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Living The Lords PrayerLuke 11:1 Cindy DeJager is the owner of Rosetta Stone Press, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. http://www.RosettaStonePress.com More Spirituality Information |
Related Spirituality InformationNew Every MorningI have almost died twice in my life. The first time was from pneumonia when I was 4 years old. I was hospitalized for a week and although I remember little of the experience, to this day I have to be diligent about my respiratory health because another case could be fatal. The second time was when I was 18, and I fully recall that experience. It was January 1994, and I was a second semester freshman at the University of South Carolina. I went to class and band practice, ate supper with my family, and studied for a quiz in one of my classes when I suddenly got violently ill. I still don't know exactly what it was, but it hit hard and fast. After a few miserable hours with no improvement, I finally ruled out a stomach virus and asked my parents to take me to the emergency room. Forgiveness- The Path To Healing & Spiritual GrowthThe dictionary defines the word forgive as: [to pardon, as to for-give an enemy;to cease to feel resentment for,as to forgive an offense]. To Praise Him is to Love Him; to Love Him is to Obey His CommandsSome say praising Jesus is just singing. Others say it a combination of many things. Let's see what the Bible say. In the book of Exdous 15:1-3 it says Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord: I will sing to the Lord for he is highly exalted. The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name. Now look at Deuteronomy 32:1 it says Listen, O heavens, and I will speak; hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants. I will proclaim the name of the Lord. Oh, praise the greatness of our God! He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he. They have acted corruptly toward him; to their shame they are no longer his children, but a warped and crooked generation. Is this the way you repay the Lord, O foolish and unwise people? Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made and formed you? You Lookin At Me?It's human nature to point a finger when we think someone else is guilty of something but yet we don't stop to consider that we too may be guilty of the very same thing we are accusing others of. Why is it so easy to turn a blind eye and overlook our own faults and yet so easy to see these faults in someone else? For some reason, we take pleasure in judging, condemning and criticizing others. Does it take the spotlight off us in drawing attention to someone else? Spiritual Surrender: Let Nature Be Your TeacherAlthough spring is just around the corner, there have been days lately where it feels as though it will never be here. I am not a cold weather person and I never have been. I often kid with people that when it came my time to come to Earth I had requested to live someplace like Tahiti, somehow my request was confused with someone else's who had asked for cold weather and I ended up in the hills of Connecticut. Not funny! As I sit here in this cold, April weather waiting for spring, the one thing I am sure of is that spring will come. Before I know it the snow will have melted and the grass will be green. The daffodils and tulips will be blooming in all of their colorful glory and I will feel the warmth of the spring sun on my face. Vacation PilgrimageI heard recently on a Christian radio station somebody talking about turning a vacation into a pilgrimage or a sabbath time, an opportunity to get closer to God. The speaker said that there is no word in ancient languages equivalent to the word "vacation". While I don't think that's true (the word has it's origins in the Latin), I would agree if she had said that ancient people probably did not generally have time for vacationing since they were often more preocuppied with daily survival. The closest these people may have ever gotten to a vacation could have been a religious pilgrimage. 5 Shortcuts to a Life of CharityCharity isn't the easiest virtue to master. And with St. Paul's warning that our good works mean nothing without charity, we see how important it is to practice. Here's a few practical ways to install charity into every day life. From Spiritual Cry Baby to Bold Seeker of TruthEver notice how people dread discussing the truth about life? Their fear usually comes out as, "I never talk about that" or "Some things we're not supposed to know." They quickly cut off any probing of who they are and why they're here.How strange that people who are brave in everyday affairs tend to cringe and cower when asked to think about the reasons and powers behind their existence! Yet, what could be more urgent than to face your own reality?Humanity's spiritual jitters often stem from centuries of reliance on designated spokesmen who are said to be anointed or divinely appointed, or inspired, or trained in theology and who we are not allowed to question. Adding to our plight are society's cruel traditions of rewarding mass conformity and mocking original thinkers.This is a new day. Everyone has the right to know the secrets of the universe. Best of all is the stunning news that every person is capable of knowing the most awesome truths and the most loving principles. That includes you.To make the leap from spiritual cry baby to bold seeker of truth requires self examination. In quiet moments you must ask yourself what you really believe. Be willing to tolerate question marks in your search till you find answers that are perfect for you even if it takes years and years.Plunge your mind into the finest ideas ever put on paper. Or spoken to you directly or through various communication media .Or overheard in conversations among strangers. Make it your business to become familiar with the noblest thoughts of any age, any writer or speaker and any culture.No finer hobby could be found than to gather the wisdom of the world around you. There are tons of literature just waiting to be tapped-philosophy, religion, psychology, self-growth, self-realization, higher awareness, to name just a few. Wisdom comes in many flavors, so to speak-poetry, essays, scriptures, drama, comedy, satire. Start with short sayings and work your way up if you can't tackle the big stuff yet.Test all spiritual concepts to see if they work for you. Let's say you've heard of something called the Inner Kingdom. Find out all you can about it, but more importantly make up your mind that if such a glorious kingdom exists, you intend to find it and claim it as your own. Sure, this is scary. Of course, you'll be tempted to give up along the way. You may have to keep on crying to get through it all.Be a tough critic of all you find no matter the glowing reputation or fame of the speaker. Be prepared to discover that popular ideas are wrong more often than right. Teach yourself to know the difference between myth and proof. Inch along, with tiny tasks and timid steps.Finally, turn your search into success. You don't want to be a self-help junkie reading your life away and never lifting your own heart and soul. After investigation comes a time of grace, when you rise above books and arguments.You respect all worthy ideas, learned or lowly, and see how uneducated words of insight ascend to the same literary heaven with equal standing as the thoughts and teachings of spiritual celebrities. You make peace with conflicting scholars, scientists and saviors. Standing atop the knowledge of the ages you add your own voice to the crowd with new words that are your contribution to the eternal quest.What's the payoff? Is it worth all the trouble? After all to succeed means you probably have to spend long periods of time alone to ponder the great issues of life. You have to deal with destiny one-on-one with nobody to hold your hand or go in your place.Truth is the payoff and that may or may not pay the bills or eliminate your worries. Truth is its own fantastic reward. You will know that when you find it. Don't be surprised if you shout, "Hallelujah." The Great BattlegroundBeing a Christian does not exempt us from having to fight daily with the problem of sin in our lives. We know that being saved does not mean we are perfect. We know that we all have personal deficits that we must persistently work toward controlling; temper, impatience, unkind thoughts, self centeredness, and a host of other possibilities. We know that we all have some skeletons and they do not always stay hidden in the closet. Destroying StrongholdsThen Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, "Go, assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa, and fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maidens also will fast in the same way." ESTHER 4:15?16, NASB Get Off The FreewayHave you ever noticed how much our lives resemble a freeway? Once we are on it, we are in constant motion. We must remain alert at all times. We speed up, slow down, and switch lanes. We set our eyes straight ahead, look back from time to time, check our side and rear mirrors periodically, do not make any unexpected turns, and get there before the cars all around us. We cannot brake too soon, accelerate too heavily, or cruise too long. We must always be aware of what is going on around us, lest we miss a sign or clue that could have prevented a fatal accident. It is as though we are competing in a race of some kind. One false move and the whole freeway is stopped or slowed down for hours. Be Abundant...Set a New Mental EquivalentLimiting beliefs, just like positive, empowering thoughts, provide a foundation for our experiences and what we demonstrate. Old beliefs can leave us behind ? and are often stale, lingering ideas left-over from our childhood experiences or from other areas of life that no longer carry any useful meaning. Abandoning negative assumptions about lack opens room to develop an abundant mindset. We can do that by setting a new mental equivalent that resets the dial on our trust channel ? the channel we listen to that tells us to trust that we already have everything. A belief system must change in order to create a new reality. The Terminus of ExistenceSetting boundaries is a common expression that we hear almost daily. We hear of our need to set personal boundaries; an invisible dividing line drawn between ourselves and others, a line that represents the point where public space ends and our own private space begins, so to speak. Love, Honor, and ObeyLet's take a look at all these aspects. The bible speaks a great deal about loving, honoring, and obeying the Father. God, the Father off all creation, loves us so much, that he sent his only begotten son to save us from our sins. We have all heard this, but, "Do we love God enough to give him our all?" "Do we love him enough", to weather any storm and rely on Him for everything that we need. "Do, we show this to other people?"; I hope that we do. God, wants us to show him how much we love him. He, wants us to love him enough to worship him in everything that we do. Unfortunately, to many times we get caught up in our own personal problems, and forget that God is in control of the situation. We have all done this, but when we do this, it shows that we are not relying on God to take care of us. We try and do things our own way, with our own might. The bible says, "Greater is He that is in me, than He that is in the world". This is a very powerful statement, and a proclamation of God's sovereign power. To think, that he loves us so much, that He took all our sins and forgive them through His grace. Do we, as christians, have this kind of LOVE? Can we honestly say, that no matter what happens, "WE WILL LOVE HIM!" That, no matter what comes against us, we will stand firm in our faith, and love for God. This is not an option, we must always love Him and pray for His help. Thinking Out Loud (Answers) Part two of a two part series(Channeled)Spirituality is about everyday life, which includes getting up in the morning, getting ready for the day be it work, school or play. It is about knowing yourself and the connection to your environment. It is about defining who you are and then living a purposeful life within those definitions, it is about changing those definitions and making adjustments to accommodate them. It is about saying to the world "I AM," and demonstrating it within the physical body that you created. The One Who HealsIt's late. But it's usually those words that you cannot sleep without getting down that are the ones worth saying the most?these moments are few and far between- especially when one learns that it is better to listen than to speak. Understanding a Tarot Card ReadingGetting the most from a Tarot card reading relies on the reader's ability to perceive not only the symbolic meaning from the spread, but also the mystical significance. Although every card of both the Major and the Minor Arcana possesses its own individual symbolism within the representative images on the cards, it is the deeper, spiritual enlightenment of the cards that leads to a greater understanding. Attaining this type of perception is the key to making Tarot a truly valid part of life. Power of Prayer - The Most Valuable Dialogue of Your LifeIt's the most powerful weapon on Earth. It can turn the impossible to the possible in a matter of seconds. Yet, few people even Christians seem to take advantage of this free, priceless commodity. The name of this mighty weapon you may ask? Prayer: The act of conversing with God; the intercourse of the soul with God, not in contemplation or meditation, but in direct address to him. If it's not the constant bombardment of the media focusing only on negativity, it's the monotony of our daily life which causes many to forget this simple task at our fingertips. How Long, O Lord? A Meditation on HabakkukIn Habakkuk, the prophet cries out in a lament complaint twice, only to hear back from God a very unassuring response: Wait for me to answer. The Path Less Traded - the Spiritual Road to Financial Abundance!There is nothing more valuable to a sentient being then peace of mind that comes from living each day from a place of love. The alternative is an existence where perception is based on fear as taught to us by the ego. The ego teaches us that we are separate from one another; that grandiosity through competitiveness is the path to our greatness because scarcity of resources is the nature of our existence. |
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