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“What We’re All About”

 

If you have found your way here, It is not by accident …Welcome Home

 

The world is bursting with people who have not tapped into their true potential!  We are a planet with millions and millions of individuals wandering in confusion, asking the question of questions– “What should I be doing?”  In the Bible the Israelites spent 40 years wandering around the desert and circling the same mountain again and again.  How could this be? It was a mere eleven day journey!

Ever felt the same way?  Ever felt like you’re not getting anywhere in life…like you’ve been going through the motions and you know you’re just not where you’re supposed to be?  It’s frustrating!  You’re certain there’s more…you know that you have talents, gifts and a whole bunch to offer.  You’re just not sure where to go or how to get started.  Ever felt that way?  I have! (more…)

Are You Guilty of Living for a Temporary Purpose?

Christmas is over, and for some individuals, this means dealing with a bit of a let-down. All of the hype and the family times that were so anxiously anticipated and planned for are now just a memory. The meals are over–the hours of preparation, the cookie baking, the wrapping and exchanging of gifts, and the Christmas carols are now behind us for another year. Of course, as Christians, we realize that the gift of God and the true meaning of Christmas can remain with us every day–but that’s not what I’m talking about right now.

Today, I’d like to ask you a heartfelt and direct question. Are you guilty of living for a temporary purpose?

Maybe you’ve never heard of or even considered a “temporary purpose” lifestyle before. If you live this life, you’ll recognize it right away. A few signs of the “temporary purpose” lifestyle include:

• Short term goals that may be materialistic in nature, but offer a point of focus–such as saving for, dreaming about, and selecting a new vehicle or other large purchase.
• Consuming yourself with plans for an upcoming event, such as the birth of a child or a wedding (your own or that of a relative). Spending hours decorating, shopping, reading about and planning for this event.
• Inventing short term goals when there isn’t one that comes around naturally. Those who depend on the distractions caused by the “temporary purpose” lifestyle will actually cause things to happen if there isn’t something in the near future. This could include the decision to buy a new pet or the sudden urge to tradein a vehicle when there really isn’t the need to do so.
• Making the decision to put in a pool or undertake some sort of major household renovation for no apparent reason.

Does anything on this list sound familiar? If so, you may want to take a look at your life purpose to decide whether you are living your life according to God’s real plan for you, or if you are avoiding His plan by making your own short term focal points as a way to fill your schedule and crowd your thoughts.

Ouch. Kind of stings, doesn’t it? Am I actually saying that adding value to your home or upgrading your vehicle is wrong? Am I telling you to ignore the upcoming birth of your new grandchild? No, of course I am not. (more…)

How to Really Come Home for The Holidays

Christmas is the time to come home. Whether we are 4 years old or 40, we all like to surround ourselves with family and friends during the holiday season. Something happens to our hardened edge as Christmas approaches. The remains of arguments or disagreements that may have taken place earlier in the year often melt away during the nostalgia and warm fuzzy feelings that overtake us during Christmas.

If you are reading this, saying, “Yea, right” to yourself, then maybe you need a bit of defrosting of the heart. Run down to your nearest video store and grab a copy of A Charlie Brown Christmas. After watching, see if you don’t have a little more clarity on the whole Christmas season. Charlie has a way of bringing it all into perspective.

Sometimes we lose sight of the real meaning of Christmas, but only for a little while. God is faithful, and the truth is that He really wants us to have a relationship with Him and come home for the holidays (to Him) much more than we could ever imagine. That’s why He is constantly calling us home. What? Did you say you haven’t heard him calling you? Maybe you should think a little harder.

God has spoken to all people (the lost as well as those who have received salvation) in their inner consciousness. We are created with an inner void, a longing that can only be filled through a healthy, active relationship with God. He is the only one who can fill the void.

How does God speak to us?

Maybe you are reading this and you weren’t even aware that you could actually hear God’s voice or develop a personal relationship with him. In John 17:2, Jesus said, “This is eternal life–that they may know God.”

So, how does God speak to us? Here are four simple keys of wisdom that will teach you exactly to hear God’s voice and how to develop a relationship with Him. (more…)

How to Keep Your Marriage Healthy and Strong

There are many seasons that a marriage goes through. Of course, we all enjoy the elation experienced during the courtship and honeymoon period, but like all marriages–life happens and seasons change. We talk a lot on this blog about healthy living. Another piece to that puzzle includes a healthy and strong marriage.

With divorce statistics holding at over fifty percent even in the Christian world, have you ever wondered how some couples seem to run a steady and stable course, during the ups, downs and cycles of life? How do these couples keep their marriage healthy during times when life’s demands seem to be pulling for every bit of attention and somehow a 24-hour day just doesn’t seem to offer as much time as it used to? As the Word of God reminds us in Ecclesiastes 1:9, “There’s nothing new under the sun.” What worked for mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, still works for us today. The key is to take these principles and apply them: (more…)

Intimacy with God

Practical Advice for Building a Deep and Meaningful Relationship with Your Creator

Intimacy with God…
When you think of this phrase, what enters into your thoughts? If most of us would be honest with ourselves, we would most likely have to admit that feelings of discouragement often go hand in hand with the thought of intimacy with God.

Why do you think that is? Well, first of all, the discouragement stems from fear. Fear of failure as well as a fear of the unknown. Secondly, the discouragement comes from our own preconceived notions of what “intimacy with God” entails. And although discouragement tries to put out the fire and cause us to sit on the fence, the truth is that God created each of us with a deep desire for intimacy with Him, and He longs to have a relationship with us.
So passionate is His desire after us, that after Adam and Eve sinned, He immediately developed a plan to send Himself as the payment that would bring us back into relationship with Him.

Okay, wait…let me back up. Do you realize that Jesus died on the cross as payment for our sins “so that we could have fellowship with God?” Yes, that’s right. Many of us only believe that Jesus died as a payment to save us from hell. This is true, but it’s so much deeper than that. Just as God walked with Adam in the garden, He brought us back into fellowship with Himself so that He can walk with us in the garden of our own lives.

So, how do we begin? (more…)

In a Funk? Here are the Keys to Contentment

The word content is one of my all time favorites. For me, the word conjures up images of a satisfied baby cooing at his mother or sitting quietly on a nice front porch swing, happily entertaining yourself with your own thoughts and memories.

Webster’s dictionary defines content as being mentally or emotionally satisfied with the way things are.

Unfortunately, many people do not live in a state of contentedness. This is a hurried and rushed world which seems to constantly race in a frenzied state towards one achievement or the next. Our gadgets aren’t good enough, our income isn’t high enough, and many or our relationships are strained at best. So how do we get from that gnawing, unfulfilled feeling to arrive at this seemingly elusive state of satisfaction and stability? Looking at the words of the Apostle Paul in the book of Philippians, I believe we will find the answer:

“But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again; though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:10-13 (NKJ)

Contentment is Not about What We Have

Reading through Philippians 4:10-14, we become keenly aware of the first key to contentedness. It’s not about stuff. Contentedness and deep inner satisfaction is not a result of what you have or where you live. It is a result of who you are in Christ. Paul had learned to be content with much and content with little–stable and sturdy in good times and bad. (more…)

Interested in Fasting? Look No Further…

In today’s age of holistic medicine and toxic cleansing, many individuals are looking into the benefits of fasting.
A solid fast, which includes refraining from foods that your body has to work to digest, is gaining in popularity.

Why Do We Fast?

Throughout Biblical history, fasting has been encouraged for spiritual empowerment. Most individuals who fast, report elevated spiritual clarity, and the ability to connect with God on a deeper level.
Although fasting is not a requirement in the New Testament, fasting is known for its health benefits, as well as its ability to help you stop, regroup, and find your spiritual place in this world. Fasting can help individuals temper their desires and gain mental clarity.
Do you need to hear from God? Do you feel clouded in your thinking and your spiritual clarity? Fasting may be the answer for you. (more…)

Living Life On Purpose

Are You Living Your Life on Autopilot?

Have you ever driven to work, to your local grocery store, or your child to school and realized after you were almost there that you’d been operating on autopilot? Traveling a familiar route can lend itself to distracted thoughts or planning out the day in our mind until we realize that we’ve almost reached our destination and don’t even remember getting there.

Unfortunately, this type of ‘operating on autopilot’ can creep into more than just our morning commute. Hurried days can turn into hurried weeks, months, years…and then what? It’s entirely possible to travel along a path almost subconsciously, hardly in control of our thoughts, our lives, or our relationship with God.

If this sounds way too familiar, it’s okay. God is fully aware of the way we operate and the obstacles that we come up against. That’s why He gave us Proverbs 4, to help us live our lives on purpose.

Living Your Life on Purpose

Sounds like a catchy book title, doesn’t it? But what does it really mean to live our life on purpose. Honestly, living on purpose has to do with paying attention. Autopilot, daydreaming, going through the motions–all of those phrases basically mean the same thing; a lack of ‘paying attention.’ (more…)

The Freedom of Forgiveness

“Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, it does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails“. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

You may be wondering what this famous love scripture has to do with forgiveness? Isn’t this the one reserved for marriage ceremonies and things of that nature? Yes, it is often used in those circumstances, but in order to truly walk in the light that God has called you to, you are going to have to walk in love….with everyone.
Everyone? Yes, absolutely everyone. (more…)

Business Leadership: Walking in Integrity

“He who walks in integrity, walks securely.” Proverbs 10:9

Whether you are an employee or in business for yourself, your ultimate goal should be to become a man or woman of integrity. When you learn to operate at the highest possible level of integrity, the benefits will spill over and affect every area of your life–your family, your friendships, and the way you view the world.


Integrity: - noun

1. possession of firm principles – the quality of possessing and steadfastly adhering to high moral principles or professional standards : honesty, honor, reliability, uprightness

2.  completeness – the state of being complete or undivided

Need Job Security? Try Integrity

Many people, in an attempt to gain job security, use worldly methods. Now, don’t get me wrong. Some things the world has to offer are very good and can definitely cause you to prosper in business. Updating your skills, breaking into new fields, or continuing your college education all incease your value. But without integrity, these additional skills won’t get you very far. In order to maximize your level of success in business, you have to actively cultivate an attitude of honor, reliability and uprightness in all that you do.

Integrity is what sets you apart from the crowd. Integrity is your benchmark. In fact, walking in integrity will cause you to become your company’s ‘most essential employee.’ How’s that for job security? (more…)

Finding Strength in Times of Weakness

A Dose of Reality…

This article is a mixture of lessons. It is just as much a call to gratitude as it is a lesson in strength. It is the story of a hero and it is a call to repentance. Repentance for complaining more than we recognize our blessings. Repentance for our inability to STAND through the rough times because it just seems too hard. The lesson comes from the life of a 24 year old girl…not much more than a teenager. Her strength in the face of difficulty should be a challenge to us all….

Life often doesn’t go as planned. That is the understatement of the century for Cory and Dorothy Simons. High School sweethearts with a beautiful son, another on the way and their entire lives before them; then August 14, 2009 happened. Here is their story in Dorothy’s own words:

Cory was on his way home from work on Rossville Blvd in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I had just gotten off the phone with him. It was August the 14th then. When I woke up an hour later (on August the 15, our 5 year anniversary) and realized he wasn’t home, I freaked out. He wasn’t answering his phone so I finally called 911 to ask if my car had been in a wreck. They said they would run a scan and call me back, but when I hadn’t heard from them after 30 min I decided to go look for myself. I figured if anything major had happened he would be at the hospital, so that was the first place I went.

Before entering the hospital I told some officers about my call to 911 and before I even finished my sentence they knew my name and who I was there for. Apparently my phone number had gotten mixed up in all the translation. For about an hour they couldn’t tell me what was going on or what had happened. All I knew was that my husband was in the ER and they were running tests on him. The doctors didn’t expect him to last through the morning. They even gave me his wedding ring because he was so swollen…But he did last. (more…)

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Books By The Bed

The Go Giver: A Little Story About A Powerful Business Idea:  Burg & Mann

“Over Promise And Over Deliver”.  Rick Barrera

“Never Give Up!”  Joyce Meyer

 “The Traveler’s Gift” .  Andy Andrews

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