S P A R T A N

BLESSED ARE THE EDUCABLE

2011-05-24T04:32:00.000-07:00

If we were to examine the original Greek of the beatitudes, we would see that when Jesus said “blessed are the meek,” he could have meant, “blessed are the educable for they shall inherit the earth.” Educable people--those who are teachable--don’t suffer from a “know it all” attitude. They allow room in their life for growth. They listen. They’re not defensive. They’re not on an ego trip. Rather, they are on a success trip. If their way isn’t the best, they’ll switch. Blessed are the teachable, for they shall succeed.

SAY NO! BY SAYING YES!

2011-05-20T22:44:00.000-07:00

In order to be satisfied we need healthy nourishment. We need to be selective in what we need feed our minds and our souls with. It’s not easy in today’s world when we’re surrounded by “junk food” thoughts. By that I mean the negative attitudes, negative reactions, and negative responses that bombard us everyday. We need to insulate ourselves against these negatives and diligently seek the positive, the good—righteous thoughts, righteous dreams, and righteous actions.

PERSERVE IN DOING WHAT IS RIGHT

2011-05-19T23:42:00.000-07:00

Today, the social and moral pressures in our pluralistic society threaten the Christian as never before! The temptations to “become like” the nonreligious persons around us can be terribly intimidating!
The temptations to adopt the value system of a secure society become a deadly serious form of insidious persecution. To my Christian reader: a warning! Compromise and abandon your principles and you will literally lose your soul; you’ll no longer be the person you were before. You will have lost your identity as a distinctive, independent person.

For when you give in, for fear of ridicule, to the pressure to be like everyone else, you’ll have allowed yourself to be absorbed in the total collective society. Run with the foxes, dash with the hounds, and become just another part of the mass of humanity. You will be a nothing! A no one! Yes, a non-individual! Only a blob absorbed in a mass!
For a little bit of you dies every time you surrender a cherished ideal, abandon a noble value, or discard a moral principle

THE SECRET OF SATISFACTION

2011-05-15T23:42:00.000-07:00

Satisfactions, happiness, fulfillment--all are as elusive and fleeting as shadows, when we search for them through fame, success, power, or sexual gratification.

How then can we find satisfaction? Jesus said, “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” In this powerful sentence, Jesus shows us how we can satisfy the heart’s deepest hunger, its deepest longing.

Jesus says the way to satisfaction and happiness lies in seeking righteousness.

THE UNHAPPY ATTITUDE

2011-05-14T22:43:00.000-07:00

Is the way of anger and vengeance: “revenge!” “I’ll get even!” this negative attitude is a sure prescription for misery and unhappiness. People who are obsessed with fighting battles cannot be filled with joy. Their only satisfaction is having the bitter taste of frustration released through their spiteful, vengeful behavior.

Probably more times than we’ll ever know, the unhappiness of those who choose the unhappy attitude is multiplied through the break down of their physical health—high blood pressure, heart trouble, strokes, even cancer—produced by stress. This is the result of their choice of an un-happy attitude toward unfortunate circumstances.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides' Trailer HD

2011-05-12T04:36:00.000-07:00

BLESSED ARE THE KIND

2011-05-08T23:43:00.000-07:00

This is the final key to understanding what Jesus meant when he said, “Blessed are the meek.” Without kindness the mighty are ruthless. Without kindness the emotionally stable are emotionally cold and hard. Without kindness the educable become arrogant.

The truly meek person is mighty, emotionally stable, educable—and kind. Without kindness we have only M-E-E, which is significant, for without kindness we are self-centered and surely doomed to failure and unhappiness. The M-E-E attitude is an un-happy attitude. The M-E-E-K attitude is a be-happy attitude.

Had a beautiful college life.. Missing those days..:

2011-05-05T03:43:00.000-07:00

Had a beautiful college life.. Missing those days..:(

PACEMAKERS – WHO ARE THEY?

2011-04-30T22:41:00.000-07:00

Do you feel bankrupt? Is our country-- is our world bankrupt for power? For peace? God’s providence is our inheritance.

How do you want to be remembered? As a child of god? As a peacemaker?

Peacemakers. Who are they? Are they only politicians and world leaders? Or else they also people like you and me?

Everyone can be a pacemaker. The mother who resolves the toy tug-of-war between her toddlers is a peacemaker. The student who helps settle disputes in her calm in the midst of verbal onslaughts from distraught managers is a peacemaker

Every one of us can be a pacemaker--no matter who we are and what we do.

HEALING FOR THE HIDDEN WOUND

2011-04-28T22:42:00.000-07:00

Society inflicts hidden wounds on us. Some one of you have been the victims of racial or ethnic prejudice, or of some other form of painful discrimination such us sexism or ageism. You know the discomfort of being laughed at, ignored, not being allowed to fulfill your vocational dreams, just because you are a certain race, sex, or age.

Sometimes those people closest to us inflict the deepest, most painful wounds. Some of you would weep right now, if I touched the tender memory, because of what a father or a mother, a souse, child, lover, employer, or friend did to you.

Other hidden words we inflict on ourselves. We react too negatively to circumstances; we wound ourselves because we take them much too seriously. We read too much into other people’s actions and exaggerate their rejection of us.

Comming soom

2011-04-26T06:56:00.001-07:00

Comming soom

HEALING FOR THE HIDDEN WOUND

2011-04-19T22:42:00.000-07:00

THE PRESCRIPTION

2011-04-16T22:42:00.000-07:00

The prescription for joyful living is very simple: if you want to be happy, treat people right. If you carry somebody else’s burdens, in the process you’ll discover the secret of happiness.

Everybody wants to be happy. I’ve observed in the world today that there are those who are trying to reach happiness with selfishness, yet these people end up in a hell on earth. There others who try to obtain joy by following the laws of Christ and choose to look for people who have burdens, you might be able to help them. But if you look for you own happiness, ignoring the needs of those around you, you will lose out altogether.

BE HAPPY ATTITUDE

2011-04-15T22:42:00.000-07:00

It is a sure prescription for happiness. Learn to live by this refreshing happy attitude: “it’s not what happens to me that matters most; it’s how I react to what happens to me.”

Be sure of this: if you have the attitude that you should forever be spared from all pain, hurt, and grief, you can be positive that someday you will be jolted with a depressing disillusionment. Sorrow, rejection, bereavement hit all of us at some point in our lives. To expect that somehow we are privileged persons and should be immune from hurt and hardship is unrealistic.

GIVE UP!

2011-04-08T22:42:00.000-07:00

Do you want a life-changing experience with god? If so, wise up! Realize it’s instinctive and normal to be religious. Clean up! Wash your mistakes and negative emotions away through Christ’s grace. And the third step is : give up anything that may be hindering you. Perhaps there is something in your life that you will have to relinquish, with god’s help. If it is something that is blocking the birth of real faith, then you may have to give it up. If it is a choice between living and a bad habit--choose life.

WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM ?

2011-04-02T23:41:00.000-07:00

First, recognize that the real problem is not your tragedy that has hit. The real problem is your reaction to it. If you do not take control of your reaction to your loss, you can and probably will eventually be destroyed by it.

How do you fix the problem?

1. Decide not to go on for the rest of your life surrendering to sorrow and tears. To do this only disgraces your loved ones, your friends, and yourself. Moreover, continued grief dishonours the god who wants only to be created with giving you a rebirth of joy. Decide that this nonconstructive sorrow mixed with self-pity has to STOP.

BLESSED ARE THE EDUCABLE

2011-03-31T23:43:00.000-07:00

PARDON THOSE WHO HAVE HURT YOU

2011-03-29T22:37:00.000-07:00

“Not easy,” and you are right. One of the most difficult to do is to forgive someone who has hurt you. Again, we take a lesson from Jesus in dealing positively with your persecution.

When he was on the cross, stripped of his dignity, Jesus cried out,” father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!”

Sometimes it is humanly impossible to forgive. When that happens, we need to call upon divine intervention. We ask god to forgive those who hurt us and to work on our hearts so that we can eventually see our hurt from their perspective.

Frequently, more often than not, people who hurt others through their words or their actions are unaware that they’ve injured anybody. They “know not what they do,”

THE PRINCE OF PEACE

2011-03-22T22:40:00.000-07:00

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children if god.”

Who are the peace makers? They neither are not necessarily the people who doing something, creatingsometing, bulding something— bridges, mostly!

Maybe peacemakers are people like you and me who, in our own ways are trying to bring Jesus Christ into human hearts

Do you want peace in your family? Do you want peace in your community? Do you want peace with other races and other cultures? There will not be peace anywhere as long as there is a war going on in your heart and in your soul.

Tremendous song from chris brown AND Tpain

2011-03-20T00:57:00.000-07:00

Persist in trusting god

2011-03-19T22:38:00.000-07:00

When we are suffering, it is tempting to lash out at everyone around us—including god. And it is hard to jeep on trusting him when we are being rejected or ridiculed. But if we are to be victorious in the face of persecution, it is vital to maintain our trust in him.

The book of job has been hailed by students of literature as one of the greatest epic poems ever written. But it is far more than a beautiful piece of literature. Job is a story of triumphal trust – for surely nobody has ever faced more persecution than job.

PRAY FOR UNDERSTANDING THE STRENGTH

2011-03-15T22:38:00.000-07:00

Persecuted? Facing enormous adversity? Then don’t lash out. Don’t reject the help god offers. Grasp his helping hand and fall to your knees in prayer. Thank god for the help that he is giving you and will continue to give you. Ask him to send companions who can help. Ask him for a supernatural strength to believe and to rejoice anyway!

PASS TRUIMPHANTLY THROUGH THE PHASES

2011-03-08T22:39:00.000-08:00

Now, to keep a positive, be-happy attitude in painful times, remember: “this, too, shall I pass away.” Persecution is never eternal. To recover from persecution, be prepared to pass through three phases. The first phase is collision. This is the phase that occurs when the consciousness of the awful reality of the situation really hits you. Your peace suddenly clashes with conflict. This is the phase when you realize the horrible thing that is happening is not a dream. It’s really happening—to you!

The second phase is withdrawl .when you talk about fear, guilt, hatred, or anger, all of these emotions are expressions of the tendency to retreat, recoil, and withdraw from accepting the horrible reality.

STICKS AND STONES CAN BREAK YOUR BONES __ BUT Words HURT, TOO!

2011-03-02T22:39:00.000-08:00

Persecution is something all of us have faced or will face. For some—especially in certain countries—persecution takes the form of physical torture. Through the years it has been everything from the rack to bamboo under the fingernails to cigarette burns and electric shock. With terrorism on the march today, this subject becomes painfully relevant.

And persecution wears many faces! It is true that we in the free countries are not constantly shadowed by the threat of physical persecution for our beliefs. But at one time or another we can all expect to face some kind of harassment, snubs, rejection, or discrimination. Emotional persecution that attacks a person’s self –esteem can be devastating! The calculated insult, the contrived put down are weapons wielded even by religious people against their own kind.