca to discover in his visions, which plants will be effective for which illnesses.

How do you perceive this?
The sprits or plant doctors tell us. As they are pure, they are made happy when we are too, so we must diet in order to attract them. That means we should not eat salt, sugar or alcohol, and abstain from sex. The spirits come and say, for example they will cure in two months if the patient takes a particular plant. Then the shaman goes out to look for the plant.

It is said that every environments has the necessary plants to heal the people?
Yes, every plant has a spirit, the shaman goes into the forest as part of his apprenticeship and spends two years taking plants and roots. He takes Ayahuasca too and the spirit tells him what it cures. Then the shaman tries another plant, each time remembering which ailment is cured by what.

Does each shaman have to find it all out for himself or is there a body of knowledge handed down?
The maestro goes with the apprentice into the wilderness and gives him the different plants and it is like a test or trial to overcome. The maestro is usually a member of family. In my case both my grandfather and my uncle were maestros. You go off deep into the forest with your maestro and make a very simple shelter or 'tambo'. A shaman must not live in a big house, its just for sleeping and dieting.

How long do you have to diet the plant?
Just one day to know its process, the next day you move onto another. This is if you do not return to the city, you can get through a lot of plants. This is different from dieting a plant for a month say.

So does every condition or illness have a particular plant to remedy it or is it a spirit energy which comes through the plant which can cure many things?
One plant may cure lots of ailments. A particular plant has a spirit which can either heal or kill. As for example with another shaman (who we worked with earlier) , who had not dieted Ayahuasca correctly and poom! it caused fever and people caught colds.

So why would a plant kill or cure?
Because an hechicero (sorcerer) also learns from the plants. He may for example learn from dieting a plant which has spines or phlegm which could be good for certain things. But if he is bad no one can stop him and in the night 'ffoooo' he uses it for harm or to kill. These are the brujos who come back from the forest with eyes red like the huayruro (red beans with black spots). He is a bad shaman and we have to cure the people they harm.

Who would want to do such things?
There are some people who have a squabble with someone, and then they go off to see a brujo and say "this Senora talks too much and has insulted me, kill her and I'll pay you". They pay them and they do harm.

But the shaman who made us ill did not do it intentionally.
No, of ignorance. It was a shaman from the city not from the forest. He went away and left us to mop up the ill effects. He may have had a good teacher but does not diet, he is very fat! (People in the jungle are rarely fat.)
In addition he probably eats the day of the session and that is why he threw up himself!

How does this affect Westerners?
It doesn't matter, they will probably throw up and not have any vision because when he blows he has condiments on his breath. However, it matters much less if the clients have eaten or not stuck rigorously to the diet. The important thing is that the shaman diets.

Note: There is much discrepancy between shamans concerning the question of vomiting. Some say it is necessary for the body to rid itself of what ever is necessary and that if they are not sick they might get ill. (Ayahusaca is often referred to as La Purga.) Others say if you vomit you will not have such good vision and on no account should a shaman vomit.

Why and how did you become a shaman?
I never thought of being a shaman. I took Ayahuasca from 14 years old just to clean my stomach. Later my father said I heard you chanting, you are going to be a shaman. I don't want to I said. Later when I was 20 my father died from sorcery so then I wanted to learn in order to take vengeance. During my apprenticeship I had a change of heart and understood that God knew best in such situations.

Why did the brujo want to kill your father?
Because he was a curandero who had cured someone who had been harmed by the brujo. It happens because we curanderos undo the work of the brujos and they get angry with us. This is the famous spiritual battle between the brujos. When you cure you send the bad magic back to where it comes from and the brujos get their own dirty medicine back. This is why there is a fight between the good and the bad.

Howard tells story of his battle with one of Javier's assistants 3 weeks earlier.
(Javier laughs a lot and explains.) Well because he was not really a shaman, he works as a guide, he drinks liquor. Then when he takes Ayahuasca and chants icaros he is not pure and his doctors don't take any notice of him. The spirits start bothering (molesting) the people participating in the session. That is what happened to Howard. When I take Ayahuasca I talk to the doctors who give visions, I ask them to cure, I have dominion over them because I diet. If I don't, they make you crazy or annoy you.

So if the shaman cannot control himself, then the spirits get out of hand?
If you can't dominate the spirits of the jungle you are nobody, instead of curing they run away or take no notice of you.

So the control of the spirits is fundamental?
Spirits are like angels. God withstood 40 days of hunger and temptation by the devil and was resurrected. That's what we have to do too.

This is Christianity, but your (Javier's) people were practicing long before the missionaries came. Is it possible to separate the Christian from the wisdom of the jungle?

No, no, they work together. But it has nothing to do with going to a church. You learn all this in the wilderness. The spirits there are the angels of each plant to which you add your will to heal the client. This is the will of Christ.

Where does the power of the shaman end and the spirits begin?

The shaman receives the power from the jungle, he doesn't have any power of his own that he doesn't get from the forest.

When I look at you by day I see just a normal young man, when you wear your clothes and move into the ayahuasca space you become different, a different presence, you become larger…

(Javier laughs!) The medicine is not in the body, the body can wear clothes for example, and you see that by day. But at night you don't see my body, you see my spirit which receives the medicine which transforms me through the vision. I have to be pure so as to be a receptacle of the spirit of the medicine. It is essential too for a shaman to be happy, the shaman laughs at everything, because a happy heart is what cures. He can't have a long face or fight with his wife and children.

You started off with a desire for revenge, what changed you into a shaman?
My grandfather saw that my heart was bitter and he told me that it would not get me anywhere. My heart was still hard and wanted to kill! Bit by bit through taking the very plants that I had intended to use for revenge, the spirits told me it was wrong to kill and my heart softened.

Prosperity

2007-05-08T14:17:00.001-07:00

Many of us are learning the lesson with money. Either we are tight to make the two ends meet or we have an uneasy relationship with prosperity.

Wealth itself is a neutral issue. It is not either good or bad. We ourselves create the meaning and its role. Its scope can be very narrow and limited or wide and very significant. Anyhow, it is all up to us. It has nothing to do with the energy called money or anybody else except us. We create our own reality – the energy is happy to provide us whatever we wish for.

Therefore prosperity and abundance are at our reach. We can make it to happen. Actually nothing can keep as apart from it - if we only allow it ourselves. And this is the big if. It is not the circumstances or the economical situation. Not the job or anything else in our outside reality. There is no one else to deal with but us.

Can you see yourself already living in prosperity? Wait – stop for a while and really consider the previous point. This is important if you are going to make it to happen. Are you able to visualise yourself living in abundance?

The only thing that keeps us separated from abundance is our own beliefs. We don't feel that we are worth the wealth. We undermine ourselves and simply don't believe it is possible to realise. Maybe we have had some bad experiences in the past and thus we are reluctant to try again. It did not happen then why could this time be any different? Or we regard anything even closely related to business or money somehow unrelated or impure when talking about spirituality and higher purpose of life. We want to associate ourselves only with unselfishness and spiritually uplifting issues - not with the material reality.

What are all the above? They are our beliefs and associations that we have created ourselves. We believe so – not the wealth or the money. Nothing has any meaning except the one we create for it. Our reality is relative. This means that we can decide to use money for our own selfish purposes or use it as a tool to build a better future for all of us. Actually have you ever considered the possibility that the most spiritually evolved persons should also be the wealthiest? This is not so outstanding claim as it first might sound like. Who would be better servant for humanity than a prosperous and humble multibillionaire that uses his / her wealth for unselfish purposes? Not even talking about how these people would run their businesses…

Can you now see yourself surrounded by wealth and abundance?

Common misunderstanding about wealth is that is difficult to gain. Or that one has to work hard to earn it. Who says so? Money doesn't care if you don't. Actually abundance is our natural state of being. There has been previous Golden Eras when gold was widely available for everyone who needed it. Lack and limitations are our own creations. We are meant to be living among abundance if we only allow ourselves. Some of us are very harsh and hard on ourselves. Our previous hardship has taken its toll and subconsciously we blame ourselves for the difficulties. We think that we have earned to be poor and to suffer. It is a lesson that we have to learn. In another words suffering by being poor is a thing that we need. Once again – if you believe so but certainly you do not have to.

Can you see all your friends surrounded by prosperity and wealth?

Wealth is energy like anything else. If you take good care of it and let it flow it will keep coming and become stronger. But if you use it for your selfish purposes and block the sharing of wealth it will drain. Life is economical. It gives for those who appreciate and cherish it. We do not own anything, rather being only humble housekeepers that take care of the resources and gifts provided to us. In another words we must feel to be worth the wealth. Be responsible and joyous about it. We must appreciate and use it wisely.

And finally the secret of prosperity. How to become wealthy? Simply by being one. First forgive yourself. Forgive yourself any hardship or shortcomings in the past. This is important in order to clear any old luggage out of the way. Secondly, love yourself. Love yourself from all of your heart so that you fill up with unconditional love so and it starts to spill over and finally you radiate pure love. Wealth loves to be around kind and harmonious people. You feel that you're worth the wealth and it is a natural part of your reality. Beauty and wealth are as natural for you as any other part of your reality. And then the most important issue when you have now successfully prepared the ground for your prosperity: you know that you are wealthy. You must know this deep in your mind, bottom of your heart and solid as a rock in your behavior. You must be wealthy. How does a wealthy person think, talk and act? This is the way you manifest your reality. A wealthy person do not worry about unpaid bills or low balance in the bank account. He knows that there is nothing to worry about. He / she is wealthy and everything is going to be alright. This does not mean that one should start to spend like a millionaire and take up new loans and so on. It simply means that since we create our own reality by our own actions, talks, and thoughts and these have to be in line with the desire of prosperity. We KNOW, FEEL and ACT with confidence that the wealth is on its way. Nothing can stop as from gaining it. We are creators and thus nothing can stop our prosperity but us. Just do it – you already are.

The Final Embrace-Death and Rebirth into the One-Rebalancing the One Unified Field

2007-05-07T04:10:00.001-07:00

A call for action in Unity

Imagine ...

And the world would be One...

To all:

This message seeks to unite. In that capacity it means to transcends all restricted understandings of our spiritual heritage and applications of it. It has all to do about the One Spirit that Unites us all, whether we are aware of It, or not. It seeks to bring us soon into a gentler, kinder, probable future.

Recent Remote viewing sessions from teams of Remote Viewers from the Academy have shown a proximate probable future that we feel should be communicated. It is not our habit to spoon-feed a constant litany of horrific end-of-times scenarios as many remote viewers have done. We see no need to add to the general addiction to fear which has grappled mankind lately. If you feel that this message is about fear, then please read it again and again. This is not about events, judgment, but about the panacea to erase fear, and suffering. You all carry this Infinite Force within. NOW is the time to manifest it.

However, because of the imbalance between fear and love, man and nature, humankind and its Creator, male and female energies, great corrections are taking place on very High energy planes and very sub-conscious planes. These are attempts to rebalance The ALL that need to happen. The One is the Fulcrum or vertical pole of the Tree of Life symbolized by the Cross, the Ankh and so many other powerful symbols. Nothing can remain eternally in a state of imbalance, for the One Unified Field of Energy brings automatically all back to perfect balance and then inverts the movement so that Creation as a unbalancing act can happen again and again within Eternity.

This message is different from prior ones. Because of the scope of events which we are seeing in our global probable future lens, I am going to ask you to do a very simple thing. So simple, yet so powerful and important, that it carries in it the seed to change this whole planet's consciousness.

I am going to ask you, I would like you to enter, morning and evening all around this planet, in a state of total communion with the One Unified Field which we all represent and are parts of.

This will become our answer to 9/11 and to the fear cloud which has since engulfed much of our awareness and dulled our hearts and minds.

I will ask you to open your heart in perfect abandon and trust, and invite within your being a force of pure unrestricted love which lies now deeply entombed within it. It has never left you, but you have, for the most part and for eons, not been aware of its presence. Please, call upon It to pervade your awareness, your total being, and chase away all illusions of fear. Bathe in its loving embrace. It is only through opening your heart to its magnificent presence that you will experience within and project then without the Divine Feminine force which has been called so often the Holy Spirit, Christ (anointed one in ancient Greek), bindu point, The Great Spirit, Shakti, Ruach Hakodesh, Cosmic Consciousness, Shekinah, Sakinah etc... You do not need to name It unless you feel more comfortable doing so. This is the Real Power of total unconditional Love. It is the quality of total acceptance of who we are and have become, and the Divine aspect totally void of judgment.

If you stop only for a small moment your daily activities, and accept unconditionally the Messiah within, the savior within, you will then totally perceive and feel that the Messiah (savior) is within each and every one of you. You are each connected to the savior, as it is you, deep within your heart: your soul. It is the loving Self of Oneness waiting to be recognized and invited.

In the time of our exile from our inner Divine Self we thought that we could not be the Divine Savior, that only one Savior could have been or be it. We waited for It on the outside, and the pain of separation became evermore greater. There is no one external Savior. We are all It. We are all the Divine Sons of The One (Father/Spirit Source of ALL Life) - each and every one of us. It is only by unconditionally inviting this realization within and touching that vibration of Divinity within our hearts that we become aware of being the Divine Son, and that the Divine Child and the Divine Source (Divine Father) are but One. All you need is to open your heart to the Savior within and invite it in. It will answer your call. It has been in exile from yourself, and you from It, far too long. The separation has been too painful and the suffering is now so extreme that only by dulling our awareness have we been able to survive, one day at a time. Our hearts have lost their softness and have hardened. We long for the memory of what our souls have once known, Love, Peace, brotherhood, in Divine Oneness. The Messiah has died in utter suffering billions of times nailed to the Tree of Life which has embraced fear and separation. As the Divine Unconditional Loving Eternal One Source hiding in each soul, sHe died over and over again as so many human beings lived and then departed in pain and exile from the realization and experience of Oneness in the Kingdom of One. sHe can but only be reborn in Its full Glory as your Savior in the womb of your Loving Hearts, as you feel and live the way of One.

The only sin there can be is in the perception of separation and fear. It is that perception which kills the awakening of the Oneness within.

We have searched for real Love and real Peace outside of ourselves, but have found naught but sorrow and insecurity.

How we have forgotten that we carried Its seed and Holy presence within!

How barren our souls have become, how silent our awareness!

We have witnessed the effects of separating from this Divine One Heart within, disconnecting from one another, all of us, brothers and sisters, children of the same One Godly Energy, and begat a dark cloud of fear - a stone-like dark clouded energy covering our Inner Self and not allowing for the Light of The Divine presence to shine through and forth.

As this cloud of fear overcame us, we have tended to deny our Divine Origin and brotherhood, our undeniable right to all be happy and free from any fear and anxiety. We forgot that were born out of Love, and that we all can only but come back to It, sooner or later, without exception.

In the hells we created, we tried to burn the fire of Love. But no water nor fire can burn our inner Essence for It will always resurge from the deeper recesses of our souls, as It is our Eternal Self, the part that never changes nor dies: The Fulcrum of the swinging polarities.

It is only through inviting and embracing the Unconditional Divine Feminine Love dwelling within us that we can rejoin the Father of Divine Light within the heavens of our Sub-conscious realms: the inner Kingdom. And, as we enter the Divine Feminine Presence of the Loving energy, we can then bring down the magnificent powerful Light of the Father in our common Heavens in a final Union of Oneness, as we all realize that we were, are, and will always remain the Eternal One Energy of loving embrace and Oneness.

In order to do so, we have to crucify our pain of separateness and die in the notion of fear and separation, by embracing the totality of the Tree of Creation, which is the tree of Life.

As we are voluntarily nailed to the Tree of Creation, we must invite the death of its imbalanced state of being when fear rules over love. It is only by OUR decision to kill ourselves from this old painful perception of fear/separation, that we can then be Divinely reborn into the new Creation: The New Earth (outside reality) and the New Heaven (inside reality). The key is to STOP, go within, and unconditionally embrace Love over separation, and accept that the ones that are not ready yet are still ALL The One and should be forgiven for they "do not know what they are doing."

It is only through the active decision to unconditionally embrace the Divine Feminine aspect of annointed Unconditional Love, who we all carry inside, that we can, each and every one, go through the realization that we are each the Fulcrum, the balancing Zero point, and that we can then invert the polarities in the Final rebirth of Love, after having died in and killed the old world system of fear.

Within the irony of time, we are running out of time to awaken and apply this universal Divine Gift which we all carry, equally so, adults, children, rich, poor, people of all colors, all creed or not, all magnificent individuation of The One.

Within the irony of timed manifestations, dis-eases and imbalance always starts at the level of the outer energetic bodies and inner recesses of our sub-conscious realms before it finally expresses itself in painful manifestation in the physical and sensory conscious realm. Much major rebalancing and restructuring, is already occurring in the energetically and sub-conscious Higher worlds, for the Fulcrum of One needs to keep balancing the imbalances if they become too acute. We all have the power to help this process of redemption, before it touches the boundary of our physical and conscious reality. We all have the power to save our world.

As the Asian tsunami and the latest earth-movements and energy releases have hinted lately, the "ring of fire" in the Pacific rim is being activated, and the tectonic plates of our Mother Earth are being restructured. We have remote viewed probable futures which strongly pointed out that if we do not accept our Loving Unity soon, much fracture will be shown manifesting our dis-connected state from the state of Union in Oneness. Tremendous rumblings will be felt throughout the One Unified Field. Please let us avoid such painful re-alignment!

All we need to do is so simple: Re-member all the pieces that we form in the Unity of the Being of The One. Do it not out of fear, for it will negate it, but out of a deep yearning for Limitless and Unconditional Love. Cry and laugh all you can at the same time.

I hope that you realize how important this is and ask for your help in helping save your selves by spreading this message quickly and inviting Love within.

I would like to finish by quoting an excerpt from a book by Goldie Knight "The unseen World" (2003), which a student sent me a couple of days ago:

What is the Christ? (Christ is the English translation of the Greek word Χριστός (Christos), which literally means The Anointed One)

The (real) Christos (anointed one) is a place in consciousness where you become aware of who and what you are. When you become aware of the presence within, you awaken from a deep sleep. You become aware of the beauty around you. Things that once seemed a burden are no longer a burden. You become aware that nothing is yours and yours alone. You are aware that all things and all people belong to God. You know you are his child and you see that if you are a child of God, all others are children of God.

You know in your heart that even your children are not yours. If you are a child of God so are the ones you have called yours. Then you begin to release your hold on them and give them back to God. You trust God to take care of them, whereas in the past you have tried to mold them to your way, or tried to take over their responsibilities. You realize that instead of helping them you have retarded them. You also realize that they too must see their mistakes. Instead of taking over, you speak to the Christ within them and you pour out impersonal love; this is true Christ love. You become aware of why your love must become impersonal. You realize that it is not possible to love all people in a personal way; you love all because all are One.

You begin to speak to God as you would to your dearest friend. You speak to him knowing he is within and not in a far off place You feel warmth from within that you have not felt before. You tell him you have given up the struggle. You feel your troubles take wings and fly away. At last you are free. You have come to that place in consciousness where the anointed (Christos) dwells, that heavenly place that belongs to all, and you know that at long last you have come home. You stand serene and look back over the far country that you have roamed and struggled and wonder why it took you so long to come home. Then you will know the meaning of the words: "You cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven except through the Christ."

In Love of Oneness

Gerald O'Donnell

In my Soul there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church where I kneel.

Prayer should bring us to an altar where no walls or names exist.

Is there not a region of Love, where the Sovereignty is illuminated nothing, Where ecstasy gets poured into itself and becomes lost,

Where the wing is fully alive but has no mind or body?

In my Soul there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church that dissolves, that dissolves in God.

Rabia of Basra (c.717-801) most popular and influential female Islamic saint and central figure in the Sufi tradition

The Meek Gets It All!

2007-05-05T16:26:00.001-07:00

"In a surprise announcement this morning, it was revealed that the Meek have inherited the Earth. The actual change of ownership itself happened three weeks ago, but the spokesperson for the Meek was too shy to contact the press. After much polite cajoling from fellow Meek Persons, the fulfillment of this ancient prophecy has finally come to pass.

A representative for the Meek gave us these comments - "As you know, the Earth was promised to us almost 2000 years ago by Jesus Christ himself, during his famous Sermon on the Mount. We have been blessed for all that time, which was quite nice, but simply had to wait for the momentous event itself. The Earth and all it contains now belong to us. By Divine Command, we Meek have absolute domination over the planet. We hope you don't mind."

— Adrian Barnett, 1999

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5)

Given our modern day usage of the word "meek" as signifying weakness, spinelessness, and an inability to stand up for oneself, it is no wonder many cringe when they hear this beatitude. Yet we should take note that the two people who are called "meek" in the Bible are profoundly strong, courageous, and full of conviction. They are Moses (Numbers 12:3) and Jesus himself (Matthew 11:29). This should raise some questions about what meekness means in the Bible in contrast to how we might understand it today.

The Greek word for meek "praus" can be defined as gentle, self-controlled, unpretentious, without malice or desire for revenge. It actually has its root in the idea of taming a horse. A meek horse does not lose any strength, but its strength and will is submitted to its master.

Jesus also taught us meekness when he taught us to pray, "Your Kingdom Come, Your will be done" instead of my Kingdom come and my will be done. Notice that meekness in this passage primarily has to do with a person's relationship to God, not to others. In the same way Moses and Jesus were strong in their convictions, but totally submitted to God's will.

We cannot really come to know Christ if we are not meek; if we do not have a sense of our own poverty in spirit, and if we do not have a sense of our own sinfulness. We have to see our need and be humble before God and be open to receive from Him.

Meekness is seeing ourselves for who we are in light of who God is. Meekness and humility go hand in hand. Meekness is not expecting something because we feel like God owes it to us. Therefore, when God gives us a blessing, we are surprised, joyfully so, that God has seen fit to honour those who deserve no honour. Meekness knows who we are in Christ. It is an attitude towards God in light of our poverty through sin, and in light of His provision of grace. Meekness is an attitude, not primarily toward others, but toward God. If we are meek before God, we can be bold in His service. "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:16)

If it is primarily an attitude toward others, then we will bend at any stronger will. It is not compromise; it is an attitude toward God, which bends to His will. Meekness or humbleness of mind towards God sets one free to forget ones' self, and stand for Jesus Christ.

In Matthew 11:28-30, where Jesus calls himself meek, He invites those who follow him to cast their burdens upon him and He will give them complete rest. This is an invitation to enter into Christ's bearing of our brokenness that we might participate in his holiness. By the Spirit we can take upon ourselves Christ's very likeness. We exchange our will for Jesus' ability to do the will of the Father. Pray for one another and ask that the Holy Spirit would enable us to develop this strong trust in Christ. Pray that as our lives are yoked to Christ, we would experience God's rest as a reality in the present and know the assurance of God's promise of a "new heaven and a new earth" that awaits us in the future!

The "meek" shall inherit it all! Meekness is a godly trait to possess. It is also a fruit of the Spirit. As we perform our daily tasks, we should stop to ask ourselves: "Do I possess this supernatural quality? Am I poised to inherit the earth?"

Christian Living - Why Don't More Christians Have Better Manners?

2007-05-03T15:12:00.001-07:00

I saw a video on GodTube.com (the new 'Christian' version of YouTube.com) the other day.

It featured what was to me an overweight, arrogant, ill mannered American guy ordering some food at a restaurant (footage for his 'Christian' video cast).

He never once used the word 'Please' or 'Thank You' (Something even my 5 year old daughter knows to do).

And, as I watched more I was reminded of the old saying: People would much rather SEE a sermon than HEAR one any day.

Am I the only one that thinks there is an epidemic of arrogance in the 'Christian' community these days?

So many Christians are arrogant in their judgments.

Pastors are arrogant in their treatment of people.

Leaders in positions of trust, responsibility and power are way too arrogant.

Believers are often arrogant in their witnessing.

And so I ask myself... is it just a cultural thing?

Could it be that people in Australia or the UK think saying Please and Thank You are still important but my American brothers and sisters don't?

But then I realize that I know many American believers that, like me, cringe at the abysmal lack of good manners in so many church circles.

Several months ago I sat at a restaurant with a bunch of believers.

The waitress that was taking our orders was pleasant, hard working and friendly - obviously doing her best to please and serve and yet not a single person besides myself used the words please or thank you even once when ordering their food.

Stop and ask yourself; Would Jesus act that way?

Before you dismiss this as just the unimportant ramblings of a grumpy Australian, please consider that perhaps the lack of manners that seems to pervade so much of the Christian community is actually a symptom of a much deeper problem.

Could it be that, in reality, people just don't know Jesus the way they claim they do?

Oh sure they might DRESS like believers, SING like believers and QUOTE the Bible like believers but no matter which way you look at it - Ill manners is NOT a fruit of the Spirit - Never has been and never will be.

I have been a believer for over 30 years now and in that time I have watched the word 'Christian' lose much of it's meaning and respect.

For so many people a word that used to mean 'Look at my life and you'll see a dramatic difference' has become a codeword for arrogance and flakiness.

It breaks my heart.

I believe it must break God's heart too.

In closing, thanks for taking the time out of your busy day to read this. I appreciate it.

And - if you happen to be a Christian in business - please remember to watch your manners!

Trust Intuition

2007-05-01T21:44:00.001-07:00

Intuition is immediate and instinctive perception of a truth; or direct understanding without reasoning. Whether we want it to or not, it does take a place in our decision making process. Many times intuition is considered in hind sight, after we reap different results than anticipated. This article is a result of my intuition in an effort to help others learn to identify and trust in their own.

Trusting my intuition has never been in the forefront of the decision making process. In fact, it has never really included at all. It certainly should have been. On three recent and separate occasions decisions were necessary that would have a significant affect on my future. They did, and the affect was opposite as anticipated yet not unknown.

In hindsight it is clear that the voice inside me was incorrectly identified to be fear. The decisions revolved around getting out of my comfort zone. After each decision was made, the voice instructed otherwise. Sometimes it would say no, absolutely not, other times it would say this is not the time. Concluding that it was fear I ignored it and forward anyway.

The results of these decisions were significantly different than desired. They were not surprising though. When I thought back, I realized I had known in advance. This was the third time in a week that intuition clearly played a role. It is time to realize that although it can be fear, the majority of time it is intuition guiding us.

Listening to intuition is difficult because it is hard to believe, especially when getting out of your comfort zone is already creating anxiety and fear. It presents itself at unexpected times, not always immediately. For instance, Thursday after finishing a short paragraph teaching me how to handle a certain situation my intuition voiced agreement that I should follow the suggestion. The suggestion was to hold until more experience in this arena was gained.

A task was planned for Friday that involved this particular topic. Of course, I moved forward with the logical decision to do the task and by Friday afternoon, finally listened to my intuition. Of course, it took a really bad experience before wising up. They say the third time is the charm and this was it.

I began to think over when intuition presented itself in my mind. It arrived in many different forms such as songs, conversations, dreams, and journaling. There are probably many other ways not yet known to me. Now that am finally listening I have learned to let the decision rest and allow intuition a chance to come forth.

In today's fast paced world everything seems to be required yesterday; letting an important decision rest is opposite what is usually done and expected. The waiting can increase anxiety further, especially for life changing decisions. Somehow that is never really a problem, it always works out.

Allowing intuition a more involved role in decision making has resulted in better and much simpler ways of accomplishing things. When make a choice, let it rest for a bit and give your intuition time to come forth. You will be amazed at how it will help you.

The Flow

2007-04-30T17:10:00.001-07:00

The things that are going on in the world and in our country are important but they do not compare to the importance of the things that are going on in every one of our personal lives. We all have to content with issues ranging from family, mates, and friends to career, jobs, and money. On a good day dealing with our everyday lives takes some effort. There are also those times when our personal issues are in a state of chaos for one reason or another. Sometimes there are individual issues but often times it's a combination of things that we have to deal with.

Navigating our way through all of our personal experiences can be a real challenge sometimes. This navigation is more often than not done with out a road map. We really have to figure it out as we go through what we have to go through. The wonderful thing about all of the things that happens to us is that there is always a reason and purpose to our experiences. This process is based on a flow and all of us have our own flow. When we mature in our spirituality we discover that our own individual flow is not going to be enough. There is another flow that we must learn, understand, and be conscious of as we navigate on our journey to total peace

I can honestly say that I have been able to enjoy my life .I am fulfilled and I am at total peace most of the time. However it has not always been that way. It has been a long process. And as I mentioned earlier this process is one that is different for everyone. It all depends on what things are happening in each of our individual lives. When I say things I am specifically talking about the lessons that the creator brings into all of our lives every day. When we are able to understand the lessons that we are being taught on a daily basis then these lessons are able to move us towards a peaceful existence during our stay here on earth. In time these total combined lessons in all of our lives take us to a place in our life that is unparalleled to anything else we will experience.

In my book Divine Essays from the Spirit Within. I refer to this forward moving process as the Divine Flow. I call it that because it is a flow that not one of us has any control over. It is a flow that comes from the creator. This flow is something that I know that we are all born with but it takes a while before we can understand what it is all about. The only thing that we can do is live each and every day so that we are able to learn from the lessons that the creator has for each and every one of us.

It took me more than a moment before I was able to understand what the Divine flow was all about and to get on my own Divine flow. It took even a little more time before I was able to allow this Divine flow in to all aspects of my life. The primary reason why my road to discovering the Divine flow was such a difficult one was because of my personality traits. I am not afraid to admit that I am the classic type A personality and for those of you who do not know what that means. Here is an example of how my type A personality use to manifested itself in my life. On any given typical morning I would be making breakfast, doing laundry, washing dishes, cleaning the house, and paying bills. I would be doing all of these things all while getting ready for work! I know It sounds crazy; but it's true. I know that all of my fellow type A personalities know exactly what I am talking about. It was during this time in my life that I was living by my own flow instead of the Divine flow. The thing that I was able to see early was living by my own flow was putting my body, mind and spirit under enormous amounts of stress. Sadly the culmination of the stress caused by me living my life by my own flow cause me to end up in the hospital.

My personality traits were one of the major reasons that I was in crisis during that time. Unfortunately, we can not choose our personality traits the good ones or the harmful ones. I was able to manage my harmful personality traits with the help of a mental health professional. My time in therapy was one of the best things I ever did for myself. I learned how to develop new strategies for dealing with all of my personality traits especially the ones that were causing me harm. During the passage of time I was able to understand and able to piece together all of my lessons from the past and present. This allowed me to get the final pieces that I needed to complete the puzzle that led me to my own Divine flow.

I am very thankful for all of the experiences that I had to endure that led me to my Divine flow. One of the most important things that I ever learned in my life was that once I reached a certain level in my spiritual development my own flow and the Divine flow becomes the same thing.

Living your life in the Divine flow will have an enormous impact on your life. It will mean the difference between having a joy filled, event filled, happy and peaceful life or having a life that is punctuated by difficulties and struggles. I hope that I was able to get you to at the very least think about the lessons that you are learning right now. It is also at this point that I would like to ask you all a question. Are you living your life in your own flow or are you living live on the Divine flow? Think about it and Let me know. Enjoy life and I look forward to sharing with you again.

Peace and Soul

Living Life In The Spirit - Part 1

2007-04-28T18:47:00.001-07:00

Marriage and parenting can be really difficult at times. I don't know about you, but I want to get this thing right. As a believer, there is a power that works in us to help us and aid us in every role we find ourselves in as we live out this life. That includes our roles as spouses and as parents. Hopefully, this series of articles will help shed some light on how you can tap into this power in your everyday life.

In scripture, we are instructed to live in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, be filled with the Spirit, etc. All of that, of course, can sound pretty mystical and even a little freaky if we have no understanding of it. If we aren't careful, we can make this into a spiritual "twilight zone" experience that becomes very impractical and unfruitful. I don't know about you, but I'm a pretty practical person. When I am instructed in scripture to do something, I need to know how to apply that to my life in a very practical way. I believe that although the Spirit of God dwelling in us is something very supernatural, His ministry in and through us is a very practical thing. I think it is safe to say, if we are instructed to live life "in the Spirit" then we can learn how to live life "in the Spirit."

First off, we must understand that the key to living in the Spirit is learning to yield to the Holy Spirit in our lives. It's not a legalistic lifestyle of trying not to sin, it is simply becoming sensitive to the Holy Spirit and allowing Him to live through us. Let me give you an example. I struggle in the area of patience sometimes. Now, part of the character of the Holy Spirit is patience. Let's say I'm stuck in traffic and cars are just inching along. I have a choice to allow myself to yield to the Holy Spirit in me and exercise patience or blast right through that Holy Spirit yield sign. Most of the time I blast right by that yield sign. We call that living in the flesh not living in the spirit. As a result, the world sees my character and not that of the Holy Spirit in me.

So often we find ourselves praying for things like patience and what God wants us to realize is that learning to be patient is directly tied to a choice on our part to yield to the Holy Spirit in us. If you are a born again believer, filled with the Holy Spirit, then the character and personality of the Spirit of God dwells in you. Believe me, its in there somewhere. You may have trouble locating it sometimes, but trust me its there. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are all attributes that you and I can tap into if we will learn to yield to the Holy Spirit in us.

Some may be reading this and thinking, there is no way this can be so simple. There is something in us that wants to make the Christian life a difficult thing to understand. I don't think it is. Sure, to the unbeliever spiritual truths are a mystery. However, for the believer, God has sent the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us in our discovery of the truth. God doesn't want us in the dark when it comes to understanding how to live life in the Spirit. Now, don't get me wrong. Understanding the Christian life and how to walk it out is different than actually walking it out. Therein, is our struggle. It's a process. A lifelong process. And, it's a lot easier said than done. The Word of God tells us that the flesh wars against the Spirit and the Spirit wars against the flesh. It's a war and wars are tough. And, sometimes they can get really ugly. But again, the Holy Spirit is in us helping us through the battle. Trust me, this living in the Spirit thing is not nearly as hard as we try to make it out to be.

Ok, so you're still not convinced? Let me give you a couple of examples that I think will help push this point home. When Mary was approached by the angel and told that she was going to give birth to Jesus, her response was "Be it done unto me according to your word." Her responsibility in the whole process was to allow God to do what He wanted to do through her. God was going to do all the work, all he wanted her to do, was yield to Him. Ok, now I know what some of you moms are thinking. I'm not saying that carrying a baby for nine months and then delivering that child is not work. What I am saying is that Mary had no part in this immaculate conception except to yield to it. Now, lets look at your salvation experience. God sent His Son to die a brutal death and then God miraculously raised Him from the dead. Your responsibility in the salvation experience was to believe that truth and then simply yield your life to Him. All through scripture, God worked through men and women who would simply yield themselves to Him. The Holy Spirit longs to work through you and I but, in order for that to happen we have to yield to Him.

So where do you begin? What is an area you struggle with? Perhaps you find that you consistently respond harshly to your children or spouse. Or, maybe you find it difficult to walk in love toward someone who has wronged you. Whatever it may be, take one area and focus on that. I mentioned earlier that I struggle in the area of patience, so that's an area I've committed to work on. Take some 3 X 5 cards and write down scriptures that apply to that one area and keep those in front of you. Put them on your computer, tape them to your sun visor, put them on your refrigerator, put them on your bathroom mirror, and carry them in your pocket. You'll find that as you practice yielding to the Holy Spirit in that area, that the process will become easier and easier until your normal reaction will be a reflection of the Holy Spirit in you. That's called transformation. That's where we all want to be.

Esotericism in Metaphysics

2007-04-27T17:22:00.001-07:00

Nature holds bountiful undiscovered-as-yet secrets for humanity. Normally, we seek to unveil them through scientific means--through our laboratory equipment, processes and methodologies; however, the conventional, material methods of probing into Nature's treasure storehouse may only take us to a certain point beyond which it is difficult for three-dimensional apparatuses to record, and the physical senses and mind to follow and apprehend. And yet, humanity unconsciously feel that it is possible to wrest from Nature her many hidden arcana or esoteric secrets, laws and principles. Could it be that we are investigating the more subtle aspects of Nature through the wrong approach, through the wrong channels and processes? Could it be that we are being misled by our senses in regards to our perception and conception of time, space, and matter and that paradigm shifts from the old Corpernican, Newtonian and Einsteinian models are required in order to break through scientific humps? There are many brave scientists who are working out this problem to the ridicule of their more orthodox colleagues.

In order for Man and the Universe to be understood as well as all the phenomena that occurs therein, it is necessary to consider the so-called "abstract" and "occult" principles that was once in the domain of Magick, Religion and Philosophy--and this should be conducted in a scientific, systematic, rational and metaphysical manner. If Science is to discover the Ultimate Truth, it must not neglect its investigations into the subtle realms. By claiming that these realms or soul-phenomena do not exist for they cannot be perceived by the objective senses or monitored by instruments is prejudicial and scientifically irrational, as there are many things that we are unable to directly perceive and was once undetectable by instruments--things such as electromagnetic energies, certain gases, cosmic rays, etc. By restricting its probing and search for the Ultimate First Cause solely in the physical plane Science does itself an injustice, for life here and physical phenomena are simply a fragment of a whole. Our senses only perceive a limited range of phenomena in the energy-spectrum. Scientific devices may only extend our range of perception a little further and aid us to record a little bit more. What is beyond our perception vibrates in astronomical frequencies. What we are unable to detect physically may well exist beyond the range of our senses; some spiritual realities may even exist way beyond the perception of psychic senses. The investigation of Nature's more subtle aspects is not beyond the line of reason or scientific analyses if several principles are taken into consideration:

1) The higher realities must be investigated through the higher faculties of the soul, through a higher consciousness or through an altered state of awareness;

2) That which is not perceived does not imply its non-existence, even to the non-perception of "psychics."

3) That the diversities and inconsistencies of recorded paranormal phenomena do not indicate their non-reality as it may well be that the nature of the higher worlds reflects the influential instability or fluctuations of the investigators mind, thoughts, and feelings.

4) That the mind moulds reality, whether physical or non-physical out of the energies of its environment and of itself.

5) That cosmic or natural laws with possible mathematical formulation apply in the subtle realms as they apply here in the physical.

6) That the linear time-space continuum may not apply in the higher dimensions as they do here.

7) That the mind is not the sole faculty of knowing.

8) That some metaphysical phenomena go way beyond our earthly concepts and the apprehension of the mind and are difficult to explain through conventional language.

9) That metaphysical phenomenon is repeatable even in controlled laboratory conditions should all the natural laws involved in the phenomenon's manifestation be taken into account.

Science is aware that the physical world as we perceive it is an illusion and yet our senses delude us by informing us that it is real with the "power to affect us in some way." If this is considered to be a criterion for "reality" then the "imaginary" worlds too are real for they likewise affect us in some manner, as psychologists would undoubtedly concur. Metaphysically and esoterically speaking, one vital question emerges for the student of initiatory teachings: are the existences of these other so-called imaginary worlds, these other "realities," part of the "Gupta Vidya," the secret doctrine that spiritual preceptors sought to reveal to humanity?

Gautama Buddha once referred to the amount of teachings that he revealed to the world by comparing them with the few leaves of a tree that he had clasped in his hand. The bountiful leaves, that he pointed out, still clinging to the boughs of the tree constituted that which was yet undisclosed to humanity. Several centuries later, almost at the end of his exoteric ministry, the Master Jesus said to his disciples that he had further teachings to convey to them but that they were unprepared as yet for their reception. Why? What were these advanced precepts? These secret doctrines, if ever existed, are unrecorded in the New Testament. They would have been an oral-tradition--teachings for the selected few. Are these oral teachings still in existence or are they "lost"? Are they perhaps preserved in the consciousness of the Magi, the wise men of every ancient culture? Are they carefully guarded in certain temples and underground vaults hidden from prying eyes? Are they now being shouted from rooftops? Are they so spiritually scientific in nature that men unprepared with the proper spiritual and scientific training not able to fully grasp their principles and significance? It takes a great mind to know another; it also takes a great mind to understand the great principles and laws of nature. In the early days of recorded history only a few had attained to the desired level of mental and spiritual development and were prepared to further unfold the greatness necessary to grasp Nature's hidden laws and principles.

How does one attain greatness, how does one become great enough to apprehend the "higher" teachings that the spiritually enlightened have to offer? We have always been advised by spiritual teachers to walk with God; to tread the strait and narrow way or the ancient path; challenged to go where angels dread; or to go where no man (mortal) has gone before--in fact, esoterically being that "lost" sheep in one of the parables of the Master Jesus; and yet, most of us feel not up to the task. The one thing that prevents us from progressing is fear--fear that has been instilled in us by superstition, religious dogma, propaganda, and other false teachings.

What is the nature of these occult principles and doctrines that the spiritual teachers throughout the ages wished to convey to humanity but had to withhold for the lack of "preparation" on the part of man? Were these secret teachings eventually given out to select persons who subsequently became the spiritual pioneers and leaders, reformers, and prophets of future generations?

Life is a mystery, however, the more we partake of the higher spiritual consciousness the more we come to understand this "mystery of mysteries." This is the unveiling of the secrets of the Egyptian goddess Isis who declared truthfully that no mortal shall ever unveil her. Isis, as the personification of Nature, was right: no man has ever or will ever unveil her to behold her naked beauty. Only when the mortal mind--which is representative of man--is displaced in favor of the immortal God-mind will we ever come to be aware and understand All That Is, all that Isis, the Divine Mother represents. Is this concept strange? The Bible states that no man shall see God and live. Indeed, the spiritual Masters tell us that no man shall see God and live--as men. The experience of God's Essence entails embodying all that God is, all of His virtues, attributes, and consciousness. To truly understand a thing we must become that thing. This is the law of Empathy or Identification. This is what separates saints and prophets from the Cosmic gods and masters, or men made perfect. Saints may lead a pure and holy life, but by separating themselves from their fellow men by secluding themselves and maintaining a consciousness of duality, they do not advance to a higher spiritual awareness. In order for their consciousness to be raised to a higher evolutionary level, it is necessary for them to transcend all dualistic opposites, illusions and errors in mortal thinking. This we call "Divine Thinking." How shall this transition from humanhood to godhood be accomplished? Spiritual teachers have always been present on Earth to direct and help uplift humanity to a higher level of consciousness and awareness. Teachers but point the way. It is up to the aspirant or disciple to tread the Path that leads to enlightenment and illumination.

In every religion there is an oral tradition--secret doctrines given out to a few. These were called "esoteric teachings." The few were privileged to receive these wisdom teachings because their mental/spiritual capacity, and their morality far exceeded those of the average person and were spiritualized enough to comprehend and be receptive to abstract verities. The privileged few, having duly prepared themselves spiritually, had eliminated much of the egoistic tendencies that would cause them to misuse and abuse sacred knowledge. These secret teachings empower one. They give tremendous powers over the forces of Nature; this was the reason for the careful guardianship by the forces of Light over them. This is sometimes portrayed in classical myths as dragons protecting gemstones or other treasures in its lair. In esoteric teachings dragons often represent the wise, enlightened man. In Hindu tradition, these men were the Nagas who lived in their meditational caves and rock temples. They were called dragons or serpents for their innate energy coiled at the base of their spine, otherwise known as kundalini, were permanently raised and wed to its higher counterpart in the crown chakra. This counterpart is the dove, the Holy Ghost. The serpent is Shakti while the dove is Shiva. About two thousand years ago the Master Jesus admonished us to be as wise as the serpent and harmless as the dove. Esoterically, he was telling us to stimulate kundalini to ascend and to invite the dove of love, purity and the Christ-Consciousness to descend. When kundalini meets her mate she must crown him with the jewel that she ought to carry with her. Those who are familiar with esoteric and occult concepts will understand all that the above signifies. In ancient Egypt the Pharoahs wore headresses or crowns with the serpent, the sacred "Uraeus" protruding from the Ajna chakra, the etheric energy-center between the eyebrows. In those days it was a prerequisite for candidates to rulership to be spiritually enlightened before ascending the throne; the candidates had to undergo spiritual training that would prepare them for their exalted task; however, this practice was later neglected and it subsequently caused the degeneration and corruption not only of the Egyptian rulers but the priesthood as well.

In bygone days, sacred knowledge concerning Man, Nature, the Universe and God were taught in those institutions called the Mystery Schools. In these temples of knowledge and wisdom the candidates were initiated into the Ancient Wisdom that existed long before the foundation of this world. Before such occult teachings were taught the candidates had to undergo certain tests and trials to prove their worthiness. When these tests were successfully completed and certain trials overcome the candidates were initiated into the sacred Mysteries of Life. They were taught how to acquire the gnosis, or sacred knowledge through personal soul-experience. The control of the forces within man was taught to the novices by the Kheri-Hebs, the Hierophants, or Masters. These accomplished beings also instructed the novices how the subtle body of man may be exteriorized to experience the higher dimensions. Many methods were used to accomplish this by the Wise Ones such as the careful use of certain hallucinogens, hypnosis, acoustics, concentration, etc. The King's chamber of the Great Pyramid was particularly used as an initiation portal into higher worlds. The immortality of man and reincarnation were basic principles in the sacred teachings of the Mystery Schools.

In the early days of our unrecorded history, the creator gods, the Elohim, the Lords of Flame, walked with men in everyday life and nurtured the divine spark within them. The Spiritual Elders gave teachings to their disciples who eventually became the rulers of civilizations. These enlightened rulers were the God-kings and Priest-kings still talked about by students of occultism. They inaugurated our fabled Golden Ages. What we would like to mention here in passing is that these spiritual beings are back in physical incarnation in our present era spreading metaphysical teachings and a higher spiritual pragmatic Code of Life.

The higher laws and operations of Nature may be investigated through the utilization of one's soul-faculties. These inner senses of the soul must first be awakened and unfolded to a certain degree of efficiency before they may be safely applied. Metaphysics teaches man the way to personal development, to spiritual advancement, and occult unfoldment. Metaphysics broadly understood, is the modern repository of the ancient and ageless secret teachings. Its more sacred doctrines belong in the field of esotericism. There is much to be studied in this field and it offers something that Science, Philosophy and Religion when pursued independently fail to provide--soul satisfaction.

Wield The Word

2007-04-26T14:10:00.001-07:00

There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight." ~ Numbers 13:33 (NKJV).

The Israelites were like grasshoppers in their own sight.

When problems come against us, most of the time, we cower underneath them. They look as if they are giants towering over us, too big for us to handle.

How did David defeat Goliath who was much taller, bigger and stronger than David, a mere shepherd boy?

David told Goliath, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied." (I Samuel 17:45 NKJV).

Just like David, we have a secret weapon. We are not to do things in our lives in our own strength. Instead we are to do them in God's.

We are soldiers in the army of Almighty God. We are to fight our battles on His authority, not on ours.

When we fight in our authority, we become overwhelmed, frustrated and ready to give up. On His authority, though, just like in David's case, it takes only one smooth stone to knock out the giants in our lives.

Our sword is not a physical sword, such as the one Goliath used. No, our sword is the Word of God.

The Word of God, the Bible, is inspired by God Himself. Ephesians 6 calls it our Sword of the Spirit. It is alive and powerful and stronger than any two-edged sword.

We have to speak the Word of God to our mountains--the problems in our lives. We can't complain about them. We can't worry about them. Neither of those cause the mountian to fall or the problems to cease. We have to wield the Word of God at our problems.

We need to find Scriptures concerning our problems, then pick out up to five of them. Then we have to speak those Scriptures to our problems.

The more we speak the Word to them, the more we chip away at the problems. As we chip away at them with the Word, the smaller they becomes until it is non-existent because the Word of God and our faith are growing bigger in our lives than the problems.

We don't need a sword made of metal. All we need is the Sword of the Spirit--the Word of God.

Seeking God

2007-04-25T12:38:00.001-07:00

All too often it seems that people go to God in order to get what He can provide for them rather than simply having a loving relationship. But this is not new as we can see in the Gospel of John.

John 6:24-27: When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples, they also took shipping, and came to Capernaum, seeking for Jesus. And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither? Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.

Christ knew that they were not there to learn more about God; they just wanted more miracles. They were not seeking him with their heart; they just wanted to be fed. In light of this there is a very interesting verse recorded earlier in the Gospel of John.

John 4:23: But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

Very few were seeking God, but He was seeking those who would want to worship Him. It seems that people want God's peace, the blessings of health, prosperity and protection. But all too often they look to get these things of God and forget about God Himself. He is more than willing to give us all that we need if we simply come to Him.

Matthew 6:31-33: Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

God says to seek Him and all that He has is ours. The Gentiles had to worry about food, clothing and shelter because they did not have a heavenly Father that would take care of them; but for us, there are no worries when we have a heavenly Father Who cares.

Why look for just the "things of God" when you can have God Himself? Those who only wanted part of God were warned.

Jeremiah 2:13: For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

Why settle for just a cistern of water (a vessel to put water in and walk away) when you can live at the fountain of living waters? He has already told us that He seeks those who will worship Him. The word "seek" means to strive to find, to ask after, to inquire and it shows intensity and effort. We should be as eager to seek Him as He is to seek us.

Even when the Children of Israel turned away, God was willing to take them back if they would just reach out and seek Him. How could anyone not want to seek such a loving God?

There is a wonderful record in the Gospel of Luke that once again describes the depth of seeking that we should have.

Luke 2:43-49: And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day's journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him. And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business? If you were a parent, would you be seeking your lost child with your whole heart? This is the same word "seek" that refers to us seeking God and God seeking those to worship Him. As truly wonderful as our God is, we should seek Him daily with all our hearts so that we can know Him, love Him and worship Him.

Is the Bible Really the Inspired Word of God?

2007-04-24T08:38:00.001-07:00

Is the Bible the Word of God? Or is it just a collection of human writings? How can we know for sure? Any google search on the inspiration of the Scriptures will bring up a surprising amount of results from people who do not believe so. These people can be convincing. However, these arguments are merely the opinions of their authors, with no evidence to back them up. In fact, the evidence stands against these convincing arguments--and evidence always speaks louder than persuasive words.

Perhaps the most compelling evidence for the inspiration of the Scriptures is the unity of the Bible, especially when one considers all the writers involved. The Bible does not have a single contradiction. Not even one. Yet several people, over the course of thousands of years wrote it! Most of these people did not know each other, and they came from a variety of backgrounds. If I asked ten people today to write down their thoughts about God, chances are, there would be some contradictions. Yet forty people wrote the Bible! The odds of forty people over thousands of years writing a book as vast as the Bible are astronomical. The only logical explanation is that all were inspired by one God to pen the words of what we now know as the Bible.

Another compelling reason to believe the Bible is the Word of God is because of its scientific and historical accuracy. The Bible mentions many scientific principles that were not known until long after it was written. For example, the earth was generally believed to be flat until the time of Columbus. Yet Isaiah 40:22 mentions "the circle of the earth." This is but one of many examples. Keep in mind, the Bible writers were not scientists! In addition, archaeological finds continue to verify many of the historical facts mentioned in the Bible. Archeology has yet to find anything in history that contradicts Scripture.

One of the more fascinating proofs of Biblical accuracy is the fulfillment of prophecies in the Bible. Archeology has verified that the book of Isaiah was written hundreds of years before the coming of Christ, yet Isaiah accurately described the crucifixion, the promise of salvation, and many detailed aspects of Jesus' life. Many other prophecies in the Bible have come true also. For example, the Bible predicted the rise and fall of the Persian and Roman empires in Daniel. The book of Daniel also talks about the increase of knowledge in the last days, and vast amounts of travel. And this is the tip of the iceberg. Literally, hundreds of prophecies have been fulfilled.

Some argue that the Bible isn't inspired because man decided which books would be considered "inspired" and which wouldn't. They also argue that some of the books that have been left out were recognized by the original disciples as Scripture. While it is true that these other books were well-known to the disciples, it is important to remember that these writings were considered Jewish literature, and the original twelve were all Jews. They were historical documents.

The men involved in the canonization of the Scriptures did not "decide" which Scriptures were inspired. They simply recognized the Scriptures that were inspired. To be considered inspired, they had to pass certain criteria. For example, any prophecies that should have come true by that time had to be fulfilled. The work had to be accepted by the church at large as inspired. The work had to be a first-hand account, or very close to it. While this sounds like man "deciding" what qualifies as Scripture, one has to remember that these men were chosen by God before they were born, to canonize Scripture, just as the Bible writers were chosen to write what would later become Scripture. Time has shown that these men correctly identified those books that were inspired, and those that were not.

In fact, the book of Isaiah foreshadowed the final Holy Bible as we know it today. Amazingly, the Bible has 66 books, 39 in the Old Testament, and 27 in the New Testament. The Old Testament takes place before the coming of Christ, when men were still in bondage to the law, while the New Testament begins with the birth of Christ and focuses on the freedom we now have in Christ. In Isaiah, the first 39 chapters are parallel to the Old Testament, in that they talk of judgment and captivity (bondage), while the last 27 chapters contain the messianic promises, which were fulfilled in the New Testament. One could perhaps write this off as coincidence or accuse the men who canonized the Bible of setting it up that way on purpose. However, the Bible is so full of these types of "coincidences" that the odds are against it

No one can prove the Bible is the inspired word of God. However, the evidence is compelling. In the end, we must make a decision to accept the Bible as the inspired Word of God by faith. This is necessary to live a victorious Christian life. Either the Bible is completely true or completely unreliable. If one little line is untrue, the whole Bible becomes unreliable. Throughout history, the Bible has consistently been the best-selling (and most controversial) book of all time. It has been the most enduring book, passing every test of time. Yet no one has ever been able to prove a single line or even word of the Bible to be false. For a book as vast and complex as the Bible, this seems to be far outside the powers of man to accomplish, especially the powers of forty very different men who didn't know each other and who didn't realize they were writing the Bible.

Where was God?

2007-04-19T12:57:00.001-07:00

The entire nation was rocked by the news that came out of Blacksburg, VA on Monday, April 16, 2007. The Virginia Tech campus was besieged by a lone gunman who murdered 32 people before taking his own life.

As our emotions waver between grief and anger, many questions are asked, not the least of which is, "Where was God?"

The truth is that God was there. The psalmist wrote in Psalms 139:8, "If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there." This tells us that God is with us even in the darkest, most unlikely places.

The question stems not so much from wanting to know where He was, as to why He allowed it to happen. This is a much more difficult question. And while theologians and philosophers debate over it, there are a few things we can know for sure:

• This was not God's divine wrath

There are those who would have us believe that this is yet another example of God meting out His wrath on an unbelieving world. While scripture tells us that God will one day judge the world, right now we are in the age of God's grace. This means that God is not willing that anyone should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

• God was intimately connected with each person killed

In Matthew 10:29, Jesus tells us that God is aware of every sparrow that falls to the ground. If God is that intimately aware of each sparrow, how much more is He aware of every person?

Jesus then mentions that God has the very hairs on our head numbered! The implication is that God is concerned with even the smallest details in our lives. This leads to the last, and maybe most difficult to accept, observation:

• God has a plan behind every tragedy

The first two verses of John 9 are very telling. The disciples ask Jesus why a certain man was born blind; they thought it was a result of God's judgment on his sin or his parents' sin.

Jesus tells them that it was neither; he was born blind so that the power of God might be seen in him. Jesus then healed the man and he became a living testimony of the goodness of God.

This is admittedly hard to accept in the wake of a tragedy on the scale of the Va Tech rampage, but I believe that God's power will be displayed through it. How? I'm not sure. But one thing that immediately comes to mind is the story of self-sacrifice that one professor made to protect the few students he could.

What better illustration could there be of the love of God in sacrificing His own Son for our salvation?

The Resurgence of Mind Power Into the 21st Century

2007-04-18T11:47:00.001-07:00

We are living in an exciting age in human history. A time when the mystic secrets of the ages are becoming de-mystified. Ancient practices like meditation and yoga are being proved to be effective tools for self-development, by scientists and doctors alike. We can switch on the television today and learn about things which were earlier considered taboo. Even the Kabbalah has gained media coverage through Madonna!

Our creativity is breaking our preconceived limits too. Have you ever noticed how much our technology has progressed in the last 50 years or so? We have finally invented an automobile which gives out pure water instead of smoke! A personal computer has more power than what IBM invented 30 years ago! Also consider the invention of the information super-highway. Never before have two humans from opposite sides of the globe, been able to communicate with each other through electricity, for so 'cheap'.

We see books on creating our desired realities on the bestseller lists. Movies like 'What the Bleep do we Know' and 'The Secret' are successful. It is said that "when the student is ready, the teacher will appear". This cannot be truer for humanity as a whole. For centuries, this kind of knowledge has been in the custody of only a small percentage of individuals. But now, especially with the advent of the internet, this information is spreading faster and faster throughout the globe.

Look around you, something special is happening. This article is a part of this shift. It has prompted me to write this, and you to find it!

Spirituality - Our Plumber Angels - Lessons on the Mountain

2007-04-17T10:13:00.001-07:00

On a clear November day my wife and I set out to explore real estate in the mountains east of Jackson, Wyoming. We dropped our youngest daughter, then fourteen, with our oldest daughter who was in college a few hours away. It was the Monday before Thanksgiving and we planned on returning Wednesday night to spend the holiday with our daughters.

In our rented SUV and a suitcase of clothes that reflected our Texas lifestyle, we headed out of Jackson and down to Pinedale. I had recently left my corporate job to strike out on my own. Since I traveled with my consulting, we thought we'd find a place to live that we liked, it would be the first home location we had chosen since getting married thirty years before.

At the time our spiritual lives were in some upheaval and we yearned for a new start. Our daughter had been raped, then attempted suicide and we were just finishing some lengthy counseling over the ordeal and were trying to get the train of our lives back on track.

Our first stop in Pinedale revealed a cute little town of a couple thousand nice, friendly people, with moose grazing on the outskirts of town. We looked at one house and when the folks told my wife they went shopping once a month in Salt Lake, some four hours away, that was the end of that. We had a quick lunch in Pinedale and didn't bother to tell our kids we had changed plans. Instead of heading further east and around the mountain back to Jackson we were heading south and west to Star Valley and the town of Afton.

As we headed south towards Rock Springs I could see from the map this was going to be a five hour drive down and around. I happened to see a road on the map about an hour south that headed west and over the mountain and dropped right down into Afton. It went right through the Bridger-Teton National Forest. It was a gorgeous fall day, so I ignored the two dotted map lines that was the outline of the road I'd picked, and we headed up the mountain. My wife immediately said, "I have a bad feeling about this."

Ignoring her feeling I plowed ahead. Three more times she would say, "Ed, I have a bad feeling about this." Four hours later, high in the mountains and deep in the forest we stopped at a 'T' in the road. Before us was two wooden Forest Service signs, with arrows pointing in opposite directions that read – Afton 50 miles – Pinedale 50 miles. While I didn't admit it at the time I knew we were in deep trouble, it was 4 p.m. and about to get dark.

Instead of doing what my wife strongly suggested I plowed ahead towards Afton and one hour later, on a steep incline, we were stuck in three feet of snow. We knew we weren't getting out anytime soon, much less that night. We had no cell phone, a few extra T-shirts, a Hershey bar, two diet sodas and a half tank of gas in our now buried SUV.

Dark surrounded us as my wife quietly wept next to me. We debated our next course of action as she humbled me in prayer. A former atheist turned Christian, I was still struggling with the spiritual side of my life since my daughters problems. I resorted to the macho, Marine Corp side. I was a Marine sniper for two-years in Vietnam and just looked on this as an adventure at first, an adrenaline rush, surely we'd get out of this.

The car was aimed up a small path heading to the top of the mountain. As I sat there in the black of night looking at the star filled sky, a plane went over. It was then it hit me, with my wife finally sleeping in the seat next to me, that we were in deep water and that I alone was not getting us out of this one. I had certainly been stupid enough to ignore my wife's admonitions and get us stuck though.

We would later learn that we were fifty-seven miles from Pinedale and nearly ten-thousand feet up in the forest. We endured the night, cold and lonely and decided to walk to safety at first light. We were in our early fifties and not in great shape. Our clothes were light leather jackets and sneakers for shows. We were not equipped for the walk we were about to endure.

During the night my wife led us in prayer often. It was sometime in the early morning hours when I humbled myself and cried out to my Lord and Savior. I cried out to Him as never before and after some time could feel the warmth of His Spirit wash over me. I knew that somehow we would be rescued.

At first light we were off, heading down the mountain, committing to each other we would somehow walk for twenty-four hours if necessary to see our children. We left the SUV at seven a.m. and it began to snow. We walked patiently, feeling amazingly good, and reached the wooden signs we'd seen the day before. The signs were seven miles from our vehicle. We'd made the trek in about two and a half hours – we knew we had help because we could not walk that fast on flat ground, let alone the snow that was increasing steadily.

We walked and prayed and walked and prayed and my wife grew weaker. I walked and prayed as I walked and the snow was getting deeper and coming down heavy. We stopped on one occasion to pray and it was two p.m. We'd been walking for seven long hours in the snow, the wind was picking up. As we started out again I noticed the light in my wife's eyes wasn't as bright and committed as it had been … I knew we could not make the night.

As I walked trudging in the heavy snow across a high plateau at around seven thousand feet, I prayed as I had never prayed before. I prayed Lord, we have done all that we can. My wife is struggling – we don't want to die. Lord please provide us a miracle and provide it now. By three p.m. the snow was blinding. As I walked, looking ahead I thought I saw a small speck in the snow. What could it be? I was sure it was a mirage. I didn't say anything.

We kept walking and soon a truck appeared. We waved excitedly as if they wouldn't se us, the only two people in miles. The two men inside looked like they were right off a Marlboro commercial. They were plumbers heading to close down a new log house they'd been working on all summer. The man on the passenger side rolled down his window and said, "I hope you two know you have someone walking with you out here today!" Indeed we did. He went on to explain they were supposed to be in and out by ten in the morning but were held up in town by an architect working on the house and the were running late.

We found out that the snow we were enduring was as they said up there the snow that shuts the mountain down. The elk had come down that night and now one would get up there until spring. We had walked seventeen miles when our Plumber Angels rescued us. The Lord had provided us with the miracle we asked for and saved us to see our children. He had rescued me from my own stubbornness and stupidity. He had taught me humility and that indeed He answers our prayers.

The Power Of Communication

2007-04-16T07:18:00.001-07:00

Dear Loved Ones,

Great day to you all beautiful beings of the light. Today and everyday is your day. I love you for you Inspire me. I love you for we are all one. I simply Love you.

Tools for life.

The Power Of Communication
The Power of Communication with Ease, Grace and Authenticity. Don't you think? Don't you believe? Don't you feel? Can you see? Do you get a sense of what I'm saying here?

The Power to communicate with Confidence is to be true to oneself. Is to be happy with oneself. Is to accept oneself.

The Power to communicate is to be free of the false self. Is to live with the freedom within our souls. Is to stand for what we believe to be beneficial for oneself and all.

The Power to communicate in so many ways as to the gestures of the hands. As to rhythm of the body. As to our facial expressions moment by moment. As to the position of our whole being.

The Power to communicate is to stand for one's space. To claim the truth in consciousness. To rely on the Power within to shift gears from the unwanted to the wanted. To move with the reality of our true conscious self. Our God self. Our Higher self. Our beautiful self.

The Power to communicate in silence is to listen to the inner world and the outer world. Is to align both worlds together to create Oneness. Is to realize that there is much more to life than we think there is. Is to give unselfishly. Is to be joyful within our Souls.

The Power of communication is a place for serenity and harmony to form in creating a space of everlasting clearing within to higher vibrations in and out. To know truly of the expected and the unexpected is to be free of all conditioning.

The Power of communication in listening clearly, closely and patiently to oneself and others reliably in peace. Is to be very present with the words spoken and the words Not spoken. Is to be present with one and another in the most intimate level of energy of pure Oneness in consciousness to experience Divine Love. Is to experience the Universe inside and out with Support and undeniable Love for all humanity.

The Power of communication within our willingness to go beyond our excuses, reasons and limitations to make every attempt and effort in resolving the unfinished and in creating the New. Like all things we have the Power to renew with Authenticity and Determination in using our will to communicate with Love, Care and Respect.

In gratitude for all that we are and all that we are able of doing, I am grateful. In communication with you all, it is so magnificent to know that the Universe has given all of us such resources to connect to each other on such levels.

Communicating with Delight is possible.

Communicating with Acceptance is possible.

Communicating with Patience is possible.

Communicating with Understanding and Compassion is possible.

Communicating with our Souls is possible.

Communicating with the Universe is Possible.

Pure communication is possible.

With our willingness to be our True Selves everything is possible in the Now.

So let us all let go and let God. Let us be present every moment with Communication with ourselves and others and let go of any assumptions that may create friction and misunderstandings Right where I am and Right where You are.

Clear communication is Key. Lets the doors open.

With much blessings and so it is.

I love you. I love You. I love you.

Please feel free to forward these Insights to your friends, family, associates and enemies to create an open forum of communication to create Oneness.

May the love, light and love of God and the whole Universe surround, protect and heal you, your loved ones and the planet earth.

With Love, Gratitude and Respect,
Michelle Morovaty
Truly, With God All Things Are Possible

How to Transform Easter from a Commercial Holiday to a Spiritual and Meaningful One

2007-04-14T20:32:00.001-07:00

As soon as Valentine's Day is over, most pharmacies, grocery stores and departments stores change their merchandise to focus upon the next holiday sales event – Easter. It's hard to miss the pastel-colored displays full of stuffed Easter Bunnies, candy and pretty spring outfits. However, Easter has little or nothing to do with these items. In fact, the problem with the celebration of Easter, just like of Christmas, lies in the fact that for many people it has become a commercial holiday rather than a meaningful or spiritual one.

It is possible to make the celebration of Easter a meaningful and spiritual again, however. In fact, it's easy to transform empty Easter celebrations focused on Easter Bunnies, jelly eggs, pretty dresses and hats, and Eater egg hunts into meaning-full and spirit-full ones that focus instead on the original reasons the holiday is celebrated at all.

First, remember why Easter originally was observed. Easter is a holiday that commemorates Jesus'resurrection, which his followers believe occurred on the third day after his crucifixion some time in the period AD 27 to 33. It actually has nothing to do with Easter bunnies, chicks and eggs. Focus on this fact.

Second, spend your time studying Jesus' life on your own or with your family rather than shopping for Easter gifts, which in no way really help remember the awe-inspiring history of this day. Jew and Christian alike will benefit from studying the teachings of this enlightened master.

Third, rather than engaging in Easter egg hunts and sitting around painting Easter eggs, do something spiritual and meaningful to remember this holiday. Go to church, join a study group, have a family meal where you discuss Jesus' teachings and the meaning of his resurrection, create a sacred space or altar in your home and put items on it that make you think about Jesus or the principles he taught or the characteristics he possessed. Rather than engaging in Easter egg hunts and shopping, do anything that offers you or your family a chance to create a meaningful and spiritual holiday observance.

Sometimes it takes only a change of focus and intent to make a holiday that has become too commercial spiritual and meaningful again. In other words, pay attention to the spiritual and religious aspects of the holiday and discover those symbols, rituals, prayers, or observances that have personal meaning for you. Also, use the power of intention to help you stay conscious of these things. Simply intend to transform this Easter from an empty observance into a meaning-full and spirit-full one, and your intentionality will fuel the creation of what you want.

Lucid Dreaming

2007-04-13T18:49:00.001-07:00

Being aware that you are dreaming while asleep is often triggered by noticing something unlikely such as flying or perhaps visiting with a deceased loved one. The awareness of the dream occurrence while asleep is termed lucid dreaming. The quality of lucidity is determined by the depth of mental control you have of the dream while asleep. The more you experience lucid dreaming, the more you can deliberately direct the course of the dream experience.

A strong attraction to perfecting control during lucid dreaming is being able to fulfill fantasies or surreal adventures. Many people prefer to participate in their own created movie than to watch a movie on a television set. Regrettably, these self fulfilled fantasies and adventures often become a theme for night terrors causing the dreamer to awaken.

The metaphysical attraction to lucid dreaming is the ease of lucid imagery effects for healing the body, problem solving, spiritual growth, and manifesting outcomes of our fully conscious desires.

The world in which we live our individual lives has been constructed through our thoughts and how we view it. Lucid dreaming demonstrates the dynamics of our creations in the physical world as well as the ability to continually change the environment or outcome we seek.

Most of us have had a spontaneous lucid dream at some point in our lives, the experience is unforgettably exhilarating. Without good dream recall, it is a probability that you have simply don't remember your lucid dream.

One of the best known procedures for improving dream recall is by writing down everything that you do remember immediately after waking from the dream, and keeping the information in a dream journal. Waiting until morning increases the chances of forgetting.

Studying dreams help familiarize the conscious mind to symbolic and precognitive associations to future events from our sub-conscious. It also serves as an aid to study underlying issues that may be blocking our progress in various areas of life.

Many of the new age texts and articles on the market today, provide a tangible picture of the lucid dreaming process though various 'manifesting' techniques. These techniques often suggest meditation and visualization as a means of projecting 'intention'. A lucid dream nap in the middle of the afternoon is a strong method of inducing rapid desire manifestation. Directing mental intention prior to the lucid dream period has astounding influence upon the dream.

The speed with which controlled lucid dreaming develops depends upon personal factors such as how well do you recall your dreams and how often is controlled lucid dreaming is practiced.

"I will sleep on it" and decide tomorrow" is a descriptive statement that we have often stated to ourselves when faced with a major decision or life situation that requires contemplation. Thus, the inner workings of our mind allow dreamers to thoughtfully and accurately interpret their life situations through their dream imagery.

Learning anything new and becoming proficient at it, takes motivation and practice. Lucid dreaming is a skill that you can develop. Experimenting and creating your own personal induction techniques in reaching the lucid dream states is vital to becoming proficient.

Raising our vibrational frequency is also associated with lucid dream experiences. Exalted and ecstatic states of union with the Divine have been recorded and reported through dream records. They are usually followed by profound life changes. Seeking your personal life purpose or reviewing past life circumstances can be an exhilarated experience, leaving us full of energy, vigor, and a deeper interest in the life we are living.

The application of spiritual exploration through lucid dreaming can be illuminating illustrations of expanded awareness of our total being and connectedness to one and other and to all there is.

The benefits and healing potential through lucid dream imagery are unlimited in soothing pain, rapid recovery from injury, working through grief, gaining greater self confidence. The list goes on and on and is only limited through your own self induced limitations.

Developing Lucid dreaming skills is a vivid endeavor to picture your life the way you want it to be and your affairs the way you want them to go. An earnest attempt to change your life is recognizing that your own mind is a projection of your true spirit, and will prove to you that the best there is in life, is yours, to create.

Problem to Action

2007-04-12T09:50:00.001-07:00

Dear Loved Ones,

Great day to you all on this imaginative day as you move forward in imagining the perfect life for you to live by. I love you. I love you. I love you.

Please take a few moments to pray for and to bless the planet earth. Your contribution counts. Thank you.

Tools for life

Problem to Action

What is a Problem anyways?

Is it a weakness within us?

Is it the impossible task in life?

Is it the darkness within the darkness?

Is it the inhibitions of our life?

Is it that we create problems unconsciously and then we spend plenty of time trying to fix what we call "Problems"?

Is it that Right when it's time to grow we call our present situation a "Problem" so that we can talk about it to twenty other people and get everybody's feedback on our "Problems"?

Is a Problem a blockage?

Is a Problem our unfinished businesses in our lives?

Is a Problem our own perception of what a problem is?

Is a Problem a maze or a math Problem to solve?

Is a Problem what is here and not over there?

Is a Problem something I have and you don't?

Is a Problem contagious?

Is it a virus which attacks our consciousness with the wrong messages?

What in the world is a Problem then?

Let's see what the Universe has in store for us today…

Well as far as the Universe is considered a "Problem" is an imaginary scenario conducted in our limited minds. Please don't take this in a bad way. The Universe is in total support of us at all times.

Now let us all use the Power of our Minds, Right Now and see what other meanings we can give to this word "Problem" that can be energizing and empowering.

Can we do this? Of course we can. We are the Masters of our own consciousness to build, invite and create whatever thoughts, perceptions and realities that are of the most beneficial for us.

So let's go ahead. What is coming to me is a very simple analogy of what is possible.

A problem can be a Possibility of a new creation in time.

A problem can be a Realization of a new possibility in time.

A problem can be an Opportunity for a grand gesture in time.

A problem can be a Beneficial opportunity to grow in time.

A problem can be a Learning of the highest good in time.

A problem can be an Exciting time to venture out and expand in time.

A problem can be a Magnificent time to meditate in time.

We can for sure remind ourselves of this process in time so that we do not trap ourselves in the illusions within our ego minds. If you choose to do a practice sometime just repeat the word "Problem" to yourself once, then check your energy level and then repeat each of the above replacement words and feel how your energy responds to each word as spoken by you to you.

You shall definitely feel your vibration shift and lift which reveals to you that words have power and that we can choose which words to use to compliment our life.

Remember these Insights have powerful messages within them. It is up to you how you would like to experience them. It is all up to you. For you always have choice. Choose what is rightfully your calling to benefit you, for you are worthy and deserving of living a free life in every way.

Bless you and so it is.

I love you. I love you. I love you.

Please feel free to share these Insights with your friends, family, associates and enemies to create a world of a new beginning of Oneness.

May the love, light and blessings of God and the whole Universe surround, protect and heal you, your loved ones and the planet earth.

With Love, Gratitude and Respect,
Michelle Morovaty
Truly, With God All Things Are Possible

The Mathematical Model For Karma

2007-04-11T08:48:00.001-07:00

There is a general belief that every moment is predefined simultaneously it is also believed that you should do good karma to have good life. I think there is a contradiction in this. Can actions change destiny. If my present actions are defined by my past karma then how can I change my future karma.

Sometimes I think that once I get caught in the wrong loop I am bound to remain in that loop.You cannot have a different script of a movie for evening and matinée shows, but that may not be the truth. I think the situation and circumstances which we land into is a function of our karmas, whereas our response is in our control and will decide our future karmas.Therefore an event is a function of two things E=f(K,A). where "K" is karma the situation you are in and is dependent on past actions and records and "A" is determined by present response which can be controlled.

The teachings of all religion, gurus, saints, modern psychology etc all endorse implicitly or explicitly the above principle. They tell us focus on "A" ie present moment which is the universal mantra . The result of "A" that is your present action will again depend on the impressions which you have gathered ie samsakaras some part of which is again genetic ie function of" K " and other part may be acquired or function of "A". So we see the events of life is an interwoven matrix between past karmas and present action. A day will come when spirituality and science will definitely converge and a mathematical model of spiritual teachings can be presented. I do not know whether the spirituality needs science more to become more strong or is it other way round.

A scientist looks and craves for knowledge which leads to wisdom and finally his enlightenment, on the other hand in spiritualism you look for wisdom and enlightenment first which ultimately leads you to knowledge.The basis of science is proof whereas the basis of spiritualism is faith. In fact in science also you start with faith only without which you cannot build a theory. Every great scientific theory /model starts with a hypothesis, but what is hypothesis? In fact it is faith/ intuition.

The gradual building up of various atomic models, from Rutherfords to electron clouds, the ring structure of benzene ring etc were intutions with faith. The scientist should be the first person to believe in God. By the way why do we have this wrong notion that scientists dont believe in God, this is a wrong myth which is being propagated. A scientist is synonymus with logic, after studying the structure of human brain, universe, atomic structure, genetic engineering etc how can a logical person ignore that there is no creator who owns these creations.

A scientist if he believes that there is no creator of these scientific things then is the most unscientific person and illogical. Coming to spiritualistic side of it a person can never call himself a perfect and staunch atheist because an atheist is a person who dose not believe in the existence of God, but by doing so at least he believes in the non existence of God and therefore he cannot be an atheist because by definition atheist is a non believer. The minimum what we can do is believe in our existence and in creations outside us, the moment we do that we are not an atheist and we have accepted our creator.

The Cosmic Mind

2007-04-09T09:39:00.001-07:00

The Cosmic Mind personalized is an infinitesimal part of God in man. Just as a drop of water from the ocean has all the ingredients in the ocean, this mind has all the powers of God. However, just as a drop of water from the ocean does not make up the ocean, the mind of one person does not make up God's mind. All the drops joined together become the ocean, all the minds in the universe together make up God's mind.

Mind is the source of all happiness, all misery, health, and disease, abundance and lack, riches and poverty, joy and sorrow. As the greatest English poet John Milton suggested, it can make a hell out of heaven or a heaven out of hell. Our mind is a microcosm and creates our universe.

Like a laser beam, mind can focus its attention on the smallest atom or see the whole universe as if it is a speck. Mind can become part of the environment and the cosmos.

The speed of thought is more than the speed of light. In a millisecond, mind can reach the farthest galaxy, billions of light years away. It is instantaneous and unlimited by space or time. For example, the precocious genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart said that he could hear a musical work as a single event and not successively and Professor Aitken remarked that he could run through half an hour's music in half a minute.

What mind is and where it is situated has been debated for centuries. Rarely two philosophers agree on one definition or location for mind.

Rene Descartes, French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician said that there is a total and absolute distinction between mental and material substance and that mind is situated in the pineal gland.

Endocrinologist Ernest Gelhorn thinks that mind is an activity of the entire nervous system. Hughlings Jackson, a neurologist, thinks that consciousness and mind are the same, whereas Percival Bailey, director of the Psychiatric Research Institute, disagrees.

Mind is nonmaterial and cannot become part of a material brain, pineal gland or amygdala. We can go through every nerve cell, analyze electrochemically, spectroscopically, mass-photographically, electronically, and, using all known tests, we will not find any indication of mind. There is no single location for the mind. The human mind is distributed throughout the human body and its environment. Every cell has its own mind and has the ability to function independently or jointly with all the cells of the body.

For example, a neuron is capable of deciding whether it will transmit information to another nerve cell and, if it will, to which one among the thousands of cells with which it is in contact. Similarly, endocrine cells decide whether they will respond to a demand for a particular enzyme by cells in another far corner of the body.

Even sponge cells exhibit a similar capacity of awareness. When a piece of sponge is ground up and individual cells are suspended in solution, they will come together and become a complete sponge within a few hours. This indicates that each cell has a mind of its own to decide to combine with another sponge cell and with which of the thousands of cells floating in solution.

Just as each of the thousand pieces of a splintered mirror will show the same reflection of an object as the whole mirror, each cell reflects our mind and each cell in the universe reflects the universal mind.

Me to We - A Concept Whose Time Has Come and Gone

2007-04-08T07:23:00.001-07:00

The phrase "Me to We" brings out thoughts of altruism and giving. It makes us think that there are others out there we need to be thinking about too. It also speaks to the materialistic world around us and helps us imagine a life with larger horizons. There is actually an organization out there called "Me to We" in Canada, they help the children of the World.

Helping the Children of the World is by far one of the greatest philanthropic things you can do, there can be no doubt about that. But, let me explain the flip side of this concept. There is a horrific hideous side to the slogan "Me to We" let me explain.

When I first came to their website, wow, I was impressed at all the wonderful things they are doing out there. I like it all and the "Me to We" is a catchy slogan. But then I began thinking of all the human rights abuses that have resulted from communism and how runaway socialism moves a society towards communism, I was horrified.

Indeed, I then considered how they might make a revision of the "Me to We" motif. You see, instead of "Me to We" it should be "Add We to Me" especially if they want donations and volunteers from a capitalist nation. If on the other hand the non-profit group was trying help out in a communist country all the children who were born into such a human rights disaster then they might use the slogan "Add Me to We" to help cross the gap.

Why you ask should an organization that helps kids change its slogan? Well perhaps if you read "Built to Last" By Collins, which discusses Mission Statements for organizations and businesses you will see that Me and We is not an either/or situation. It should be both and all inclusive. If someone is all about Me, Me, Me then they fail to see the WE or all of us out here. If everyone is WE, WE, WE they will too easily take away the ME inside of the individual. In that case all the ME is sacrificed for the betterment of the whole. This causes severe civil rights violation, as the WE society takes away from the whole.

"Sometimes what is good for the one is good for the many" Spock [Star Track]

Although this coincides with Ayn Rand too and many other studies of human societies, governments and civilizations. What strengthens the individual strengths the whole. When all the whole is filled with individuals then the efficiency is squared. I certainly believe in helping the children of the World, but cannot support any organization which believes that taking away individual rights to help the individual is the way to do it, that is hypocrisy.

I therefore ask you to not support "The Me to We Organization" as there are better ways to help children than surrendering the individual to the Borg. I hope you have enjoyed this intellectual comment and will think it through, before surrendering self.

What Does Christ Expect From You?

2007-04-07T06:15:00.001-07:00

It took me many years before I figured out that Christ doesn't want anything from me in exchange for hanging upon the Cross. It's what He wants us to receive from Him. I didn't have a personal relationship with my Lord before I accepted Him into my life. I am almost ashamed to admit that Jesus to me was an amazing story from the Bible that gave us a reason to celebrate Christmas and Easter. I'm not sure even to this day why I didn't fully understand. I was raised in the Methodist church all my life. My parents were both active in their church community. They were both God fearing people and loved the Lord, but never stressed just what it meant for me on a personal level. I assumed that I could ride on their coat tails of being a Christian. But when I received His love and grace and mercy into my own life, I then understood that it was a personal choice, not one I was born into. I no longer think of Easter as bunnies and eggs and candy. It is the time to remember Christ for what He did for me because He loved me that much. He doesn't expect anything from me, there's nothing I can give Him. He wants everyone to receive His grace and salvation. He has already done it all, there's nothing left for me or you to do. It's in the power of His resrrection.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon wrote this quote about God's love and I believe it explains the true meaning of His crucifixion.
"Men do hear the calls of Christ, but they are willfully deaf, because they think He wants them to do something. But He does not want anything of you; He wants you to receive what He has already done. He comes laden with mercy, with His hands full of blessing, and He knocks at your door. You have only to open it and He will enter in, and salvation will enter with Him."

Christ was God revealed on earth. He came not to be served as all earthly kings expect, but He came to serve. He was given all power and authority from the foundation of the world and His kingdom is not of this world. He was God incarnate to set examples of what true, unconditional love is. This love doesn't expect anything, only that we will receive it into our hearts. God wants to give to us~not take anything from us.

His death was the most anticipated event that God would fulfill. Everything from the Garden of Eden to the wilderness journey of the Israelites, to David's psalms and the prophetic messages of the prophets all pointed to God's plan of redemption which would require the spilling of blood of One Who was sinless but would take the sins of the world upon His own shoulders. This Sacrificial Lamb was Jesus the Christ, God's Son. He willingly hung on the Cross as a criminal, His body ripped open from scourging, His face beaten beyond human recognition, His beard hairs yanked from His chin. He endured the shame of being spit upon, called a blasphemer, a liar and made a mockery of in front of Roman citizens and fellow Jews alike. Thorns were dug into His skull and the people who just a few days earlier were offering Him praises and acolades. They turned Him over to die the most inhuman and humiliating death ever invented because of fear and ignorance. Could He have saved Himself from this? Of course He could've. But He went through with it because it was God's will to save a wicked world from sin and death and eternal destruction. Christ knew He would have to endure the pain for a little while, but the end results would be well worth it. He thought we were with it! It was love that kept Him from dying a premature death. For what He endured is only proof that He is fully God. It is medically proven to be impossible to live through such brutality. Even though He knew He would be denied by one of His own and betrayed by one who posed to be one of His own, His last act as a free man was to serve His disciples and to teach them what they were to pass on.

"When the hour had come, He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him. And He said to them, 'I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.' " Luke 22:14-16

As Jesus sat with the 12, it was the beginning of Passover. Before the night ended, He would be handed over to the Sanhedrin and the Romans for trials. They began by beating Jesus while the Passover lambs were being slaughtered. This was no accident, it was God's timely message to the world. He already knew of the suffering He would have to endure, but still he reclined and served the apostles. This Last Supper would be the first Communion. We do this to this very day to remember Him and what He gave us. He was not just a man to be able to calmly sit there. This was God in the flesh!

Paul writes of this account as well as all four gospels, in 1st Corinthians. He is instructing the Corinthians on their conduct as they take the Lord's Supper. We don't take it becase of how good we are but rather how good He is. No one is good, no not one of us.

"But in giving this instruction, I do not praise you, but because you come together not for the better but for the worse." 1 Corinthians 11:17

These people turned this sacred ritual into one of gluttony and drunkeness. They brought more than enough food but would not share it with the poor and hungry. They did all but what Christ had asked of them and still asks of us.

"And when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, 'This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.' In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.' " 1 Corinthians 11:24-25

When Christ told the disciples to remember Him, He started the ordinance for worship. His sacrifice means that we should look back upon His atoning death, to give thanks and praise. Had He not been willing to obey His Father by drinking His cup of wrath, then we would all have to drink it and die. When Christ asks us to simply believe and trust Him through repentance of sins, why would we not be willing to receive the life that He died for us to have? Christ turned the cup of the Passover into the cup of remembrance for His sacrificial offering.

At this most holy of times, I pray that if you have never remembered our Lord Jesus because you never knew Him, you would invite Him into your heart today. The prayer is simple and life changing. Made a decision for Christ and live!

"Dear Heavenly Father, I am a sinner not worthy of giving You anything, please forgive me. I believe I am forgiven for all my past, present and future sins because I also believe that Your Son, Jesus Christ died on the cross 2,000 years ago to free me from sin and death and hell. He finished the work of the devil through the power of His resurrection and now sits in heaven at Your right hand. All power and authority have been given to Him and I am now Your child, not for what I have done, but what You have done. Thank You for loving me. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen."

If you prayed this and truly meant it, you are now born into the kingdom of heaven! Continue to grow in knowledge of Him.

Christ was prepared die in order that we would live.

Scripture taken from the MacArthur Study Bible~New American Standard version.

Christian Marriage Book - How to last Stronger, Longer, and Harder

2007-04-06T04:43:00.001-07:00

A Christian Marriage book tends to focus only on matters of relationship mannerisms, proper Christian handling of marital arguments, how to juggle church and kids and jobs, and so forth and so on. What they neglect to mention is the real nuts and bolts (no pun intended, please say a small prayer if you assumed different) of marital Christian sex and how to enhance that sex in order to enhance one's relationship with God.

The Christian marriage book I propose will thrust forward in these very important areas. Diving deep and hard right into the specifics and pitfalls that Christian couples can, and often do, face.

A particular unsung area is that of sexual performance in a Christian marriage. One has to remember that there are many males who have chosen not to sin and remain sex free until marriage. The problem that many a Christian marriage book neglect to talk about is premature ejaculation issues that exist with the male. It is completely natural and normal that a male with little to no sexual experience will enter a Christian marriage and be unable to sustain themselves in order to provide pleasure to their wife. And remember providing for your wife is also providing for God. It is in the celebration of Christian sex that the union of both partners, and God, are in fact celebrated. But many Christian wives remain unsatisfied and don't receive the pleasure they should, due to male issues of premature ejaculation. My Christian marriage book would cover this issue as it is so incredibly common within Christian marriage.

Furthermore, my Christian marriage book would show the male specific ways to cure the problem of premature ejaculation. First I would give the Christian male hope that there is indeed light at the end of the tunnel. Second I would outline the various ways in which to last stronger, harder, and longer.

My Christian marriage book would inform the male that there are indeed natural exercises that can be performed and practiced in order to achieve long, strong, and hard erectile ability. This along with compassion from your wife, and prayer, can make sex in Christian marriage an incredible Christian life affirming experience.

Settle for no less than a Christian marriage book which covers these sometimes awkward yet very important issues in Christian marriage.

Live in Today

2007-04-04T13:23:00.001-07:00

I'm reading a book about St. Francis of Assisi. Because of my love for Creation, my neighbors call me Saint Francine. I'm sure I'm far from what the Catholic church would require for that title, but the Bible does call believers saints, so I guess it's okay.

The book mentions this about Francis: "In his sincere desire to wholeheartedly apply the Gospel to his life, Francis embraced persecution as the emblem of God's love. From the beginning of his religious life (when townspeople jeered him, threw things at him, and called him a madman), to his later years (when he took risky journeys to visit Muslim rulers to talk to them about the Christian faith), Francis saw persecution as the smoke that accompanies the fire of a burning love for God.

In his own life, he accepted persecution with joy. And in his instructions to members of his movement, he portrayed pain as part of the package that goes with a thoroughly spiritual lifestyle."

Embracing persecution as an emblem of God's love! That's a tough one, but the Bible talks about sharing in Christ's sufferings in I Peter 4:12-13,"Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing; so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation."

Do not be surprised! With much of the world and media trying to tell us the 100 things we need to do to be ultimately and blissfully happy, we tend to think that's what life is supposed to be about. But it's not. It's about preparation for our true Home and our Eternal Life. It's not about ME! It's about glorifying our Father until Jesus returns and being a disciple that we might lead others to eternal life also.

Happiness is based on happenings. Joy is available from within through the Spirit. We can be sad about something and still have joy!

People will notice if you are different! Anybody can go through trials downcast and sad and depressed. When we walk through with the peace and joy that we have available to us in our "new man" we can shine His Light for a lost world to see that He truly does make a difference. It gives people a reason to be drawn to Jesus.

We must know that our trials are our tests in this classroom of life and that we should desire to pass the test the first time around. In many areas, I've seen that I've taken some classrooms of life many times. Like a child left behind in the same grade, I have not given my best and applied myself with the tools that I have.

Now that I see life as a classroom with many subjects to master, I feel more disciplined and capable of being a better student by knowing that God is in control and all will go well if I just rest in His love for me and His power to take care of me.

Adam and Eve sinned because they thought they were missing something. We today think we can control our own lives and destinies by having more knowledge and power, but it only leads to sadness, anger and frustration that things don't go the way we planned. Francis, in the book I mentioned above, taught that joy comes from abandoning ourselves into the hands of God.

It sounds like we don't get to have a life when we do that, but this submission actually connects us to life more deeply and more passionately. When we "give in" to seeing every event and circumstance as a gift from God, whether it be a lesson book, or a sweet treat, we can rejoice in every event. Considering it all joy as Scripture instructs us to do.

Live in the moment. I believe that 95% of our stress, anxiety and fear will be gone when we can live in today. You do not know what will happen tomorrow. "What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." (James 4:14)

We cannot control our lives or the lives of our family. Stop ruining your physical and mental health trying to do it. Let go! We do not see things clearly and what we understand is not always Truth. Believe in Him and allow Him to lead you through each day focusing on that day - not the future, not the past. Live in today! Live in Him.

Be a Hero

2007-04-03T08:41:00.001-07:00

What does it take to become a hero? There are heroes in all fields of endeavour, people who go beyond themselves, challenge the impossible and immortalize their achievements, showing humanity the boundless realm of possibilities that life has to offer, if we can dare to dream and follow our dreams.

Great heroes exist everywhere. Throughout history, thousands of famous heroes can be named. Great war heroes like Napoleon; political figures like Nelson Mandela; human rights campaigners like Martin Luther King; spiritual figures like Mother Teresa; the great musical composers, artists and sportsmen in every sport imaginable, who reach a level of perfection or expertise beyond the general masses.

Amongst us also exist unsung heroes. You read about them in the newspaper, you meet them out in the world, you live with them or perhaps you even are one of them!
The most precious gift that a hero gives us is inspiration. In their actions or in their words, a hero is someone who inspires us to go forward. We see their strength and feel stronger, we observe their capacities and find more capacity within ourselves, and we see their struggles and find our own problems to be not so insurmountable.

To become a hero one has to face challenges. Challenges in life are actually opportunities for us to develop heroic qualities ourselves. If we never give up we will eventually succeed. Spiritual teacher and inspirational writer Sri Chinmoy speaks of the divine hero, saying:

"One has to face the world and not retire into the Himalayan caves. We have to act like divine heroes here amidst humanity."

The qualities that it takes to become a hero are actually divine or inner qualities. Courage, determination, oneness with humanity, humility, faith in oneself or God and a vision for a higher ideal than we are presently living in.

We can, therefore, all become true heroes. Brave the buffets of life. Follow your dreams in whatever field inspires you. Never give up! As Sri Chinmoy writes:

"Be brave!

Embrace new challenges.

Your victory will be manifested

In your self-discovery."

Passover Gifts-Rachel's Red String Of Protection

2007-04-02T07:05:00.001-07:00

You wake up in the morning and look on your left wrist, now what do you notice? You notice that you had kept on the "Rachel's red string of protection" on your wrist. So you say to yourself "this must have been why I had such a good dream last night".

You get up from bed and go about your day and wondrously, you have such a great day. A couple of employees became a little angry with you and may have cursed at you, but for some reason, you feel totally at peace in your soul. It is the red string you are wearing?

In a number of Jewish traditions, a red string which has been woven around the tomb of the ancient Hebrew matriarch Rachel has mystical powers which can protect the wearer from all evil looks and forces.

Who is Rachel? Rachel is a historical matriarchal figure who was the wife of Jacob( as written in the Bible and Torah scriptures). For many years , she was barren and without child until she is blessed with two children by God.

The figure of Rachel is a symbol of protection and shelter, this is one of the most popular reasons why she is linked to such wondrous protective power.

In Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) , Rachel represents this world in which we live and she is seen as a figure who seeks to protect and secure all of the world's people against evil.

Many stores and websites sell these red strings that they claim to have actually been wound around the tomb of Rachel while special chants and psalms are being read. These incantations are meant to bestow special mystical powers upon the red string.

Magickal Shrines of Mustika Pearls

2007-03-31T18:46:00.001-07:00

Magickal mustika pearls/bezoar stones with their innate spiritual power and force are sacred items that enhance the auric and spiritual atmospheric quality of shrines and altars. They attract to themselves spiritual intelligences and beneficent cosmic rays that bless the home. With the presence of these magickal pearls, shrines and altars are not just simple sacred places in the home, they are transformed into power-spots that the devotee can seek refuge for empowerment, inspiration and regeneration at all levels.

As they contain pranic energies, cosmic and geophysical forces accumulated and developed by biological-systems (animals, plants) and etheric beings/environmental events, mustika pearls--whether in a crystalline or opaque form--the site where they are installed becomes a strong focus for divine planetary and cosmic beings, not to mention positive "nature-spirits." Magickal mustika pearls are spiritual tools and they represent the cintamani--the wish-fulfilling jewel in the esoteric aspects of Buddhism.

Snake and dragon pearls in particular, are the treasures of the Naga beings, the Draconic Lords--the preservers of the dharma and esoteric doctrine of the Ages. To paraphrase a biblical text, when two or more pearls are gathered together for a certain spiritual objective, there the supreme intelligence will create a focus and appoint or re-appoint spiritual guardians to oversee their preservation and their harmonious radiations all over the site of their installation, even extending their influence to miles around. The physical keeper of the pearls within shrines play an important role in this spiritual mission--it goes beyond in importance the simple burial of crystals in a lattice-grid around the world. The many types of mustika pearls and their inherent colors attract stronger manifestations of the 12 Cosmic Rays directed to planetary-streams by the Solar Logos--in a shrine, they are of vital importance.

Altars, where magickal ceremonial and shamanic works are conducted, can be powerful when enhanced with the presences of mustika pearls. They help the shaman and magickal operator to attune, tap and access metaphysical forces conducive to successful ritualistic work and mystical celebrations.

The configuration and placement of the pearls on an altar/shrine may follow any harmonious design that Nature has created, whether it is laid at the points of a two-dimensional geometrical shape, such as the 4 points of a square, the points of a triangle, pentagon, etc. Complex designs may be employed such as the ancient "Flower-of-Life," special designs of magickal sigils, and even the constellations such as the Pleiades, Andromeda and others--the complex designs are certainly more powerful. Every design has its own particular power and force and corresponds to celestial and cosmic realities and spiritual intelligences of which they invoke into the physical sphere. Magickal mustika pearls may be laid-out in a configuration as in the above or placed in a special "treasure-vase" which is then installed in a prominent position on one's shrine.

Shrines can be of any tradition, whether it be Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, New Age, Pagan, etc--magickal pearls will enhance shrines of any belief-system. Magickal mustika pearls, whether they are gem-like or opaque, may be individually meditated with to attune to spiritual intelligences and to one's higher consciousness. Many icons and statues of the old Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms of the island of Java show deities, kings and spiritual practitioners holding these mystical, mustika pearls in their hands as tools of power.

Mustika pearls in a shrine accentuate and amplify the energies of the heart as it radiates out to deity in devotional sessions of prayer. As incense-smoke is believed to carry prayers to the gods, the accumulated and combined power of magickal pearls in a shrine assists in the building of the form of one's prayer at metaphysical levels so that it acquires a clear, distinct, and strong definition easily intercepted and registered in the consciousness of the spiritual, invisible workers of the Cosmos. The more power a shrine possesses, the more effective it becomes as a tower of communication between the higher and lower planes, between the consciousness of a life-stream and that of its master. The vibrational-frequency of one's home is raised with a mustika-shrine, and negative-energies that are magnets and sources for catastrophic problems and occurrences in one's home are neutralized.

Below we present some examples of shrines enhanced with mustikas belonging to a certain spiritual Buddhist follower and devotee. Their combined power with consecrated religious icons can readily be sensed. The first photo shows assorted types of magickal mustika pearls in a shrine dedicated to the Buddha. The second photo is a special shrine consecrated to the Naga Tantric Lords--the pearls in the shrine are dragon pearls and crowns. The photos are displayed with the kind permission of their owner.

[Please visit our website for the photos]

The Power of Faith

2007-03-30T07:40:00.001-07:00

Our limiting minds cannot even accept a miracle when it happens. Is it any wonder therefore why so many of us don't experience miracles? Our minds are not receptive, but are full of doubt, pessimism and criticism.

However a man who is ready to experience the extraordinary must open himself to higher consciousness and have faith. Faith is a supreme and divine state of mind which unlocks immense opportunities. We need not try and understand, or judge or even make sense of it. For faith transcends the physical mind. It is beyond the usual and should be accepted as is.

Faith can be loosely defined as believing in positive outcomes against all odds. Most of us always expect the worst. Our minds are constant worrying machines, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Remember that whatever you focus on you will create. It is in our minds that hangs our joys and sorrows. Our lives are a mirror of the beliefs embedded within us.

Instead of making your mind a battlefield of worrisome thoughts, cultivate faith. Choose to have faith, believe in the extraordinary and open the door to an extraordinary life. You will only see the power of faith, when you believe….

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Saint Patrick's Day

2007-03-28T15:28:00.001-07:00

March 17th is a date surely ingrained in the mind of every Irishman around the world. Saint Patrick's day. Every Saint Patrick's day millions of people across the globe celebrate not just in recognition of one of christianity's earliest saints but, as has become the case, in praise of the very fact of being Irish. Indeed, more and more the religious significance of this day has been marginalised in the face of its growing role as a celebration of all things Irish with no sign of this trend reversing.

Every year the parades get bigger, more disposable festive novelties are rolled off corporate production lines and more republican tricoleurs are bought and hung up everywhere and anywhere. Each time around more and more people get involved and each time the festivities are more jubilant than before. On the surface of things it must seem like we're enjoying a cultural renaissance. Afterall, if the celebrations are getting bigger it must be because there is more to celebrate, right? The republic is in the money and the north is (relatively) quiet these days, but at what expense does all this come?

In the process of striving for an easier more materially comfortable lifestyle the idea of retaining, or indeed fighting for, a distinctly Irish way of life has been quietly shuffled out of the picture. We're no happier for it and we're certainly no richer except in the crudest most qualitative sense of the term. So we can now afford that extra car, a new ipod and come St Paddy's day a big green novelty hat with some token bit of Gaeilge plastered over it. But in any more serious a sense than any of this would afford us, we are becoming isolated from everything that made us a unique and admirable people.

Whilst it might be a sea of smiley faces and shamrocks in the dizzy drunken haze of the St Patricks day celebrations, back in reality things are not so rosey (or emerald). Assailed by a host self-interested plutocratic forces from both within and without, traditional Ireland slides each year that little bit further into that historical abyss where all once-great civilizations go, leaving behind them only skeletonised monuments for future generations to peer at in curiousity.

Besides the age old enemy in the British we now face the threat of being turned into a faceless grey race of workers under the stewardship of the new age ideology of multiculturalism whilst the various diaspora communities in Australia, Britain, the US and elsewhere face the double threat of this and the white-inclusivism that has formed as a backlash to it. Meanwhile the supposed government of our people cant wait to fire up the bulldozers and plough into one of our nations most prized monuments; spiritual heart of Ireland, Tara Hill.

Things most definately do not look like ripe circumstances for a party. But come that mid march date, we rally together and celebrate to another unparalled level of excess and yet each time around that we do so we are marking off another year's passage in the agonisingly slow death throes of our nation.

The Superultramodern (SUM) Solipsism - The Simpler Universal Design, The Personal Philosophical Ques

2007-03-27T14:26:00.001-07:00

The superultramodern (SUM) solipsism is a strong metaphysical semi-solipsistic position constituted of some ideas in superultramodern (SUM) science and philosophy. The first idea or strand is the NSTP (Non – Spatial Thinking Process) theoretical metaphysical semi-solipsism, the position that within the semi-idealistic framework of the NSTP theory 'I' and 'the superhuman mind' are the only material entities that exist, for the non-existence of other non-superhuman minds simply makes the universal design (i.e. the superhuman engine) simpler, as the engine needs no additional intelligence/information to create a variety of specific spatial illusions through multiple (non-superhuman) NSTPs. The second strand further sees the superhuman design and/or designer, through an astrological framework, as a personal philosophical questioning supermind, the mind which, apparently being highly reasonable, has further no good reason to create tremendous suffering through the existence of other non-superhuman minds which are simply unable to answer its profound philosophical questions. The third strand is a composite of two mutually complementary basic feelings that this miraculous thing called consciousness exists, and that it is particularly 'I' who is conscious, and thus other entities, at least other non-superhuman entities, might be unconscious, and that Truth would always be different from how it commonsensically appears to be.

The NSTP (Non – Spatial Thinking Process) Theory

The NSTP theory is a (philosophy of mind) semi-idealistic as well as semi-dualistic theory that the material universe, where some peculiar phenomena like quantum non-locality exist in, is exclusively a group of superhuman as well as non-superhuman thinking processes existing in the form of (non-spatial physical/material) feelings (i.e. states of consciousness). In computer terminology, it regards the (material) universe as a non-spatial computer, with hardware of (non-spatial) feelings and software of superhuman as well as non-superhuman thoughts/ideas, including those of space, which is then an illusive/virtual/merely apparent entity. The mere existence of the superhuman thoughts is responsible for the empirical (i.e. a posteriori) order in the non-superhuman ones. The theory, however, accepts the possibility of the reality of space, the space where the phenomena like quantum non-locality do not exist in. The theory is constituted of 6 axioms, 1 theorem, and 3 conjectures. The key strength and novelty in the theory lies in its axiomatic/self-evident foundation, its innovative semi-idealism and semi-dualism, and, in general, its road to idealism and dualism.

What Is Persecution

2007-03-26T13:16:00.001-07:00

Mt: 13: 21. "yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.

Jesus said persecutions arises because of the Word. When you hear the Word of God, Satan immediately comes to steal the Word from your heart. If he can't do that he'll try to get you to take your eyes off of the solution and on to the problem, diverting you away so that you will fail. This was part of the parable of the sower? Satan's main job is to get the church to back down off the Word of God so that doubt and unbelief will choke it out. He is not a gentleman, he is a bully and he doesn't mind using bullying tactics to get you to back down, only then can he have victory over you. This is persecution because of the Word's sake. Lets take a look at the whole parable.

Mt: 13:18. "Therefore hear the parable of the sower:

19. "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside.

20. "But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy;

21. "yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.

22. "Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.

23. "But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.''

Satan knows his only real weapon is deception, if he can keep you from the truth, he can lead you around by the nose.

John 8:32. "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.''

Knowing the truth is what gives us the power to get born again, knowing the truth and acting upon it, is what causes us to overcome in every situation. When we get to the point that we believe God's Word in our heart and then act on it by speaking it out of our mouth, we shall be saved.

Ro.10:8. But what does it say? "The word is near you, even in your mouth and in your heart'' (that is, the word of faith which we preach):

9. that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

10. For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation.

Paul later says in 2Cor.
2 Corinthians 12:10. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2Cor: 12:10 says for Christ's sake. Because of the Word. for Christ's sake

The great redemptive work of Jesus Christ did not cover trials and tribulations, I know we all wish it had, but in all things we are more than conquerors. We are children of a Holy God and we shall prevail. Not only in the life to come, but right now we are more than conquerors.

2 Timothy 3:12. Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

If you live in this world and you are living for God, you shall suffer persecution, there is no way around it, just remember from where it comes. When we are attacked by Satan we can know and rejoice, because we have the victory in Christ Jesus.

Romans: 8:35-37: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.'' Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

God is not out punishing His children because they are seeking and receiving the revelation of His will, NO, Satan is the one out trying to stop the Word of God from being proclaimed. Satan is the destroyer, Satan is the thief, and Satan is the accuser of the brethren. Satan is the killer. God is on our side. He Loves us with an everlasting love, and wants to see us succeed! Not the other way around.
We need to get our thinking in line with the Word of God on this.

Jesus told us in John 10:10. "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

That is the will of God right there. God is the author of life, He is trying to get us to step over into and walk in that life. So when we start to understand the will of God, that is when you know for a fact that Satan is going to come along and try to get you to doubt it, or put something in your path to get your focus off of it. That is where the persecution comes from.

2 Thessalonians 1:4. so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure,

We know that when we make a stand on the Word of God, that Satan is going to try to knock us off of our stand. His only real power is to get us to waver in our faith; if we refuse to waiver we then get the victory. Say, I refuse to waiver, I am victorious, my faith is based on the Word of God, and God's Word never fails.

1 John 5:4. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world our faith.

Say, I am born of God and I overcome the world, because I have victory by my faith in
Jesus Christ.

James 1:2-4. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Yes, it takes a little bit of patience, but the rewards are great so don't back down, make your stand on God's Word, and as James said, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

2Tm: 3:11: Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me.

Not some of them, all of them. God's will is for you to delivered out of them all.
Paul got delivered out of all of them. The Word of God doesn't lie.
God gives us the power to overcome when we stand on It and don't back down.

Ephesians 6:10-16. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.

Learn who you are in Christ Jesus, search the scriptures and find the promises for yourself.

2 Peter 1:4. by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Grab hold of the promises of God and meditate on them, partake of them; they will cause you to overcome, and escape the world's corruption. Give glory to God, and remember who you are in Christ. You are an over comer, say it, I am an over comer!

Revelation 12:11. "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.

Jesus shed His blood for us, the victory has already been purchased, and at a tremendous price I might add, but we must speak, it is the word of our testimony that will cause the victory to come to pass. So let your testimony be one of victory in Christ Jesus. Glory to God.

I wrote this Word based confession of faith when I was a young man. I have it pasted on my kitchen cabinet and read it all the time, I encourage you to start confessing Gods Word over your life, and that of family, and loved ones, confession will bring reality into your life. Make it your confession as well.

My Confession

I believe Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God. I am in Christ Jesus.
I am a new creation, with the life of God, the nature of God, and the ability
of God within me.
I am His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus.

I am the righteousness of God in Christ. My standing with God is secure.
My prayers avail much.
Christ Jesus my Lord, is my wisdom. He is my righteousness.
He is my sanctification. He is my redemption.

I have received abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness.
I reign as a king and dominate in this life through Christ Jesus.

He bore my infirmity, He took my disease, The chastisement of my peace
was laid upon Him, with His stripes I am healed!!!
Healing belongs to me because I am in Christ Jesus.

The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
I am more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus. I can not be conquered.
He is my strength, therefore I can not be defeated.
I can do all thing through Christ which strengthens me.
All my needs are supplied according to His riches and glory by Christ Jesus,
therefore I have no lack.

I was crucified with Christ. When He was quickened and made alive,
I was quickened and made alive with Him.
I was raised up together with Him and made to sit with Him in heavenly places.
I am now seated with Him in heavenly places.
I am dead to the lust of this world, I am alive only to God.
I am a believer and not a doubter, everything Jesus did and is, I am a partaker of.
Therefore, as He is, so am I in this world. Glory to God!

In Defense Of Jesus? "The Secret" And The True Followers Of Jesus

2007-03-25T11:04:00.001-07:00

You may not know it, but the "The Secret" DVD, the on going buzz online is generating lots of controversy between those who cannot see the rational behind the principles espoused by "The Secret" and those who see it.

Wow, folks, the truth has never been told, it is with the Master-mind. But some of our assumptions may be truths, and even outright lies become truths without evidence. This is why it is quite difficult to accept a proven principle that can be used to turn a life around for the best.

Therefore "truths" flourish. The Christian truths, which are averse to the "The Secret's" truth, can be likened to the "truth" told by the three friends of Job while the truth in the "The Secret" is akin to the truth of Job himself in challenging God to prove him (Job) unworthy. Only those who claim their inheritance shall have it.

The biggest problem of mankind is self condemnation, self deceit and outright falsification of facts. If you condemn yourself, who can salvage you. Jesus? Give me a break!

"The Secret" teaches you to be positive, and you cannot condemn yourself while being positive; rather you can turn your life around with positive thinking and affirmative actions. What I do not understand is why such a simple principle is being tied to age old lies and ambiguous claims about a "beginning and end" we will never know about. What can be more fabulous than the religious beliefs of Christians, especially in one who does not know Christianity? He was born a Jew, lived and worshiped as a Jew, and died a Jew. True Jesus' followers should practice Judaism, period.

Daniel and Rich (some antagonist at my blog on "The Secret") speak in defense of Jesus, especially Daniel, who talks about Jesus' Godness, as if Jesus himself ever claimed to be God anywhere in the Bible. What he called himself all the time was the Son of Man. Of course, followers meekly and dubiously foist their leaders with larger than life attributes and images. As for whether Jesus, according to Rich, ever used the little phrase "within you" in Mathew:6, "The Kingdom of God is Within you" is a popular answer Jesus gave to a popular question.

That being said, note that the same principles the antagonists are criticizing in the "The Secret" are what Jesus used to get things done as he desired within the time and scope allotted him by the Source of life.

I am amused to read some statements credited to Jesus about the serpent as follows:

"Ever since the serpent has been the serpent, he's been whispering that in our ears. Jesus, in His Wisdom, confronted that convincingly:
"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?" Mark 8:34-37."

Oh Rich, Serpent or Lucifer is just the personification of the negative thoughts of man, for Sunday school children. You should have shaded that by now.

It is the same principles "The Secret" espouses that the Church perverted and used to rule the world and still uses with ulterior motives; for why do you think that adults continue to think like children when it comes to religious myths? Listen, if you think positively about a lie and dwell on it continuously it becomes your truth.

The most absurd of all is for anyone to think that "The Secret" is meant to prevent their death; God or the Source of life graces and withdraws grace…... as a rule to ensure the continuity of creation. Life and Death are divine purposes, "The Secret" is just a way to live life more abundantly, it does not prevent death.

It is true that man has arrogated to himself too much importance than he deserves in the scheme of things. Yet, like I said in an earlier article, man is a co-creator with God or the Source of life. That being so, man is empowered to create good or evil according to the choices he makes, and those choices he can only make from the jumble of thoughts that show up in his mind. No one creates his own thoughts, but everyone decides which thought or group of thoughts to action.

If what Daniel says is true that what happened to Jesus was what he wanted, then why was he apparently afraid and made every effort to have his tribulation averted? And why when his time came as he had said, did he lament having been forsaken by his father? Everyone of us will behave just as Jesus did, no one wants to die.

All said, I will always cancel my negative thoughts with positive ones and hope for the best - "The Secret". I will never give up till my time is up. Death is a necessary end, not the wages of sin. The Nazarenes believed what their minds bid them believe, so will anyone even today. That is "The Secret."

Why All This? Why Not Nothing?

2007-03-24T09:44:00.001-07:00

The classic question, and one that should be answered directly. Here is the answer: Because "nothing" is reality, and "all this" is existence. So it's not an either – or situation, both are true simultaneously.

Reality doesn't exist. If it did, it would be part of "all this." "All this," in contrast to Reality, changes constantly; there is nothing within existence that doesn't change. Change creates time, and without change, time doesn't exist. Existence therefore, is never Reality, and Reality doesn't exist, even though these two truths cohabitate. It's very simple.

The part of us that we cling to, our ego, is caught within existence. Because our ego is caught within existence, it changes constantly. The part of us that is not caught within existence; Reality, never changes. It is unborn, undying, uncreated - eternal.

What could this unborn, undying, uncreated thing be if it's not our ego? It couldn't be our bodies, because our bodies are within existence and obviously change second to second. So what part of us is eternal and outside of time? It would have to be something familiar, because we must be responsible for this thing, whatever it is. It can't be something laid upon us by some God – so there must be a connection between us and it.

This indicates that our destinies are in our hands and not in the hands of a higher power. We actually have free will which can apparently affect Reality, which is beyond time. This free will is a very powerful force, and one that is misunderstood by logical thought. But consider the consequences of the powerful force of free will when it adversely affects Reality.

Since Reality is pliable and conforms to the wishes of existence-prone entities driven by the desires of their free will, Reality will passively provide another existence if that free will cannot see past existence, or the framework of an existence in flux. If that free will, caught up in existence, cannot see the transience of existence, the angst of existence, and the false construction of an ego in existence, then Reality will gracefully provide another organic being for the tendencies of the old ego to morph into. Endlessly.

Then we will enjoy "all this" again and again. Never can we enjoy "nothing." And the tragedy is: this very thing, this "nothing," is the constancy that we have always hoped for. But how do we get to it?

Hmmm . . .

The Law Of Sowing And Reaping Pt. 3

2007-03-23T08:38:00.001-07:00

In the first 2 parts of this study we defined sowing and the purpose of the seed, as well as the purpose of the harvest. In the third part of this study I would like to talk about obedience in giving and how God supernaturally increases our seed. Let's start again with the words of Jesus.

Luke 6:38 Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

And again using the Young's Bible Translation.
Luke 6:38 'Give, and it shall be given to you; good measure, pressed, and shaken, and running over, they shall give into your bosom; for with that measure with which ye measure, it shall be measured to you again.'

I want to point out that this Scripture is definitely talking about monetary gain and not just spiritual gain. I believe that the law of sowing and reaping applies to both, but in this case it is talking about monetary increase. In the King James translation it says that (men) will give unto your bosom and Young's says, (they) shall give into your bosom. If this were talking about spiritual blessing it would definitely not have said (men) or (they) would give unto our bosom. Because we know as James said … James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

This was talking about us giving and us receiving. You give unto men as unto God and you receive from men as from God but God uses men to bless us in this natural world. This is not only talking about just receiving, but receiving in such a way that it is truly more than we can even handle. It says these blessing would be running over, not only running over but pressed down, shaken, and then running over. This is saying your basket will be so totally and completely full that it can absolutely hold no more, then on top of that it will keep on spilling over the top. In other words, the blessing keep on coming even when all your space for receiving is used up. WOW!! I want to point out something here. Motives are important to God. If you give out of impure motives for selfish gain then you will miss your blessing. The people you are giving to will be blessed but you will not. Let me show you what the Lord Jesus said about giving and motives.

Mark 12:41 Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much. 42. Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrans. 43. So He called His disciples to Him and said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; 44. "for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.''

God not only looked at the gift, but at the motive for giving did He not? I truly believe our willingness to give is just as crucial as the gift itself. You can not give a lot if you don't have a lot to give, but your desire to be a blessing is irrespective to the size of the gift when obedience is concerned. God will not tell you to give something you don't have will He? We see throughout the Word of God that when we are obedient we will be blessed. There is a very good reason for this. Obedience brings the will of God to pass. Blessings must be God's will if He wants us to be obedient in the first place, since the outcome of that obedience is blessings, not only financial but in all the areas of our life. Our Father God wants us to be blessed or He would not have told us to be obedient in the first place, would He? If He wants us to be blessed then we should want those blessings that He has ordained for us. Have you ever thought about this in this light? If you don't want His blessings then you don't want His will in your life!

Isaiah 1:19 If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;

When I was younger I was praying about a promotion at work. In the natural there was no way. I was the most inexperienced person in the group I was with at this company. I had been praying about this promotion for several weeks when one day the Holy Spirit spoke this Scripture to me and simply said it like this; the willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land.

I knew the Scripture, but when I heard it in my spirit I immediately knew what He was talking about. I had been very obedient in the way I handled myself at work, literally outworking all those around me, however I had developed a bad attitude about something that had happened there. Really, something had happened that was out of my control that put me in a bad light, and I had been unfairly associated in with the group that had actually been involved. Haven't we all been there to one degree or another? In this case my obedience wasn't in question but my willingness at work. I immediately repented and realized the Lord had provide this job, and it was He who was taking care of me. I look to Him as my source, and since I am looking to Him as my source I need to have a thankful attitude as well as do a good job at my place of employment. The very next day I was told that I had gotten the promotion. Looking back on this experience, I realize that this promotion set me on a different path that changed my life. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I would not have received that promotion if I had not repented and made an adjustment in my attitude. God was preparing me to receive a blessing, and in order to receive it, I had to have my basket cleaned out and not full of the kind of clutter that will keep the God ordained blessings from coming. Our motives and attitude will definitely block our blessings. Our willingness as well as our obedience will both be looked at just as the prophet Isaiah said. Let's look at another Scripture that shows this kind of blessing.

Malachi 3:8 "Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, `In what way have we robbed You?' In tithes and offerings. 9. You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation. 10. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and prove Me now in this,'' says the Lord of hosts, "If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it. 11. "And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,'' says the Lord of hosts; 12. "And all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land,'' says the Lord of hosts.

Many will argue the legitimacy of tithing in the New Testament but that is not the purpose of this study. I for one strongly believe in it. For now, we are looking at obedience in giving. This is not just talking about tithes only, but tithes and offerings as we just read. God must think this is very serious because He said we are robbing Him if we don't give. God is throwing down a challenge to us, He said, prove Me now in this, meaning in the giving of tithes and offerings. You can not prove Him if you are unwilling to give in the first place can you? Again we see that He will bless us radically if we give. He said He would pour out a blessing that we would not have enough room to receive. Let me ask you a question. Why would God give us a blessing that we were not capable of receiving? Because He loves to bless big. It not His fault if we not capable of receiving His big blessings. You see only a big giver can be a big receiver. God will not pour out a blessing on you if you are tight fisted. You will only prove that His Word is true, but this will be the negative side of it. You see just the opposite of blessings will happen when you rob God. He will not rebuke the devourer for your sake, the fruit of your ground will be destroyed, your vines will fail to bear fruit in the field, and all nations won't call you blessed. But that is not the way it has to be with us is it? No.

This reminds me of a true story I heard a minister tell one time. He said a certain farmer in his congregation had called him up and told him that the Lord had specifically spoken to him and instructed him to pick out a certain calf and have it butchered for him. The pastor said o.k. and when time came for the farmer to bring the prepared meat over, the pastor realized he didn't have a freezer big enough to handle it all. He later went to the Lord in prayer about it and said Lord why would you have that farmer butcher that calf and give it to me when you knew I didn't have room for all that meat. The Lord replied to him and in essence said, it's not my fault you don't have a freezer big enough. I believe we need to take the time to get before the Lord and get His plans, for when the increase comes and it will if we are willing and obedient, we need to be in a place where we are capable of receiving it. The Lord was teaching this pastor a very big lesson. It should be a lesson for us all. I have seen Christians who say they believe that God doesn't want to bless us financially, yet these very same people will work like crazy and do all kinds of things to gain wealth. I could tell you some very real stories along these lines. If you truly believe that God doesn't want you to be blessed financially, then you need to stop trying to get wealth from the world as well. Why go to the world's wealth if you think it is not God's will for you to be prosperous in the first place? Wouldn't that be contrary to the will and purpose of God? I can honestly say, thank God it is not! I am not trying to be sarcastic in this, but to make us think about our real motives in these areas. Do we really believe this way or are we just using it as an excuse to be stingy.

God's will for His children is to be blessed and for His children to be a blessing. You can't be much of a blessing if you are not already blessed yourself, that goes for both spiritual and monetary blessings doesn't it? Let me close with this.

2 Corinthians 9:6 But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
7 So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.

Let us purpose in our heart to be the cheerful givers that God has called us to be, and also be ready to reap bountifully because of it. I truly hope you see these Scriptures in a new light now.

Do you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Do you want to be a joint heir with Christ?
If so, I urge you to earnestly pray the following prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, I come to you in the name of Jesus. Your word says, "…and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out." (Jn.6:37),

So I know You won't cast me out, but You take me in, And I thank you for it. You said in your Word, "whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.'' (Ro. 10:13).

I am calling on Your name, So I know You have saved me now, You also said, "…that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation." (Ro.10:9,10).

I believe in my heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I believe He was raised from the dead for my justification. And I confess Him now as my Lord, Because Your Word says, "… with the heart one believes to righteousness…" and I do believe with my heart, I have now become the righteousness of God in Christ. (2 Cor. 5:21),

And I am saved! Thank You, Lord!
I can now truthfully say, I see myself as a born again child of God! Glory to God

A Prophecy Over My Life That I Cherish

2007-03-21T14:52:00.001-07:00

Many people in this world go to clairvoyants to learn about thier life and their future and this can be very attractive for people as everybody would like to have peace about their future. But a Christian can have a gift of prophecy and they can be used by God to bring a message from Him to a person. This is a personal message God gave me two years ago through a friend and today it was very comforting to read and I thought I would share it with you guys. God is real and he is personal and he wants to speak through prophets today and encourage his people. Do you have the courage to seek a prophet for a free message off him?

Prophecy from the Father to Matthew

The fullness of My grace I have given to you. The gift of My salvation belongs to you and daily I speak to you in words of endearment and with love. My precious child, whom I love much. Everyday will bring with it new trials, everyday will bring with it new joy. Forever I will walk by your side and teach you My ways in all that you do.

As you stand on your own, you are never alone. As you stand as one, there are many by your side. I have given you help from every corner, I have made you strong and I will continue to make you stronger. I will be with you even when there are those that will choose to forsake you.

Am I not your Father who loves you like you are my child? Have I not given you much? Do I not desire to give you more? You who have been set apart and chosen by Me. You who carry My seal upon your life. My heart weeps at your sorrow and feels elation at your joy. Your triumphs bring Me pleasure and it is with Me that you will soar to heights that go beyond your expectation. With abundant pleasure, I will raise you up to confound the wisdom of man. It is in you that I seek to glorify Myself. It is with you that I desire to change nations. My child, who I adore.

There is not a moment in time that I will not do a work in you. Though I may draw back to stretch you, I am never so far away that you will not sense my presence. Have I not always been there for you? Have I not brought you words of comfort time and time again? Have I not poured my love out upon you day in and day out? This will not cease, nor will it diminish.

I am a sovereign God, I am the Alpha and Omega, I am the beginning and the end. You were created for Me and by Me. You are Mine and you belong to Me. You have more potential than those around you believe is possible.

My son whom I love dearly. There is so much I still need to tell you and there's so much you still need to learn. It is in your closeness to Me that your heart will soar with joy. It is in My secret place that you will find contentment that you didn't believe existed. My son, My child, I love you. Such simple words that carry with them so much weight. When my Son died on that cross I died with Him. When He hung there and I could not look upon Him for all the sin, My heart broke. It breaks for you, with such longing I desire you. You are the one I choose to walk with. Though there are times when the pain becomes unbearable I will never fail you, I will be with you always and together we will change this nation and the ones beyond.

With love from the Father to His son.

You too can be blessed by a prophecy from God. Simply write to me at the web address below and request a free prophecy and make sure you include the title of this article in it.

You Are The Source

2007-03-20T06:36:00.001-07:00

Dear Loved Ones,

Good day to you all on this energizing day. I love you. I love you. I love you.

Tools for life

You Are The Source

You are the Source of it all. You make it all happen. Your consciousness is in charge. I am with you. I live with you. Therefore my consciousness is at cause and at charge as well. We all live together. We breathe together. We agree and disagree together. We join together.

Let us be quite honest here. Who is in charge of your life and my life?

I know that I am Not in charge of your life and you are Not in charge of my life. Therefore, can we say that each individual is responsible for their own choices and decisions?

O.K we've all heard similar words in the same context before. But, what are we doing about it?

How about we finally recognize that we are the Source of existence in our lives.
We create and destroy. We believe and dis-believe. We empower and dis-empower. We love and we fear. We shine and we dissolve. We are together and then we are not. We move and we stop. We awaken and we sleep. We eat and we fast. We smile and we frown. We speak and are silent. We play and we watch.

We are the Source of it all. What is it that we are the Source of?

We are the Source of whatever it is we would like to be, do and have. Let us stop looking outside of ourselves and start to look inside. All the comparisons and justifications have Not done us right. We are the Source. Made in the image of God and all that there is.

We are the Source of Beauty. We are the Source of Truth and We are certainly the Source of Love. Love is within and from within manifests with clarity without.

We are the Source.
What attribute do you want to embody today and be a Source of?
What attribute do you want to reveal today?
What is the Source of your Spiritual bank account today?
Are you willing to share one of your attributes with someone today?
I am sure you can make a difference if you choose to. Can you? Will you? NOW!

We are the Source. Give from this Source. And it will refill itself as God does.
We are the source. Eternal and Ever-lasting. Let us shine from our Godly Source within.

Our Spiritual bank account is always full. Never ever forget this. Go to your Spiritual bank accounts today and withdraw Love, Compassion, Understanding and Generosity.

While you are at it take some Wisdom for we can use Wisdom in our actions and behaviors. Remember you always have choice. No one is forcing you to do this. But do it for you are full of life and life is just loving you every moment.

Open up to recognize this truth, for we are all worthy and deserving of living a joyful and healthy life in every way.

I love you. I love you. I love you.

Please feel free to share these Insights with your friends, family, co-workers and enemies to Create a Source of Oneness within and without.

May the love, light and blessings of God and the Universe surround, protect and heal you, your loved ones and the planet earth.

With Love, Gratitude and Respect,

Truly, With God All Things Are Possible

Low Risk Investments - They Can Yield High Returns!

2007-03-16T18:14:00.000-07:00

Low hazard investings are those investings that historically have got got proven to lift over clip with low downside volatility.

Many people believe that the lower the hazard the lower the return, however there are exclusions to the regulation and one of these is investing in land.

UK Land – Type A Low Hazard Investment

When most investors believe about low hazard investings they don’t believe about land - they normally believe of bonds, money market funds, nest egg accounts, and bluish bit stock common funds.

Land however have proved itself as a low hazard investment, and in the right location, land can give a tax tax return far above traditional low hazard investments.

With a 920% average growing over twenty years, United Kingdom land values have provided much better tax returns for sharp investors than most discretional plus advisors - even in high-risk investings such as as growing common funds.

The Advantages of Buying United Kingdom Land

The advantage of purchasing United Kingdom land is that demand is out stripping supply and this scenario looks put to stay in topographic point for the close future.

Many international investors are now buying into United Kingdom land - here are five grounds why:

1. The United Kingdom needs 4,400,000 new homes over the adjacent 20 years.

2. Houses in 90% of towns in the United Kingdom are unaffordable for first clip buyers, and low cost lodging can rectify this.

3. The United Kingdom is the second most densely populated country in Europe and have a fast rise migrator population creating strong demand.

4. Over the last 30 years, the demand for new homes have got increased by 30%, whereas over the same time period house edifice rates have dropped by over 50%.

5. Action is now urgently required to turn to the acute deficit in low-cost housing.

Low Hazard Investments and Diversification

Most plus advisors urge spreading your investing portfolio into respective different plus social classes to maximise income and capital growing potential, and land can supply the perfect diversification.

Land is an easy to understand investment, unlike pillory or equities, you have something that’s real, and it have historically risen in value. Many investors believe that purchasing land is expensive and in the past, this was true, but now there are many companies catering for the smaller investor.

What’s the Catch?

All investors desire to do large money and get rich quick, but most sensible investors cognize there is no such as thing as money for nil and they are correct.

The location of the land supplies the hazard in land investing - to do capital growing from land investment and maximise capital additions you need to purchase land that is mature for development. This agency the land to built on is located in a sought after area. This necessitates research and homework, but there are many reputable companies offering this service so you can trust on expert advice inch planning your land investing strategy.

Maximising Hazard and Reward

Of course, a hedge monetary fund investing could supply you with greater growing potential, but land, taking into account the hazard / reward, do it a very attractive improver to your portfolio.

We quoted an average addition of 920% in United Kingdom Land values over twenty years, and the of import point here is that this was the average. With careful choice of the location in which you purchase your land, additions could of course of study be much larger.

In conclusion, land gives you above average additions combined with low downside risk, and you should see making land a portion of your low hazard investings strategy.

Subprime Mortgages - How Large of a Down Payment Do You Need?

2007-03-12T21:22:00.000-07:00

Subprime mortgages offer more flexibility with down payments than conventional home loans. You can choose to put nothing or over 20% down. And with a subprime mortgage, you don’t have to worry about paying private mortgage insurance.

Zero-Down Mortgages

Zero-down mortgages allow people with little money for initial costs to buy a home. Even with a zero-down mortgage you can expect to pay loan fees and points, which can still add up to a couple of thousands. However, there are financing plans that wrap loan costs into the mortgage.

The basic zero-down mortgage consists of one loan or two. If your lender decides to split your mortgage, you may need to find another lender to carry the second mortgage.

Zero-down mortgages come at a cost of higher interest rates. They also have larger monthly payments since the mortgage is for a larger amount.

Large Down Payments

A large down payment adds equity to your property quickly. You also have lower monthly payments by having a smaller mortgage. In some cases, a large down payment can qualify you for a loan, in spite of a poor credit record.

If you have the cash for a large down payment, you may also want to look at purchase points up front. You can lower your interest rate, saving you thousands if you keep the loan for several years. You can also waive prepayment fees, usually by paying a point.

Subprime Lenders

Subprime lenders offer a variety of financing solutions. If you are unsure how much you want to borrow, start by requesting quotes from lenders for different financing options. This way you can compare numbers and look for a lender who offers the best rates and terms.

You can use the internet to gather this information quickly. You can get quotes through websites or email. However, don’t give a lender permission to submit a financing bid until you are ready to apply. Every time a financial company checks your credit history, your credit score takes a hit. Even if you don’t follow through with the loan, it still affects you. Fortunately, most lenders are willing to provide quotes to allow you to make the best financial decision.

To view our list of recommended subprime lenders online, visit this
page: Recommended Subprime Lenders Online.

Subprime Mortgage Lenders - Sub-prime Loans Now Available Through Traditional Lenders

2007-03-09T18:18:00.000-08:00

Sub-prime loans are becoming more than readily available through traditional lenders. Even with a bankruptcy or foreclose in your credit history, you can still happen funding for the purchase of your home. The cardinal to sub-prime mortgages is to make your research and compare both terms and rates.

Your Credit History

A poor credit history doesn’t have got to direct you running to sub-prime lenders. For one, you may still measure up for an Type A loan, reserved for people with good credit. If your bankruptcy was four or more than old age ago and you have got established a good payment history since then, your FICO score is probably over 600, the demand for an Type A loan.

Through Federal Housing Administration loan programs, you can apply for a loan after two old age of a bankruptcy or foreclosure. Virginia loans also look more than leniently on past credit problems. In the end, don’t presume that because you have got got got an adverse credit history you have to apply for the higher interest sub-prime loans.

Sub-prime Mortgages

If you happen that you make have bad credit, you can still work with a traditional lender, who may offer you better interest rates. As funding companies spread out their funding options, more than than and more companies are adding services for B, C, and Vitamin D loans.

Sub-prime mortgages are based partly on your credit history, but largely on your mortgage or rent payment history. You will desire to supply cogent evidence of your rent payments by sending transcripts of your rent gross or checks. Mortgage payments can be verified through your credit report.

Sub-prime mortgages are just short term funding options. Once you have got improved your credit history, you can refinance your mortgage for better rates.

Sub-prime Lenders

When you begin your search for a sub-prime lender, include all lenders in your investigation. Request quotes from traditional lenders as well as those who specialise in poor credit financing. Compare everyone’s funding packages to happen the best rates and terms.

Ideally, you desire to happen a low APR with no prepayment fees. Unless you be after to maintain your mortgage for seven or more than years, it is probably not deserving paying points for lower rates. You may also happen that an arm will supply lower rates with more than purchasing powerfulness than a fixed rate mortgage.

To see our listing of suggested subprime mortgage lenders online, visit this
page: Recommended Subprime
Mortgage Lenders Online.

Sub Prime Mortgage Lenders - 3 Tips On Getting Approved

2007-03-06T18:16:00.000-08:00

Sub premier mortgage lenders are easier to measure up with than conventional lenders. So even if you have got a foreclosure or bankruptcy on your record, you can purchase a home. Their rates are also competitive, especially if you include a down payment and store rates. The following three tips will guarantee that you get approved for those low rate home loans.

1. Start By Checking Your Credit Report

Don’t wage extra interest for errors made by your creditors. Check your credit report for any mistakes or inaccurate information. The credit reporting agency is responsible for fixing any mistakes, so advise them in authorship as soon as possible. Also allow the information supplier cognize too.

If you had a bankruptcy or foreclosure in the past, include a missive with your report to explicate the situation. Financing companies will look more than favorably on a bankruptcy caused by occupation loss or illness.

2. A Down Payment Helps

You can also better your application with a down payment. 10% is the most common, but 20% Oregon more than tin measure up you for better rates. Down payments reduce the hazard for lenders, so they rate your loan application differently.

You can also better your credit score by paying off debts and shutting fresh accounts. Increasing cash militia by cashing out pillory or other investings can also help.

3. weaponry Are Easier To Qualify For

While bomber premier lenders offer a assortment of funding packages, adjustable rate mortgages (ARM) are the easiest to measure up for. Since their monthly payments are the lowest, at least in the beginning, you can measure up for more. Interest rate only loans also can get you in a house, but your payments can duplicate or ternary in a few years.

Smart shopping is the best manner to happen the lowest costing loan. Compare the adjustable percentage rate (APR) of mortgages so you don’t get caught on concealed fees. Also, take a expression at conventional lenders. Many are offering competitory loans to people with adverse credit. Remember too that you can better your credit to good standing in two old age and refinance for better rates.

Loans for Unemployed

2007-03-04T18:26:00.000-08:00

It is one of life’s small inhuman treatments that the modern modern times when you need credit most badly, are also the times when lenders are least willing to give it to you. When you are finding it hard to ran into your obligations, your car payments are behind, your credit cards are all fully loaded, and you’re barely meeting your rent or mortgage payments, your credit score takes a olfactory organ dive. Even if you are meeting all your payments, credit reporting companies can demo lenders that you are at your limit, that you’re fully extended on all existent lines of credit, and you’ve been searching vigorously for more. This volition be looked on very poorly by lenders and do them much less inclined to impart to you.

Between Jobs

One of the time periods when you are most likely to be in this kind of state of affairs is when you are between jobs. There are a million grounds why you might lose your job, many of which will not be your fault, and if you are luckless adequate to have got this go on to you when you’re under heavy debt, then things can quickly get out of hand.

It may look like stating the obvious, but the surest manner to get out of this state of affairs is to happen a new occupation as soon as possible. In many cases you can be back to work within a calendar month or two so if you have got enough money to maintain you afloat for this time period you will be ok. However it is not always easy to happen a new occupation quickly, especially if the ground you lost your original occupation is owed to hard statuses in your industry or area.

Insurance

The other thing you might see is credit protection insurance. This is an insurance policy you will need to have got taken out before you lost your job. If you did, there is a good opportunity you will be covered for exactly this situation. Most credit protection programs supply that if you lose your occupation through no fault if your own, they will kick in the ran into your repayments for you, until you can get another job. They have got many hard-and-fast conditions, for example, they will probably anticipate you to accept the first occupation offer you get, even if it makes not pay as well as your last occupation etc.

Alternatives

The other option is to borrow some money to tide you over till you get a new job. While it may look improbable that a lender will impart to a individual who is out of employment, there are states of affairs when they will impart to you. If you can demonstrate a good former repayment record, and have got got very good prospects of determination a occupation soon, they may be willing to endorse you, especially if you have security such as as your home to offer them. If you do choose for this path however, make certain you are very confident of determination employment before putting your home at risk.

Home Mortgage Loans for People with Bad Credit - Finding the Best Low Rate

2007-03-02T18:23:00.000-08:00

Getting a low rate mortgage with a negative credit evaluation is challenging. When people finance a home, obtaining a good finance package is a top concern - and for good reason. The mortgage rate received on a loan may significantly increase or lessening a monthly mortgage payment. If you have got good credit, getting the best low rate is simple. However, if you have got got bad credit, you may have to exercise a small energy and search for a good rate.

Compare and Contrast Mortgage Rates and Terms

Smart buyers will emphasize the importance of shopping around for the best deal. This regulation uses to any purchase - cars, clothes, shoes, etc. Homes are our biggest expense. Unfortunately, many home buyers make not give much clip to searching for the best funding package. This is a large mistake. When shopping for a mortgage, it is of import to get quotes from respective lenders and carefully reexamine their offers. Those who are eager to purchase a home do the error of accepting the first offer. However, comparing mortgage rates, terms, and services may salvage you thousands, and in consequence lower your mortgage payment.

Apply for Loan with a Bomber Prime Lender

Many financial establishments specialise in home mortgage loans. These include banks, mortgage companies, credit unions, etc. If you have got good credit, you may be able to obtain a low rate mortgage using these financial institutions. However, if you have got bad credit, these lenders may charge you further fees and an extremely high rate. Because of your bad credit status, you are more than likely to default on on the mortgage. Thus, lenders addition the interest rate. This allows them to reimburse their money sooner.

If you were to get a loan using a bomber premier lender, your interest rate may be comparable to current market rates. You can anticipate to pay about one or two points higher than a individual with great credit, however, you avoid paying an interest rate three points or more than above current rates.

Working with an online mortgage broker is the best manner to turn up a reputable bomber premier lender. Based on information provided on your application, brokers will tantrum you with a lender who specialises in mortgages that fit your circumstances.

New Vehicle Loan with No Credit History

2007-02-28T18:24:00.000-08:00

A new vehicle loan is one manner to begin your credit history. If you have got no credit history, then rates will be slightly higher for your first car loan. But through smart shopping and some funding tips, you can salvage yourself some money.

Finding Financing

You can happen vehicle funding through a number of sources. Dealerships have got the highest costing loans since their operating expense is higher. For better rates, expression to outside lenders, such as as banks or funding companies.

The internet can assist you with your vehicle loan shopping. Broker land sites do this easy by connecting you to a number of lenders who will supply rate quotes. By entering some basic information, you can get a general thought of market rates for your credit score.

You can also choose to get pre-approved for your vehicle loan. By doing this you will cognize the upper limit you can measure up to borrow. You also have got the pick of terms which can impact your rates. For instance, buying a used car will slightly increase your rates.

Lowering Your Rates

To additional lower your rates, get a co-signer. While this isn’t A necessity, a co-signer with a good credit score can assist you measure up for much better rates. Just be certain that both political parties are clear on the obligations. In some states, missing just one payment allows the lending company to accumulate payment from the co-signer without notice.

A large down payment will also measure up you for lower rates. 20% is a general regulation of thumb, but larger amounts may better your rates even more. Even if you don’t get an interest reduction, you will still salvage on interest charges.

Planning To Refinance

A vehicle loan is a secure loan, which will assist you better your credit score. Making regular payments will demo lenders you can manage debt. The better credit wonts you have, the better rates you can get. In a couple of years, you may happen you have got got good credit standing.

When this happens, program on refinancing your car loan, especially if you didn’t have a co-signer. While you can’t foretell market rates, improvements in your ain credit score will usually measure up you for lower rates.

The Truth About Low Interest Credit Cards

2007-02-26T18:18:00.000-08:00

Low interest credit cards are fantastic if you can get your custody on one. They offer great rates so it is easier to pay off your balance in a timely manner. These cards are perfect for those making large purchases on their credit cards, or even those that usage their card for mundane purchases. If you are researching low interest credit cards, see these factors during your search.

Credit Score

To measure up for low interest credit cards, you have got got to have great credit. There are respective scores that autumn in the “excellent credit” and in the “good credit” groupings in terms of the credit bureaus. If your credit score falls into either of these groups, you will most likely qualify. However, if your score makes not fall into these groups, you will most likely not be able to get any low interest credit cards. These cards are for the lowest hazard cardholders, which are those with nearly flawless credit score.

Common Rates

For those that make qualify, low interest credit cards offer great rates. The most common rates autumn between 9% and 15%. These cards are great when you need to do large purchases, because although your balance may be high, you will not be charged as much interest on it as a normal credit card would charge. The lower rate you can happen the better. So, be certain to shop around before committing to a card.

Introductory Offers

Low interest rate credit cards offer some of the best introductory offers out there. Many of the low interest rate credit cards offer over a twelvemonth with no APR. This is an astonishing chance for cardholders to charge without any fees attached. Card companies cognize that people who have these cards usually maintain paying off the balance, even without being charged APR, so it is still profitable for them to offer this plan.

Fees

Very rarely are there ever annual or registration fees on low interest credit cards. These are the top of the line credit cards. Therefore, to charge unneeded fees would discourage cardholders from applying. If you make run across a card that charges an annual or registration fee and you have got perfect credit, you need to look elsewhere for your card. Those with great credit should never pay these fees, for they are intended for high hazard cardholders with bad credit.

Low interest credit cards can be extremely helpful when it come ups to your credit card finances. The less amount of interest you have got to pay, the better off your finances are in the long run. Be certain to research your low interest credit card picks before applying. Some cards may give you the low interest rate for the first few calendar months and then raise it dramatically. As long as you are informed about your credit card, you can do wise decisions.

What are Mortgage Points?

2007-02-23T18:16:00.000-08:00

One point is like to one percent of the loan amount. Mortgage points are considered by the Internal Revenue Service to be a word form of pre-paid interest. This agency that mortgage points can be deducted from taxable income. Most lenders necessitate that a borrower wage 1 or two points at shutting clip in exchange for a lower mortgage rate (lender's APR would remain the same).

Points are basically finance charges you pay the lender. One point bes 1% of the loan amount (for example, one point on a $75,000 loan is $750). The sum of money number of points a lender charges depends on market statuses and the loan's interest rate.

When you pay "points," you pay interest in a lump sum upfront to get a lower rate on your fixed rate mortgage. Each point costs 1% of the mortgage amount. The more than points you pay, the lower your mortgage rate. So, which is the best for you? More points and a lower rate? Or fewer points and higher rate? To decide, you need to consider:

(1) Whether you can afford to do the upfront payment now for points.

(2) The length of clip anticipate to have got the mortgage. The longer you be after to have got got your mortgage, the more than it do sense to pay for points now because you'll have a long clip to profit from the lower rate. Answer the inquiries below and we'll counsel you on what's best for you.

Get The Right Car Finance

2007-02-21T18:27:00.000-08:00

These years when you step into a car showroom, there will be two major things that the dealer will be offering you. First he will be offering you cars, and secondly he will be offering you finance packages. This is how you should look at it. The fact of the matter is you may probably wouldn’t purchase a car from your bank, even if they started offering them, so you may wish to apply the same examination to the finance packages available at the car dealership and take to buy only you car there and the finance package elsewhere.

It may be that there is nil incorrect with the finance being offered at the car dealership and in many cases this volition be true. However, you must be aware that just because you purchase your car there, makes not in any manner connote that you have got to utilize the finance options and terms that they are offering. You are always free to take a loan from somewhere else, such as as a bank, and pay for the car outright, and then simply do the loan repayments to the bank as with any other loan.

You should be careful to happen out exactly how much you are being charged for car finance. The primary manner to cipher the charge of any credit is by using the APR or annual percentage rate. This ciphers the cost of the loan using a standardised expression and all lenders must utilize the same method of calculation. However, just because a car dealer’s APR looks attractive makes not intend your search is over. You should also, always happen out how much the car would cost if you paid in cash. Remember that providing a cash price reduction is exactly the same as charging extra for credit. If the cash terms is lower, then you may be better off getting the loan from elsewhere and paying for the car with cash, this volition take advantage of the better terms and you will have got a smaller amount to pay back to your lender.

The other thing you should look out for is down payments and shutting payments. These are payments that are paid at the beginning or end of the term of the loan, and while the monthly payment terms may be attractive, it could well be the lawsuit that there are large further payments to do and you should not forget to cipher these in when pricing the finance.

Car finance can be almost as of import as the deal you get on the car itself and you should always see getting a good deal on the funding as portion of the procedure of getting a new car.

Low Cost Health Insurance - Knowing the Terms and Alternatives

2007-02-18T18:27:00.000-08:00

Paying for wellness care can devour a large part of an individual or family’s disposable income. Some costs are non-negotiable but there are ways to lower the amount you pass on insuring your health.

Deductibles

You may be able to pay a lower insurance premium by paying a higher deductible. This is particularly true if you are insured as an individual rather than through your employer. If you take this option it is wise to put a part of the money saved on your insurance insurance premium into an account which is used solely to pay your deductible.

Co-pay amount

Many companies have got lower premium policies available for those willing to do a higher co-payment when they see the doctor. Opting for a higher co-payment tin be especially advantageous for people who don’t often see the doctor.

Generic drugs

Generic drugs are manufactured to the same criteria as trade name name drugs. Choosing to have got a prescription filled with a generic drug can offer significant nest egg over having it filled with a trade name name drug.

Healthy life programs

Many insurance programs offer pre-emptive health care services which are entirely funded by the insurance company. Employee bes after often make this as a manner of avoiding paying for higher priced services later on down the line. Programs may include free immunizations, mammograms, prostate gland examinations and general physicals. Paying a part of monthly wellness baseball club dues is also available on a few plans. Be certain to take advantage of these options if possible.

Remember, while wellness insurance insurance premiums are high the peace of head brought by knowing you
and your household are insured is priceless. Gathering as many quotes as possible is the best manner to learn and compare companies.

Low Risk Investments - They Can Yield High Returns!

2007-02-15T18:19:00.000-08:00

Low risk investments are those investments that historically have proven to rise over time with low downside volatility.

Many people believe that the lower the risk the lower the return, however there are exceptions to the rule and one of these is investing in land.

UK Land – A Low Risk Investment

When most investors think about low risk investments they don’t think about land - they normally think of bonds, money market funds, savings accounts, and blue chip stock mutual funds.

Land however has proved itself as a low risk investment, and in the right location, land can yield a return far above traditional low risk investments.

With a 920% average growth over twenty years, UK land values have provided much better returns for astute investors than most discretionary asset advisors - even in high-risk investments such as growth mutual funds.

The Advantages of Buying UK Land

The advantage of buying UK land is that demand is out stripping supply and this scenario looks set to remain in place for the near future.

Many international investors are now buying into UK land - here are five reasons why:

1. The UK needs 4,400,000 new homes over the next 20 years.

2. Houses in 90% of towns in the UK are unaffordable for first time buyers, and low cost housing can rectify this.

3. The UK is the second most densely populated country in Europe and has a fast rising migrant population creating strong demand.

4. Over the last 30 years, the demand for new homes has increased by 30%, whereas over the same period house building rates have dropped by over 50%.

5. Action is now urgently required to address the acute shortfall in affordable housing.

Low Risk Investments and Diversification

Most asset advisors recommend spreading your investment portfolio into several different asset classes to maximize income and capital growth potential, and land can provide the perfect diversification.

Land is an easy to understand investment, unlike stocks or equities, you own something that’s real, and it has historically risen in value.
Many investors believe that buying land is expensive and in the past, this was true, but now there are many companies catering for the smaller investor.

What’s the Catch?

All investors want to make big money and get rich quick, but most sensible investors know there is no such thing as money for nothing and they are correct.

The location of the land provides the risk in land investing - to make capital growth from land investment and maximise capital gains you need to buy land that is ripe for development. This means the land to built on is located in a sought after area. This requires research and homework, but there are many reputable companies offering this service so you can rely on expert advice in planning your land investment strategy.

Maximising Risk and Reward

Of course, a hedge fund investment could provide you with greater growth potential, but land, taking into account the risk / reward, makes it a very attractive addition to your portfolio.

We quoted an average gain of 920% in UK Land values over twenty years, and the important point here is that this was the average. With careful selection of the location in which you buy your land, gains could of course be much larger.

In conclusion, land gives you above average gains combined with low downside risk, and you should consider making land a part of your low risk investments strategy.

New Vehicle Loan with No Credit History

2007-02-11T18:35:00.000-08:00

Finding Financing

Lowering Your Rates

Planning To Refinance

The Truth About Low Interest Credit Cards

2007-02-09T18:19:00.000-08:00

Credit Score

Common Rates

Introductory Offers

Fees

What are Mortgage Points?

2007-02-07T18:20:00.000-08:00

(1) Whether you can afford to do the upfront payment now for points.

Low Cost Health Insurance - Knowing the Terms and Alternatives

2007-02-05T18:17:00.000-08:00

Deductibles

Co-pay amount

Generic drugs

Healthy life programs

Low Risk Investments - They Can Yield High Returns!

2007-02-02T18:17:00.000-08:00

Low hazard investings are those investings that historically have got got proven to lift over clip with low downside volatility.

Many people believe that the lower the hazard the lower the return, however there are exclusions to the regulation and one of these is investing in land.

UK Land – Type A Low Hazard Investment

When most investors believe about low hazard investings they don’t believe about land - they normally believe of bonds, money market funds, nest egg accounts, and bluish bit stock common funds.

Land however have proved itself as a low hazard investment, and in the right location, land can give a tax tax return far above traditional low hazard investments.

The Advantages of Buying United Kingdom Land

The advantage of purchasing United Kingdom land is that demand is out stripping supply and this scenario looks put to stay in topographic point for the close future.

Many international investors are now buying into United Kingdom land - here are five grounds why:

1. The United Kingdom needs 4,400,000 new homes over the adjacent 20 years.

2. Houses in 90% of towns in the United Kingdom are unaffordable for first clip buyers, and low cost lodging can rectify this.

3. The United Kingdom is the second most densely populated country in Europe and have a fast rise migrator population creating strong demand.

4. Over the last 30 years, the demand for new homes have got increased by 30%, whereas over the same time period house edifice rates have dropped by over 50%.

5. Action is now urgently required to turn to the acute deficit in low-cost housing.

Low Hazard Investments and Diversification

What’s the Catch?

All investors desire to do large money and get rich quick, but most sensible investors cognize there is no such as thing as money for nil and they are correct.

Maximising Hazard and Reward

Of course, a hedge monetary fund investing could supply you with greater growing potential, but land, taking into account the hazard / reward, do it a very attractive improver to your portfolio.

In conclusion, land gives you above average additions combined with low downside risk, and you should see making land a portion of your low hazard investings strategy.

The Keys to Obtaining and Refinancing Your College Loan

2007-01-29T18:12:00.000-08:00

How many of you are biting your nails trying to calculate out what you should make to get your college paid for? You cognize you need a loan... but what kind? What are the differences? Would it be a good thought to refinance or consolidate any loans you already have? Are this the right time? How much make you really need? What make college loans cover? If you’re wondering about these things, delight read on.

Before you run out and get a college loan, you first need to cognize how much of a loan you are going to need. Of course, the obvious portion of the loan is your tuition and the cost of your courses. But there are many other things that you may need to have got covered through your college loan. This tin be your room and board, school supplies, laboratory supplies, books, etc. But this just refers to your existent schooling. There are other things you need to take into consideration. This tin be car insurance, gas, transportation, wellness insurance, food, etc. You need to add all of these factors up for each year. Then, multiply it by how many old age you are to be in college. This volition give you a unsmooth estimation of how much money you will need.

Some college loans can be used for anything. The lender couldn’t care less as long as you pay it back. If you be after on getting a portion clip job, you can number on portion of your paycheck being used towards things that your college loan makes not cover. However retrieve you’ll need to maintain portion of your paycheck to pay your monthly college loan payment!

Now we shall travel over the respective types of college loans out there. A small later, I will explicate about refinancing a college loan.

First, we will travel over federal student loans. These college loans can either be subsidized or unsubsidized.

Subsidized loans are when the authorities pays the interest of the loan for the students. You must demo that you are in great financial need in order to get this type of loan.

Unsubsidized loans are when the student must pay the interest, but the interest is not postponed until after graduation. Anyone can get an unsubsidized loan. Both of these types of federal student loans are the most commonly used.

The adjacent are private student loans. Private student loans are given to person with a good credit score. They can be used for anything, not just the cost of tuition. They are also unsecured. This agency they necessitate no collateral, but they have got extremely high interest rates.

Now, we travel to for parent loans. As you guessed, this is a loan that parents can take for the full amount of the college tuition. You just have got to trust ma and dada are willing to make this for you! The final payment rate and interest rate is much lower with this type of loan, often because parents have got good credit and the finances to pay the loan off.

Now we come up to consolidation loans. This type of loan is used to consolidate all of a student's loans together so they can be paid off in one easy payment program to one lender, rather than having respective payments to respective lenders. Many students end up getting this type of college loan after they made the error of getting too many college loans at once.

Those of you, who make already have got a loan, may be interested in refinancing. Refinancing college loans often looks like a good idea, and it is...if you utilize it to your advantage. I'll explicate that in a minute. First, you need to understand a few things. Most college loans are of a variable percentage rate until the rate is locked. You lock a rate by agency of a loan consolidation or by refinancing. When rates are very low, it generally is a good thought to attempt to get your loans or loan consolidated or refinanced.

Before you can even believe of refinancing, you must cognize that is only offered to you good people that have got always made their monthly loan payment on time. If this makes not sound like you, then I wish you good fortune trying to refinance!

Refinancing rates are usually one or two percent lower than your original college loan rate. Refinancing rates can salvage you up to 60 percent. But this is where the possible drawback is – and most people simply don't realize.

The “drawback” is a concealed 1 - that most people never see. In order to get your college loan payment lower through refinancing, you are given a much longer clip time period to pay the loan off. Instead of 5 old age to pay it off, it can turn into 20 old age to pay it off! This may sound good to you in the beginning. At the time, it will go forth you with extra money that you may be in need of for other bills. But in the long run, it just costs you more than money because you will be paying interest much longer to the lender. In fact, it can cost you thousands more!

The smart manner to make it is after you refinance and obtain the lower rate; pay more than towards the monthly bill. This manner you will pay off your loan much quicker than normal and at a cheaper rate. But only set more than towards paying it off when you can afford it. Remember you refinanced your college loan because you couldn't afford the payment to get with. So now you’ve refinanced just pay off your loan as best you can at your ain pace, bearing the above in mind.

I trust I didn't scare you too much. The of import thing you have got to retrieve is that most lenders addition money from you through the interest you pay them. If you pay your college loan off faster, you will do the lender less rich! Take a breathing place and usage your caput before you leap into anything. In other words "look before you leap".

The Keys to Obtaining and Refinancing Your College Loan

2007-01-27T18:15:00.000-08:00

Now we shall travel over the respective types of college loans out there. A small later, I will explicate about refinancing a college loan.

First, we will travel over federal student loans. These college loans can either be subsidized or unsubsidized.

Subsidized loans are when the authorities pays the interest of the loan for the students. You must demo that you are in great financial need in order to get this type of loan.

The Keys to Obtaining and Refinancing Your College Loan

2007-01-25T18:16:00.000-08:00

Now we shall travel over the respective types of college loans out there. A small later, I will explicate about refinancing a college loan.

First, we will travel over federal student loans. These college loans can either be subsidized or unsubsidized.

Subsidized loans are when the authorities pays the interest of the loan for the students. You must demo that you are in great financial need in order to get this type of loan.

The Keys to Obtaining and Refinancing Your College Loan

2007-01-23T18:13:00.000-08:00

Now we shall travel over the respective types of college loans out there. A small later, I will explicate about refinancing a college loan.

First, we will travel over federal student loans. These college loans can either be subsidized or unsubsidized.

Subsidized loans are when the authorities pays the interest of the loan for the students. You must demo that you are in great financial need in order to get this type of loan.

The Keys to Obtaining and Refinancing Your College Loan

2007-01-22T18:14:00.000-08:00

Now we shall travel over the respective types of college loans out there. A small later, I will explicate about refinancing a college loan.

First, we will travel over federal student loans. These college loans can either be subsidized or unsubsidized.

Subsidized loans are when the authorities pays the interest of the loan for the students. You must demo that you are in great financial need in order to get this type of loan.

The Keys to Obtaining and Refinancing Your College Loan

2007-01-19T18:10:00.000-08:00

How many of you are biting your nails trying to figure out what you should do to get your college paid for? You know you need a loan... but what kind? What are the differences? Would it be a good idea to refinance or consolidate any loans you already have? Is this the right time? How much do you really need? What do college loans cover? If you’re wondering about these things, please read on.

Before you run out and get a college loan, you first need to know how much of a loan you are going to need. Of course, the obvious part of the loan is your tuition and the cost of your courses. But there are many other things that you may need to have covered through your college loan. This can be your room and board, school supplies, lab supplies, books, etc. But this just pertains to your actual schooling. There are other things you need to take into consideration. This can be car insurance, gas, transportation, health insurance, food, etc. You need to add all of these factors up for each year. Then, multiply it by how many years you are to be in college. This will give you a rough estimate of how much money you will need.

Some college loans can be used for anything. The lender couldn’t care less as long as you pay it back. If you plan on getting a part time job, you can count on part of your paycheck being used towards things that your college loan does not cover. However remember you’ll need to keep part of your paycheck to pay your monthly college loan payment!

Now we shall go over the several types of college loans out there. A little later, I will explain about refinancing a college loan.

First, we will go over federal student loans.
These college loans can either be subsidized or unsubsidized.

Subsidized loans are when the government pays the interest of the loan for the students. You must show that you are in great financial need in order to get this type of loan.

Unsubsidized loans are when the student must pay the interest, but the interest is not deferred until after graduation. Anyone can get an unsubsidized loan. Both of these types of federal student loans are the most commonly used.

The next are private student loans. Private student loans are given to someone with a good credit score. They can be used for anything, not just the cost of tuition. They are also unsecured. This means they require no collateral, but they have extremely high interest rates.

Now, we go to for parent loans. As you guessed, this is a loan that parents can take for the full amount of the college tuition. You just have to hope mommy and daddy are willing to do this for you! The payoff rate and interest rate is much lower with this type of loan, often because parents have good credit and the funds to pay the loan off.

Now we come to consolidation loans. This type of loan is used to consolidate all of a student's loans together so they can be paid off in one easy payment plan to one lender, rather than having several payments to several lenders. Many students end up getting this type of college loan after they made the mistake of getting too many college loans at once.

Those of you, who do already have a loan, may be interested in refinancing. Refinancing college loans often seems like a good idea, and it is...if you use it to your advantage. I'll explain that in a minute. First, you need to understand a few things. Most college loans are of a variable percentage rate until the rate is locked. You lock a rate by means of a loan consolidation or by refinancing. When rates are very low, it generally is a good idea to attempt to get your loans or loan consolidated or refinanced.

Before you can even think of refinancing, you must know that is only offered to you good people that have always made their monthly loan payment on time. If this does not sound like you, then I wish you good luck trying to refinance!

Refinancing rates are usually one or two percent lower than your original college loan rate. Refinancing rates can save you up to 60 percent. But this is where the possible drawback is – and most people simply don't realize.

The “drawback” is a hidden one - that most people never see. In order to get your college loan payment lower through refinancing, you are given a much longer time period to pay the loan off. Instead of 5 years to pay it off, it can turn into 20 years to pay it off! This may sound good to you in the beginning. At the time, it will leave you with extra money that you may be in need of for other bills. But in the long run, it just costs you more money because you will be paying interest much longer to the lender. In fact, it can cost you thousands more!

The smart way to do it is after you refinance and obtain the lower rate; pay more towards the monthly bill. This way you will pay off your loan much quicker than normal and at a cheaper rate. But only put more towards paying it off when you can afford it. Remember you refinanced your college loan because you couldn't afford the payment to begin with. So now you’ve refinanced just pay off your loan as best you can at your own pace, bearing the above in mind.

I hope I didn't scare you too much. The important thing you have to remember is that most lenders gain money from you through the interest you pay them. If you pay your college loan off faster, you will make the lender less rich! Take a breather and use your head before you jump into anything.
In other words "look before you leap".

The Keys to Obtaining and Refinancing Your College Loan

2007-01-14T17:34:00.000-08:00

Now we shall travel over the respective types of college loans out there. A small later, I will explicate about refinancing a college loan.

First, we will travel over federal student loans. These college loans can either be subsidized or unsubsidized.

Subsidized loans are when the authorities pays the interest of the loan for the students. You must demo that you are in great financial need in order to get this type of loan.

How to Establish and Build Credit

2007-01-07T23:29:00.000-08:00

By Andrew Kasch

College students will have an easier time building credit than non-college students. Simply being enrolled in a university is apparently good enough for banks to start offering special student-deal credit cards, many of which you can find offered around the campus. Definitely take advantage of this opportunity to quickly establish a credit profile by having a major credit card. In addition, financing your education in the form of student loans are many people’s very first line of credit. Student loans are just one heck of a good deal (usually), and are an excellent way to get your credit report started.

Non-college students don’t have it so easy. They will have to slowly build credit the traditional method, starting with those companies who are willing to extend credit to those whom have none. Chief among these are furniture and jewelry store financing. Those are both good bets for your first piece of credit. Low-end department stores will also usually approve young people with no credit for a few hundred bucks. Get those cards and buy some clothes on credit. Make the payments on time.

Anyone with a job can qualify for some type of car loan. So ditch the teenage beater and get yourself a nice new mini-truck or something, and finance it. If you have no credit yet, you will definitely pay through the nose in interest rate. For that reason, it’s best to first establish a few pieces of credit with furniture and jewelry stores, plus those lower end department stores. Either that or have your parents co-sign the car loan. You will build credit as you make the payments on time.

After you have the car loan and a few other minor pieces of credit, it’s just a matter of using the credit you have wisely for 6-12 months. (You might also want to have a gas station card for putting gas in your car, as these are pretty easy to get.) At that point you can apply for major credit cards. You should pick a half dozen or so and apply for them all at once – that way each credit card company won’t know about all the other applications by seeing previous “inquiries” on your report.

You will most likely be approved for a few cards, with credit lines between $1,000 and $3,000 each. Use the cards! Pay for food, gas, minor purchases, etc. with them and make the payments on time. Don’t over-use them! You want to be able to pay them off whenever you want, and in fact you should pay them all off after a few months of using them. At that point just use one of them for everyday expenses and pay the balance off each month.

In a few more months you can apply for credit line increases. In fact, you will probably start getting offers in the mail for better and better deals. Your first Gold Card will be something to be proud of. Take good care of your credit and it will take good care of you. Credit lines can be used to finance business start-ups, moving expenses, and unforeseen circumstances. They can be a cash reserve that allows you to sleep at night – that is, if they aren’t bogged down with balances. Your ultimate goal is to have a ton of available credit that you never use.

Andrew Kasch is a personal finance expert who has financed many small-business ventures with credit cards over the years. To learn more, visit his website at: http://www.establishcreditnow.info

Why Credit Cards Beat Cash

2007-01-02T04:10:00.000-08:00

By Kate Ross

Consumers are fond of various things: rewards, money savings, time savings, flexibility, financing, etc. All of these things and more are provided by the use of credit cards and debit cards instead of cash. But merchants also benefit from these forms of payment. They don’t have to wait for the money as if they where to offer financing by accepting checks and they can get the money right away by offering financing for those who would have to postpone the purchase till they raised the money to pay in cash.

Different Reward Programs

Most credit cards offer reward programs. This way they obtain customer fidelity and make sure that the client won’t prefer to pay with another credit card. There are many different reward programs featuring all kinds of rewards. The whole idea is to make presents to the client according to the amount of money he spends with the credit card.

As stated above, there are many different reward programs. For example, you have credit cards that accumulate miles that you can exchange for airline tickets and travel for free. There are also credit cards that accumulate points that you can exchange for certain presents, like house appliances, personal goods, computer stuff, etc.

Money and Time Savings

Purchasing with credit cards saves you time for many reasons. But the most important one, due to its consequences is the fact that when you don’t have to wait to raise the money in cash, you usually get better prices. This is especially true with airline tickets and rebate offers that only last for some time and otherwise, if you can’t raise the money sooner, you may loose the offers.

Purchasing an airline ticket today can save you 50% on the price of the ticket compared to what you would have to spend if you had to wait two or three weeks to raise the money. This is due to the fact that prices rise as demand rises and demand rises when people actually get to cash their pay checks.

Flexibility and Financing

But perhaps the most important characteristic of credit cards is that they provide both flexibility and financing. When you purchase with a credit card, for starters, you’ll only have to pay when the pay day is due, which is usually by the end of the month or the first days of the following month. Moreover, you don’t need to pay the whole balance in full. You can pay only part of it and finance the rest.

This is an excellent tool if you have some months with high expenses and others that are more moderate. You can avoid making sacrifices and purchase all you need. Then, you just paid the amount you can afford and finance the rest. However, don’t forget never to miss the minimum payments or your credit score will drop as this is considered a delinquency that will be recorded into your credit report.

Kate Ross is a professional consultant at Speedybadcreditloans with fifteen years in the financial field. She helps people in the process of securing personal loans, mortgage, refinance or consolidation loans and prevents consumers from falling into financial scams. Also, you can click here to read more useful articles on this and other financial issues.

Holiday Credit Card Pile-Up

2006-12-20T23:37:00.000-08:00

By Mary Dalrymple (TMF LadyD)

First, the good news: According to a survey by Consumer Reports, more than three out of four holiday shoppers planned to buy at least some of their gifts with cash. That's not just good news -- it's great news for the average household budget.

Now, the mixed news: About half of the people surveyed plan to put some gift purchases on their credit cards. That's fine for everyone who plans to pay off their cards when the bills arrive in January. Almost 60% of us deserve an extra trip under the mistletoe for having such financial savvy.

However, about one-fourth of holiday spenders using their credit cards this month do not plan to pay off their bills until March or later. That means interest charges will pile up, especially if the charges pile onto pre-existing balances. How much will those gifts cost consumers in the end? Let's run the numbers.

First, Consumer Reports says that the average holiday credit card bill will come to $626. Using one of the handy calculators found here at The Motley Fool, I find that if I take until March to pay off that balance, I will owe $21 in interest charges, assuming my interest rate is a randomly chosen 20%. I don't know about you, but I'd rather spend $21 on a manicure and a good book than send it to my credit card company.

If I take all year to pay off that balance, my interest jumps to $70. That's a more than 10% surcharge on my original bill, wiping out all the savings I earned by shopping carefully and tracking down every holiday sale I could find.

But what if I'm more like the 17% of shoppers who plan to charge $1,000 or more on credit cards? Even if I pay off a $1,000 balance by March, I'll still pay $34 in interest. If I take until next Christmas to pay off all those gifts, I'll rack up $112 in interest charges.

Those holiday bargains don't look so cheap when they're charged to a credit card, do they?

With less than a week before Christmas, it may be too late to undo any gift charges you've already put on your credit card. If you're still shopping, however, think about paying cash or using a debit card for at least some of those holiday gifts.

If the damage has already been done, start thinking now about how you can pay off your cards when the bill arrives in January. It may require some budget-tightening in other arenas, but consider how good you'll feel when the February bill arrives.

You might even give yourself a little incentive. Calculate how much you stand to save by paying off your bills immediately, instead of spreading the payments out over a couple of months. Then make a plan for spending that small sum on yourself in February.

Alternatively, you could give yourself a bit of incentive by calculating how much interest that money would earn sitting in a savings account and working for you. A few savings accounts even pay as much as 5% interest these days.

If I save $70 in one of those accounts, instead of spending it on interest for my $626 in holiday gifts, I'll have $74 by the end of the year. That's not a lot more, but $74 in the black beats $70 in the red.

Catholic board has just one credit card

2006-12-07T00:09:00.000-08:00

By JENNIFER O'BRIEN

The London region's largest Catholic school board has only one corporate credit card.

That's 3,199 fewer than its public counterpart, which grabbed headlines yesterday after Ontario's Auditor General, in his annual report on government spending, suggested the board has issued an excessive number of cards.

With 3,200 such cards in circulation, nearly half the Thames Valley District school board staff -- from executives to custodians -- have them.

But at the London District Catholic school board, the only authorized credit-card user is the executive secretary to the education director, said Tim Holmes, the board's business superintendent.

"It's really just to make hotel reservations for trustees and senior executives," he said. "We only have one."

Auditor General Jim McCarter randomly chose four school boards to study, including Thames, in his report.

Without specifying which board spent which, he cited a laundry list of eye-popping purchases charged to the cards, including one teacher who spent $52,000 over two years including $4,000 on school breaks on DVDs, eyeglasses and Christmas lights.

McCarter suggested an excessive number of Thames staffers pack the cards, noting 15 per cent hadn't been used in more than a year. He recommended the cards be limited "only to employees who need them to fulfill their duties," to prevent risk of improper use.

Although the cards are issued for school-related business, such as buying classroom supplies, Thames board education director Bill Bryce said the board has allowed card use for purchases such as gifts for retiring staff, as long as the cost is quickly repaid.

But if any of the Catholic board's 2,000 employees need to get supplies or work- related items, they use a purchase-order system, said Holmes.

The employee makes the request to the board's purchasing department, which, if approved, makes out a purchase order to take to a store.

Thames trustees say their board's use of the cards dates back to the four-board merger that created the board in the 1990s, when it was considered a more cost-effective move than using petty cash.

Holmes said he'd be reluctant to go to a such a system, issuing purchasing or so-called "P-cards" to employees, but can see the rationale for it.

"I wouldn't comment on how any other board conducts its operations, but I can tell you I have been under considerable pressure since I've been here to introduce P-cards to make them available to schools and staff," he said.

"There are major advantages in using such cards," he said, citing the reduced time it takes to handle a purchase.

Staff at Thames Valley used the cards for $5 million in purchases in 2004-05, the equivalent of about $26,000 a day over the course of that school year.

Holmes said those numbers aren't shocking.

"It doesn't sound too high," he said. "All boards spend a lot of money on supplies because they are essential," he said.

In response to the auditor's report, Bryce at the Thames board said there was no misuse of public money or breach of trust, but that the board may have to rethink allowing certain card uses.

Low apr credit cards use

2006-11-30T02:19:00.000-08:00

Low APR credit cards are much more prevalent than in years past. Competition is stiff and credit card financial institutions offer many nice perks, rewards, points, low annual percentage rates (APR) and other inducements. They want to capture new customers who've never had a credit card but also those who already have a credit card and might like to save money by transferring that card's balance on to their new low APR credit cards.

Although if you're not opposed to doing a lot of switching, you can always purchase a low APR credit card, or zero percentage APR credit card, transfer the balance from your current high APR credit card, and then, once the introductory time period has expired and the APR is about to go up on your newest credit card, transfer the balance yet again to a brand new low APR credit card.

Citibank, for example, offers low APR credit cards that give you five percent cash back on any purchase you making at grocery stores and gas stations with your low APR credit card, and one percent back for any purchase elsewhere. If your transfer transaction is at least $1500 you will earn $5 cash back with the low APR credit card. Discover has platinum clear card whose low APR is continual. Chase Bank offers low APR credit cards as well.

I get applications in the mail and see ads on television all of the time for low APR credit cards as well as 0% APR credit cards, are these a good deal for me? Originally, low APR credit cards were a marketing scheme in America. Well, there are a lot of 0% APR cards available for balance transfer.