Monday, November 30, 2015

Turning Stress into Success

Stress. Photo Credit: BELOVED BRANDS.

Friday, November 27, 2015

Turning Stress into Success, Part I

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight [direct your paths]."1

A "friend" invoices you for considerably more than his original quote. A family member is taken seriously ill and is in the hospital for months. Responsibilities and expenses soar. At the same time, you're in the middle of a major building project at your business for which you are responsible—and your loan falls through.

The result? Stress!

I know because these things all happened to me in the course of a single year. Stress is a normal part of contemporary living. We all have our share. Ignore it and it can take years off our lives. Accept it and deal with it creatively and we can turn our stress into success.

How can we do this?

First: Realize that some stress is helpful. It provides motivation. For instance, if it weren't for the stress of having to pay our bills—and eat—we may not want to go to work.

Second: Be aware that stress is only troublesome when it continues for too long or if there is too much of it.

I read about a ten-ton-limit bridge that had been serving a community very well for over fifty years. During the course of those years it had carried millions of tons of weight. But one day the driver of a logging truck ignored the ten-ton load limit sign. The bridge collapsed. Life is like that. All of us can carry our ten-ton load day after day, year after year, but only one load at a time. Overload us and we collapse, too.

Most readers will probably be familiar with the research Thomas Holmes has done on stress. He found that too much change at one time was the greatest cause of stress. An accumulation of 300 or more "life changing units" in any one year may mean an overload of more stress than an individual can carry. On his scale, death of a spouse equals 100 units, divorce 73, marital separation 65, marriage 50, major changes in finances 38, and so on (see note below). So in tough times, try not to make unnecessary changes.

Third: Recognize symptoms as early as possible.

Writing in Eternity magazine (now out of publication) Fred Stansberry talked about "stress-related diseases such as cancer, arthritis, heart and respiratory diseases, migraines, allergies and a host of other psychological and physiological dysfunctions which are increasing at an alarming rate in our Western culture."

Other symptoms of stress have been listed as, "tense muscles; sore neck, shoulders and back; insomnia, fatigue, boredom, depression, listlessness, dullness; lack of interest; drinking too much; eating too much or too little; diarrhea, cramps, flatulence, constipation; palpitations-heart-skip; phobias; twitches; restlessness and itching."

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to do all I can to lessen my load and lower my stress level and learn to trust You in all situations—so that I can reasonably relax in the midst of the storms of my life. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus's name, amen."

 NOTE: "Test Your Level of Stress" at: http://www.actsweb.org/stress_test.php

1. Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV).

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Success. Photo Credit: MARKET ONE EXECUTIVE.

Monday, November 30, 2015

Turning Stress into Success, Part II

"Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."1

To overcome stress, as we said yesterday, first realize that some stress is helpful. Second, be aware that stress is only troublesome when it continues for too long or if there is too much of it. And, third, recognize symptoms as early as possible.

Fourth. Identify causes. As already mentioned, change is one of the chief causes of stress. An accumulation of life's everyday annoyances can also build up a significant stress level—perhaps even more than one single traumatic event. As the old saying puts it:

It's the little things that bother us,
and put us on the rack;
you can sit upon a mountain,
but you can't sit on a tack.

Whatever the cause of your stress is, identify it so you can do something about it.

Fifth. Seek a practical cure.

1. The starting point to turn stress into success is to lessen your load. Fifty percent of the cure can come from writing down all your cares and responsibilities in order of priority, then eliminating the least important.

2. Remember that Superman and Superwoman exist only in comic books and films. Everybody has a breaking point, so recognize yours and call a halt before you reach your limit.

3. With stress come pent-up feelings. Get them "off your chest" by sharing them with a trusted friend or counselor. This brings some immediate relief and helps you to think and plan more objectively.

4. Stop fighting situations that can't be changed. As one father told his impatient teenager, "If you would only realize and accept the fact that life is a struggle, things would be so much easier for you." Learning to live with and get on top of struggles is what helps us grow and mature.

5. Try to avoid making too many major life changes during the course of a single year.

6. If you hold resentment towards another person, resolve your difference right away. Never "let the sun go down while you are still angry."2

7. Make time for rest and relaxation. Learn to "come apart and rest awhile before you come apart."

8. Watch your diet and eating habits. When under stress we tend to overeat—especially junk food which increases stress. A balanced diet of proteins, vitamins, and fiber, without white sugar, caffeine, too much fat, alcohol and nicotine, is essential for lowering stress and its effects.

9. Get plenty of physical exercise. This keeps you healthier and helps burn up excess adrenaline caused by stress and its accompanying anxiety.

10. The ultimate answer to turning stress into success is to learn to trust God and live in harmony with His will for your daily life. As our Scripture verse for today says, "Don't worry about anything, instead, pray about everything; tell God your needs and don't forget to thank Him for His answers. If you do this you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand."1

God's peace comes through accepting, and trusting to God, those circumstances that can't be changed, however difficult they may be. Perhaps this is what Christ meant when He spoke of taking up our cross daily and following Him. Certainly He fully accepted His cross and trusted His situation to God and thereby was totally vindicated.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, again today, I commit and trust my life and way to You. Please help me to live in harmony with the principles for daily living as found in Your Word, the Bible. And help me to remember even in my darkest hours, that my times are in Your hands and, like David, help me to trust and not be afraid. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus's name, amen."

 NOTE: "Test Your Level of Stress" at: http://www.actsweb.org/stress_test.php

1. Philippians 4:6-7 (NLT).
2. See Ephesians 4:26 (NIV).

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Give Me a Thankful Heart



Thursday, November 26, 2015

Give Me a Thankful Heart


Give Thanks. Photo Credit: SHARE FAITH.

"Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! / For His mercy endures forever. / Oh, give thanks to the God of gods! / For His mercy endures forever. / Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords! / For His mercy endures forever."1

In The Chicago Daily News Harold Ruoff wrote, "I read about a postal worker who opened and read the mail which came to the Dead Letter Office in Washington addressed to Santa Claus. In the three months before Christmas, there were thousands of letters asking for something. In the months after Christmas, there was only one card addressed to Santa Claus thanking him. How quick we are to ask and receive. How slow we are to speak the magic word—thanks!"

I'm not suggesting that we give thanks to Santa Claus, but one of my constant prayers is that God will give me a thankful heart for every blessing that he has so freely given to me—and for the innumerable blessing he gives to us that I am not even aware of.

This one thing I know, when I think of my background, if it weren't for the grace of God, I don't know where I would be today. I know I wouldn't be where I am with the wonderful privilege of being able to share the Christian message and gospel with so many people around the world via email and the Internet.

Furthermore, even though I came from a very dysfunctional family background, there is one thing that I will be eternally grateful for, and that is that my parents took me to church and Sunday school where I heard the gospel message and there found Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior.

So today, while it is Thanksgiving Day in the U.S.A., wherever you and I are, let us make it a day of thanksgiving in our hearts especially for God's great love gift to the world—the gift of his Son, Jesus, who gave his life on the cross so that you and I could have our sins forgiven and receive a full and free pardon and the gift of eternal life in Heaven to be with God forever.

"Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank you for your everlasting love—that you love me no matter what I have ever done or have failed to do—and that your mercy endures forever. In appreciation for your dying for me help me always to live for you. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus' name. Amen."

1. Psalm 136:1-3 (NKJV).

P.S. Be sure to say thank you to God and to someone every day!

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Miners Rescued

Nine coal-miners of Quecreek. Photo Credit: HELLO GIGGLES.

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Miners Rescued

"And then he [Jesus] told them, 'Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone, everywhere.'"1

It's hard to even begin to imagine what the nine coal-miners felt in Quecreek, Pennsylvania, back in 2002 when they were trapped 244 feet below the surface in the 50-degree cold while struggling for survival in a pocket of air in the flooded coal-mine. Thinking they were doomed, several wrote farewell notes to their loved ones. Miner Blaine Mayhugh, 31, asked his boss for a pen when the water in the shaft kept rising. "I want to write my wife and kids to tell them I love them," he said. Then, fearing their death, the miners tied themselves together so all of their bodies would be found if they drowned. It must have been a terrifying experience.

What a relief it was when we learned of their amazing rescue and thanked God for the team who worked feverishly day and night for three days to save the trapped miners—and marveled how they not only found exactly where the men were trapped, but also how they were able to rescue all nine miners.

The New York Times (July 29, 2002) described how a wave of exultation swept out from the floodlit rescue scene as the first words resounded up from below with the news that all the missing miners had survived their ordeal. People were weeping and cheering at village roadsides and television sets at the news that the disastrous flood deep underground had left no fatalities among the harried night crew that disappeared on Wednesday deep in the Quecreek mine.

If only the church as a whole and today's Western Christians had the same commitment to rescue those who are bound for a lost eternity in darkness without God and without hope.

Here in ACTS International, while we are just a tiny organization, we are among those who are doing everything in their power to reach the lost for Christ. Never before has the church had the technology that makes it possible to reach so many--by so few--for so little comparative cost.

But like so many others who are doing this work all we lack is the support. God has given his church the life-saving message, the methods to communicate it to untold thousands of people worldwide, but we just don't have the sufficient means.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please move among the hearts of Your people to join with and support the rescue teams who are on the front line of action seeking to win the lost to Jesus. Help me to realize the full impact of the unthinkable doom of those who are lost in darkness who, without Your gift of salvation, are doomed for eternal damnation and will be lost forever without hope. And grant with Your help that I will do my part in obeying Your commission to help take the gospel to everyone, everywhere. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus's name, amen."

P.S. To see how you can help ACTS share the gospel see http://www.actscom.com

1. Mark 16:15 (NLT).

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Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Christianity Vs. Religion

 Worshipers at a South African Roman Catholic Church. Photo Credit: ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Christianity Vs. Religion

"In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son [Jesus], whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe."1

Karl Barth was lecturing to a group of students at Princeton. One student asked the renowned German theologian, "Sir, don't you think that God has revealed himself in other religions and not only in Christianity?" Barth's answer stunned the crowd. With a modest thunder he answered, "No, God has not revealed himself in any religion, including Christianity. He has revealed himself in his Son [Jesus]."2

People by nature are religious in that every person is born with a sense of a divine being, and at some point each person decides whether to accept that belief, enquire into it, or reject it. Many choose the belief (as the saying goes) that "all roads lead to Rome," and all religions lead to God. Not true.

In one sense religion is man's search for God primarily through his own efforts, or through a man-made religion. On the other hand, Jesus (or real Christianity) is God's search for man. And that makes all the difference in the world. Because we are all sinners, it is impossible for us to save ourselves through our own efforts or any man-made religion. This is why God, in His eternal love for us, sent His own Son, Jesus, to die on the cross in our place to pay the penalty for all our sins. Mankind's salvation is thus found in Jesus Christ alone. There is no other way.

Narrow? Yes. But had there been any other way, why would Jesus have come to earth as a man to die an excruciating death on a Roman cross to pay the penalty for our sins? As Jesus said, "Small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it."3

So the important question is not, are you religious? Or, do you belong to a Christian denomination, or are you a member of a Christian church; rather, it is, have you accepted Jesus as your Savior? Is your trust in Him and Him alone for your eternal salvation? As Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father [God] except through me.4

If in doubt, be sure to read the article, "How to Be Sure You're a Real Christian—without having to be religious" at: http://tinyurl.com/8glq9.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank You for Your 'so great salvation' provided through the death of Your Son, Jesus, on the cross for my sins and to give to me the gift of eternal life. And Jesus, because You died for me, help me to live for You always in all ways. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus's name, amen."

1. Hebrews 1:1-2 (NIV).
2. Rev. John H. Pavelko, "Avoiding a Troubled Heart."
3. Matthew 7:14 (NIV).
4. John 14:6 (NIV).

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Friday, November 06, 2015

NOVEMBER 2015 - HOLY GHOST SERVICE - EBENEZER ...





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Beware of African Juju of Sorcery and Witchcraft

Photo Credit: Muhammad Umar
@Muhamma99105006
"Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft."
~ ◄ Deuteronomy 18:10 ►
New International Version

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Winning Over Worry and Anxiety: The Testimony of J.C. Penney

 In a J.C. Penney publicity photo, Penney fits shoes to young customers. Many of the company’s children’s shoes were made in Hamilton. Photo courtesy of the JCPenney Company records, DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University.

Friday, November 6, 2015

Winning Over Worry and Anxiety, Part III

"Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."1

I have read how, in 1929, business tycoon J.C. Penney was in the hospital because of his severe anxiety. One night he was sure he was going to die, so he wrote farewell letters to his wife and son.

But he survived the night, and hearing singing the next morning in the chapel, felt drawn to go in. A group was singing, "God will take care of you," after which followed Bible reading and prayer.