The Simple Daily Practice by James Altucher

     I'm posting this excerpt from an email article from The S & A Digest: Master Series newsletter because I believe it has many good suggestions for improving our quality of life.    The article was entitled "The Simple Daily Practice (or Why Do So Many People Want to Die)"  By James Altucher.  This particular excerpt from the article is taken from his book, Choose Yourself.
      I would take exception to a couple on the list, though. "K" suggests we read a spiritual text.  I believe the only way to truly understand who we are and to gain meaning in life is to have a relationship with Jesus.  Therefore I recommend reading the Bible for spiritual input--not just any spiritual text.  And "U" admonishes us to not have sex with anyone you don't love.  I believe it should be changed to "don't have sex with anyone you're not married to."  If you love them, then value them enough not to use them to satisfy your lust but give them security in commitment.  Deny yourself gratification for the good of the other person--something that seems to be almost unheard of in these days of selfishness.
      Nevertheless, there are some good reminders and interesting ideas to help us live life at a deeper level contained here.  Since I like lists that I can easily refer back to, it seemed good to post this where I can find it again.

"...The Simple Daily Practice is the same. All you really need to do to get off the floor is acknowledge that it's not your external life that needs to change (you have little control over that), but that external changes flow from the inside.

External changes in your life are like the final ripples of the ocean that lap onto distant shores. A promotion, a raise, a new job offer, a new relationship. These are the final ripples. The ocean is inside you. Becoming aware of that infinite presence doesn't require meditation in a cave for fifty years. It involves simply being healthy. Healthy not just physically but emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

For now, the Simple Daily Practice means doing ONE thing every day.

Try any one of these things each day:

A) Sleep eight hours. B) Eat two meals instead of three. C) No TV. D) No junk food. E) No complaining for one whole day. F) No gossip. G) Return an e-mail from five years ago. H) Express thanks to a friend. I) Watch a funny movie or a stand-up comic. J) Write down a list of ideas. The ideas can be about anything. K) Read a spiritual text. Any one that is inspirational to you. The Bible, The Tao te Ching, anything you want. L) Say to yourself when you wake up, "I'm going to save a life today." Keep an eye out for that life you can save. M) Take up a hobby. Don't say you don't have time. Learn the piano. Take chess lessons. Do stand-up comedy. Write a novel. Do something that takes you out of your current rhythm. N) Write down your entire schedule. The schedule you do every day. Cross out one item and don't do that anymore. O) Surprise someone. P) Think of ten people you are grateful for. Q) Forgive someone. You don't have to tell them. Just write it down on a piece of paper and burn the paper. It turns out this has the same effect in terms of releasing oxytocin in the brain as actually forgiving them in person. R) Take the stairs instead of the elevator. S) I'm going to steal this next one from the 1970s pop psychology book Don't Say Yes When You Want to Say No: When you find yourself thinking of that special someone who is causing you grief, think very quietly, "No." If you think of him and (or?) her again, think loudly, "No!" Again? Whisper, "No!" Again, say it. Louder. Yell it. Louder. And so on. T) Tell someone every day that you love them. U) Don't have sex with someone you don't love. V) Shower. Scrub. Clean the toxins off your body. W) Read a chapter in a biography about someone who is an inspiration to you. X) Make plans to spend time with a friend. Y) If you think, "Everything would be better off if I were dead," then think, "That's really cool. Now I can do anything I want and I can postpone this thought for a while, maybe even a few months." Because what does it matter now? The planet might not even be around in a few months. Who knows what could happen with all these solar flares. You know the ones I'm talking about. Z) Deep breathing. When the vagus nerve is inflamed, your breathing becomes shallower. Your breath becomes quick. It's fight-or-flight time. You are panicking. Stop it Breathe deep. Let me tell you something: most people think "yoga" is all those exercises where people are standing upside down and doing weird things. In the Yoga Sutras, written in 300 B.C., there are 196 lines divided into four chapters. In all those lines, ONLY THREE OF THEM refer to physical exercise. It basically reads, be able sit up straight. That's it. That's the only reference in the Yoga Sutrasto physical exercise. Claudia always tells me that yogis measure their lives in breaths, not years. Deep breathing is what keeps those breaths going."

Homeland Security Preparations

       I received this email recently.  America must wake-up soon.  There is an evil plot underway to undermine all we have stood for.  Many can't believe it because we have enjoyed our freedom for so long but all we have to do is look at other countries who were once free but because of an evil regime and the complacency of it's citizens lost their freedom practically overnight.
       Please inform others.

"He May as Well Be Hugo Chavez And That's No Exaggeration." -Rush Limbaugh.     

Is this what Obama meant...“We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve
The national security objectives that we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as
strong, just as well-funded.” Barack Obama, 2008

Homeland Security graduates – Homeland Youth 

October 7, 2012. Vicksburg .

The federal government calls them FEMA Corps.  But they conjure up memories of the Hitler Youth of 1930’s Germany . 

The Dept of Homeland Security has just graduated its
first class of 231 Homeland Youth. Kids, aged 18-24 and recruited from
the President’s AmeriCorp volunteers, they represent the first wave of
DHS’s youth corps, designed specifically to create a full time, paid,
standing army of FEMA Youth across the country.

FEMA Corps first-responders

On September 13, 2012, the Department of Homeland Security
graduated its first class of FEMA Corps first-responders. While the
idea of having a volunteer force of tens of thousands of volunteers
scattered across the country to aid in times of natural disasters
sounds great, the details and timing of this new government army is
somewhat curious, if not disturbing.  DHS raising an armed army.

Over the past two years, President Obama has signed a number of
Executive Orders suspending all civil and Constitutional rights and
turning over management of an America under Martial Law to FEMA..

Armored Fighting Vehicles: Individuals around the
US have begun reporting the site of strange, new, heavily-armed FEMA
fighting vehicles with machine gun ports.

What would a disaster relief agency like FEMA need with 2,500 brand new GLS armored fighting vehicles?  According to the agency’s own mandate, as well as President Obama’s recent Executive Order, the answer is ‘population control’ during a time of Martial Law.

 

Billions of rounds of ammunition.

One look at a chart of DHS ammunition purchases over the past decade reveals a drastic spike in orders of bullets recently, totaling in the billions of rounds. Other charts available online show a similar drastic spike in the purchases of accompanying weaponry by the Department of Homeland Security. What is the US federal government preparing for? And why does it feel it needs an army of brainwashed youth, millions of guns, thousands of armored fighting vehicles and literally billions of rounds of ammunition, just to provide relief to the American people during a natural disaster? Any historian will tell you it sounds more like the arming of the Hitler Youth than an army of first responders fighting forest fires and hurricanes.

An Excerpt from Mark Alexander's

    Mark Alexander has such an excellent expose' of the hypocrisy of Liberals in his column today that I couldn't resist posting an excerpt from it.  To read the entire article click here.

ALEXANDER'S COLUMN The Consummate Liberal Hypocrites Do as I Say, Not as I Do ...Consider if you will the following short list of other notable examples of Leftist hypocrisies, and, by all means, use the comment links to add your own entries. Liberals are elitists and yet promote themselves as commoners. They talk about individual rights but promote statist tyranny. They spout John F. Kennedy's challenge, "Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country," but their policies promote the antithesis of that challenge, instead promoting constituents to demand what their country can do for them. They hold up Martin King's dream, "that my children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character," but their policies promote the antithesis of that dream, judging all by the color of their skin, rather than the content of their character. Bloated Hypocrisy They talk about personal responsibility but are master purveyors of blame-shifting and victimhood. They are pro-abortion but anti-capital punishment. They support killing the most innocent among us while providing free accommodations and accoutrements for the most heinous of criminals. They subscribe to Darwinian evolutionary theory, but penalize the most successful humans and reward the least productive -- including subsidizing that lack of productivity and guaranteeing the reproduction of future generations of urban plantation slaves. They say they want to lift up blacks and Hispanics while promoting policies that instead keep those constituencies on the Poverty Plantation. They object to Islamist profiling while suppressing Christian expression in any public venue. They admonish us to refrain from judging Islam or its adherents as a whole by the actions of a few terrorists, but they endeavor to undermine the Second Amendment and condemn more than 60 million law-abiding gun owners based on the actions of a few murderous sociopaths. They demand tolerance and diversity but are wholly intolerant of diverse and dissenting views. They talk economic growth but want to constrain free enterprise with oppressive taxes, laws and regulations. They promote education but condemn school choice. They condemn "hate" and preach unity while building their political empire by fomenting disunity. Let them eat cake! They condemn "trickle-down wealth" but promote "trickle-up poverty." They condemn racism while promoting classism. The list of Leftist political hypocrites is endless, headlined by Obama, Biden, Pelosi, Feinstein, Reid, Bloomberg and many others. The list of Leftmedia hypocrites is endless, headlined by nearly every anchor at CNN, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, ABC, PBS and NPR. The list of Leftist pop-culture hypocrites is endless, headlined by Bill Maher, Whoopi Goldberg, George Clooney, Rosie O'Donnell, Spike Lee, Alec Baldwin, Barbra Streisand, Arianna Huffington, Bruce Springsteen and many others. But the biggest hypocrisy of all is Leftist talk about Liberty when the terminus of their political policies is, unequivocally, tyranny. They talk about Rule of Law when they really mean rule of men. They condemn fascism while promoting socialism, but conveniently omit that NAZI stood for Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers' Party). In the words of British historian Dr. John Joseph Ray, "The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism." Libertarian Jacob Hornberger adds, "There is no difference in principle, between the economic philosophy of Nazism, socialism, communism, and fascism and that of the American welfare state and regulated economy." Journalist and political critic H.L. Mencken once concluded, "The chief difference between free capitalism and State socialism seems to be this: that under the former a man pursues his own advantage openly, frankly and honestly, whereas under the latter he does so hypocritically and under false pretenses."

Today's Prayer with Dale Gentry

Faith Declaration Thursday by Dale Gentry   (Connect to website here) Good Thursday morning everybody! It's time to pray AMERICA! Please pray this prayer out loud with me today.  "Dear Father God............we repent this morning for the sin of adultery, fornication and homosexuality..............we confess today that we are grieved concerning the direction that our nation is going..............our hearts are heavy concerning the decision that was passed down yesterday.............confessing that there has been a clear departure from moral principles that our nation was founded on.......................we recognize Lord that the final chapter of any nation is the embracing of a perverted life style................we declare that as the people of God, we will follow the principles of Your word which declares that marriage is between a man and a woman and has been since the creation of the world...............as Christians today we stand firmly on Biblical principles regardless of the opinions of society................knowing this morning that we have chosen the wrong direction and that destructive forces are in operation in America...............forgive us of our sins and send us another spiritual awakening...............we need You now Lord...............awaken the church to call for revival in this land...............we ask these things in Jesus name.............amen."

A Wonderfully Encouraging Word from Bobby Conner

     We must remember that we were born for such a time as this and not grow weary or faint but to stand in boldness for righteousness.

Bobby Conner:

The Victory of Valor – Fearless Faith

Prophetic word released by Bobby Conner on June 25, 2013:

Heaven is Declaring "Awake, Awake!"

The entire world is poised for swift, radical change. It is imperative that the Church embrace and fully receive abold anointing. This anointing will aid us in formulating preparations for influencing our culture. We are to be catalysts of extreme changes. We are to function as salt and light to a sin-darkened world (see Matthew 5:13).

The Spirit of God is calling forth dread champions; this is not a time for passive, non-committed Christianity. We are called to become the bold, passionate, and powerful end-time army that confronts compromise and raises the standard ever higher. In this season, the Spirit of the Lord is releasing true confidence to stand strong (see Joshua 1:7-9).

We are in a time of swift advancement and acceleration. The Spirit of God will set things in order, bringing about divine purpose. A "fullness-of-time" moment has come in the Spirit realm. Heaven is declaring "awake, awake!" It is time for advancement. Heaven's host stands ready to move, aiding all who seek to establish the King in His Kingdom (see Hebrews 1:14).Deeper insight about the throne of God and the God of the throne will be revealed during this time period.

The Spirit of the Lord is calling for the Lord's army to arise, taking hold of the Kingdom with true spiritual power and force. Remember, the Lord stated that forceful saints would take the Kingdom of Heaven. "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force" (Matthew 11:12 NASB).

It is not by might or by our human spirits, but only by the Spirit of the Lord. The Scripture declares it: "Then He said to me: 'This is the word of the LORD saying, "Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit," says the LORD of hosts'" (Zechariah 4:6 NASB).

Battles will increase; however, the victories will be overwhelming. The Body of Christ will begin to experience awesome breakthroughs in unity and restoration, resulting in displays of grace and power. I am excited for the fulfillment of the words of Psalm 133:

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious oil upon the head, coming down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, coming down upon the edge of his robes. It is like the dew of Hermon coming down upon the mountains of Zion; for there the LORD commanded the blessing – life forever (Psalm 133:1-3 NASB).

We must never confuse our abilities with God's anointing. We are mighty, not in our own strength, but in the Lord's power and might. It is only by the power of God's Spirit that we are enabled to overcome the schemes of the enemy. Truly we are called into the Kingdom of God for such a time as this.

Bold, Brave, and Extremely Courageous

These are exciting days of conquest and confrontation, of building and battling. We stand at the very threshold of the greatest revival the world has ever seen. The foe is poised, doing all he can to stop this coming move of God. Now is the time for us to stand strong and straight and be counted for righteousness sake. The Lord has issued an ultimate command. It is unmistakably clear. As followers of Christ, we are to be bold, brave, and extremely courageous. As the Scripture declares in the Book of Joshua:

Now it came about after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD that the LORD spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' servant, saying, "Moses My servant is dead; now therefore arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun will be your territory. No man will be able to stand before you... (Joshua 1:1-5 NASB).

Not only has Almighty God called us to be brave and courageous, but He has also commissioned us for these important days. We need to be prepared for conquest that brings about a swift and sure change. God's plan for His people is the plan of victory, not defeat (see Jeremiah 29:11). We are called and commissioned to be overcomers (see Romans 8:37). Though this may seem intimidating to some, the reality is that deep within the soul of every true Christian beats the heart of an overcomer. The word overcomer suggests a victory after a hard struggle. We are to be strong and willing warriors.

Now is the time for the troops of the Lord to volunteer willingly (see Psalm 110:3). We are to become history-makers and world-changers. God has determined the exact time of our births. Truly, each one of us is in the Kingdom for such a time as this (see Esther 4:14). We must never forget that the Kingdom is in us for such a time as this. Think about it. We had absolutely nothing to do with the timing of our births. It's God's plan.Looking forward to this day, He determined that we would be great tools in His hands to fashion the Kingdom of God.

God has confidence in us. It is Him working in us, both to will and to do His good pleasure (see Philippians 2:13). And as we discover in Luke 12:32, the Father's good pleasure is to give us the power of His Kingdom. These are decisive days of destiny, when God is calling each of us to arise and take our stand for righteousness. We must respond, allowing the Holy Spirit to empower and equip us for lives filled and overflowing with divine power and victorious valor (see 1 John 4:4).

Bobby Conner
Eagles View Ministries
Email: manager@bobbyconner.org

Blog Display

      Is my blog displaying right on your computer?  Yesterday, all of a sudden, all the side column info lined up under the posts in my display so that now I have to scroll to the very bottom of the screen to see them!  I looked at Blogger Help which says the cause of this is usually posting something that is too wide, but nothing appears to be too wide to me.  I removed the post from yesterday for awhile to see if that was the problem but the format did not revert back to the original so I reposted yesterday's article.  Blogger Help also says that often this problem doesn't appear that way on other computers even though it looks as if it would.  I thought maybe it was a Google problem and was hoping it would be resolved this morning.  But that hasn't happened.
      So I'm wondering if you are seeing it as I am?
      This is so frustrating!!  I've sent an email to the Help people but have not heard anything back yet..  I've looked at the HTML code for the blog--which I barely understand--but can see that it is written to have columns on the left and right.  So why are they not displaying that way?  And what can I do to get them to?  If there is anyone reading my blog who has any suggestions, I would certainly like to hear them.

Another article by Dr. Mercola on the dangers of consuming sweetened drinks

Here is an excerpt from another article by Dr. Mercola on the dangers of sugar and high fructose corn syrup consumption.  You can read the rest of the article here.

Are You Ready to Ditch Sweetened Drinks Yet?

I’ve been warning you of the many dangers of soda and sweetened drinks ever since I started this site over 17 years ago. Americans in particular get a majority of their daily calories from sugar, primarily in the form of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in soda and other sweetened beverages. Half of the US population over the age of two consumes sugary drinks on a daily basis,² and this figure does not include 100% fruit juices, flavored milk or sweetened teas, which means the figure is actually even higher.

Fructose (and especially HFCS) has been identified as one of the primary culprits in the meteoric rise of obesity and related health problems—in large part due to its ability to turn on your “fat switch.”

The HFCS found in sweetened beverages and most processed foods is also highly processed and has been found to be frequently contaminated withmercury. Add to that the fact that most HFCS is made from genetically engineered corn, and you have a recipe for poor health, regardless of whether you’re ingesting it from a can or a meal...

Please note that freshly squeezed fruit juices also contain fructose, which will have the same detrimental health effects as HFCS when consumed in excess, but at least it’s not processed from GE corn...

Ditching sodas and other sweetened drinks and replacing them with pure, vitalized structured water, I believe, is one of the most powerful actions you can take to improve your health and lower your risk of disease and long-term chronic health conditions.

Especially when you consider that just one can of soda per day can add as much as 15 pounds to your weight over the course of a single year, and increases your risk of diabetes by 85 percent! Fructose is also a likely culprit behind the millions of U.S. children struggling with non-alcoholic liver disease, which is caused by a build-up of fat within your liver cells. Fructose is in fact very hard on your liver, in much the same way as drinking alcohol.

How Much Sugar Do You Consume Each Day?

Around 100 years ago, the average American consumed a mere 15 grams of fructose a day, primarily in the form of whole fruit. Today, 25 percent of Americans consume more than 135 grams per day (that's over a quarter of a pound!), largely in the form of soda and other sweetened beverages. Just one 12-ounce regular soda contains the equivalent of 10 teaspoons of sugar. Similarly, one eight-ounce glass of orange juice has about eight full teaspoons of sugar, and at least 50 percent of that sugar is fructose.

Fructose at 15 grams a day is unlikely to do much if any harm and may even be beneficial for some. But at nearly 10 times that amount it becomes a MAJOR cause of obesity and nearly all chronic degenerative diseases.

As a standard recommendation, I strongly advise keeping your total fructose consumption below 25 grams per day, or 15 grams a day if you are insulin resistant, obese, or have high blood pressure, high uric acid levels, diabetes or heart disease. To get to that low a level, you would essentially need to eliminate processed foods and sweetened beverages from your daily diet, and make sure everything you put into your mouth is a whole food. You might need to limit your whole fruit intake as well. For a list showing the amount of fructose contained in common fruits, please see this previous article.

Sugary Drinks Linked to 180,000 Deaths Annually

In 2009, the American Heart Association (AHA) issued a scientific statement³ about sugar intake and heart health, pointing out that there is evidence for a relationship between the two. According to the abstract:

“High intakes of dietary sugars in the setting of a worldwide pandemic of obesity and cardiovascular disease have heightened concerns about the adverse effects of excessive consumption of sugars. In 2001 to 2004, the usual intake of added sugars for Americans was 22.2 teaspoons per day... Between 1970 and 2005, average annual availability of sugars/added sugars increased by 19%... Soft drinks and other sugar-sweetened beverages are the primary source of added sugars in Americans’ diets. Excessive consumption of sugars has been linked with several metabolic abnormalities and adverse health conditions, as well as shortfalls of essential nutrients...”

The postulated relationship between sugar intake and heart disease is undeniable at this point. Hundreds of excellent scientific articles have linked insulin and leptin resistance to cardiovascular disease much more strongly than cholesterol, and they are in fact at least partially responsible for cholesterol abnormalities. For instance, insulin and leptin resistance result in "small dense" LDL particles and a greater number of particles, which is much more important than your total cholesterol number for evaluating heart disease risk. Insulin and leptin resistance in turn are directly caused by excess fructose and other sugars in your diet.

As I reported back in April, research presented at the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology and Prevention/Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism 2013 Scientific Sessions suggests sugary beverages alone are responsible for about 183,000 deaths worldwide each year, including:

• 44,000 heart disease deaths
• 133,000 diabetes deaths, and
• 6,000 cancer deaths

Among the 35 largest countries in the world, Mexico had the highest death rates associated with sugary beverage consumption. There, the average consumption of sugary beverages was 24 ounces per day. The US ranked third, with an estimated 25,000 annual deaths⁴ from sweetened drinks.⁵ (Many might have expected the US to come in first place, but remember that American processed foods contain far more sugars than other nations, so Americans also consume a lot of “hidden” sugar in products other than beverages. This factor was not addressed in this study.) Interestingly, and quite disturbingly, the death rates associated with sweetened beverages were highest in those under the age of 45.

A Society of Redeemers by Francis Frangipane

      This is a great reminder from Francis Frangipane that we are not to just know about Jesus but we are to be Christlike.  It's the only way the world will change.

A Society of Redeemers By Francis Frangipane There exists a certain degree of hypocrisy among us. What I mean is, without qualms, we condemn the world for not being Christian, yet without remorse we accept we are not Christlike. I am not saying we shouldn't cry out against evil; sin exists and we must reprove it. However, at some point we must recognize there is more to our destiny than judging sin. God is looking for the perfection of mercy within us. "Mercy triumphs over judgment" (James 2:13), and to follow Christ is to walk the path of mercy toward full redemption. Recall the words of Paul. He tells us to "have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5). He goes on to explain that Christ existed in the form of God, yet He emptied Himself, took the form of a man, and died for our sins. In other words, He saw the need, but instead of condemning man, He died for man. Paul says we are to have this same attitude in us. I do not want to be a typical American Christian. I am hungry for more. I want to "grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head [of the church], even Christ" (Eph. 4:15). Our call is to attain "the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ" (v. 13). Jesus said, "As the Father has sent Me, I also send you" (John 20:21). As Christ was sent into the world to pay the price for sin, so in following Him we become a society of redeemers. When wounded, we forgive; when forced to go one mile, we go two. We bless those who curse us and turn the other cheek to those who strike us. As Christ hung on the cross at Calvary and prayed, "Father, forgive them" (Luke 23:34), so we stand before God, and on behalf of our sinful world, we pray the mercy prayer as well. I am convinced that the more Christlike the church becomes, the greater will be the backing of Heaven. The more we become a society of redeemers, the more hope we have to see our nation turned back to God. Adapted from Francis Frangipane's ebook, Spiritual Discernment and the Mind of Christ available at www.arrowbookstore.com.

Excerpt from Walter Williams Column

"According to a Wall Street Journal op-ed (9/7/2009) by Manhattan Institute's energy expert Robert Bryce, Exxon Mobil pleaded guilty in federal court to killing 85 birds that had come into contact with its pollutants. The company paid $600,000 in fines and fees. A recent Associated Press story (5/14/2013) reported that 'more than 573,000 birds are killed by the country's wind farms each year, including 83,000 hunting birds such as hawks, falcons and eagles, according to an estimate published in March in the peer-reviewed Wildlife Society Bulletin.' The Obama administration has never fined or prosecuted windmill farms, sometimes called bird Cuisinarts, for killing eagles and other protected bird species. ... It's interesting that The Associated Press chose to report the story only after the news about its reporters being secretly investigated. That caused the Obama administration to fall a bit out of favor with them. But what the heck, the 14th Amendment's requirement of 'equal protection' before the law for everybody can be cast aside in the name of diversity, so why can't it be cast aside in the name of saving the planet?" --economist Walter E. Williams

Barry Goldwater had it right.

"The turn will come when we entrust the conduct of our affairs to men who understand that their first duty as public officials is to divest themselves of the power they have been given. It will come when Americans, in hundreds of communities throughout the nation, decide to put the man in office who is pledged to enforce the Constitution and restore the Republic." --Senator Barry Goldwater (1909-1998)

God's Favorite Game: Hide-N-Seek by Kent Simpson

Kent Simpson:

God's Favorite Game: Hide-N-Seek

When you have done all you know to do, then begin seeking God for His Word.

It was in the fall of 1987. I had moved to Mesquite, Texas, to take a position with Church On the Rock in Rockwall. My life was being turned upside down; everything was falling apart. I could not pay my rent, the electric company sent notice they would be shutting off my lights, and I only had $10.00 to my name. I had been praying all day, seeking God for His direction. Nothing was changing, and the hour was getting late, when I heard someone at my front door. I waited for a knock, but none came, just the shuffling of feet as they walked away. I went to the door and looked around, thinking maybe God had sent help.

However, as I turned to go back into my apartment, I noticed a posting on my front door. As I read the note, my heart sank. The notice was from the electric company saying they would be shutting off my electric the next day. It was getting dark and I began to pray even harder. I was so tired and felt as though I was getting nowhere. I was scared. Trying to get my mind off my problems, I began to read a little booklet I had received from Rhema Bible School. As I read the booklet that Kenneth Hagin, Sr., the founder of the school in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, had written, I began to feel some peace in my heart. Then I read a verse of Scripture that seemed to leap straight off the page and into my spirit: "But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you  (Matthew 6:33).

From this one verse of Scripture, my prayer changed and the Heavens opened. I could hear Him clearly say, "Go to the prayer breakfast." I knew exactly where He was sending me, but I thought, It's too far away, and wondered if I could afford to use my last ten dollars for gas. But God was calling and I knew I had to go, so I got myself ready, jumped in my pick-up truck and spent my last few dollars fueling up my tank.

When I arrived I sat out in the parking lot and waited for everyone, but only the pastor showed up. He asked how I was doing, and I told him what all was going on in my life. He just laughed and laughed. Then he pulled out a check that was already made out. He said God had told him to put it in his pocket as he was leaving his home, headed for the morning's meeting. He handed me the check and said, "This is for you!" We both then laughed and then began to praise God for bringing this blessing together. The check was enough to pay my rent and electric and to keep me going until I could collect a paycheck. The electric company did end up shutting off the electricity; however, they pulled the wrong meter. My neighbor was pretty upset.

Seek God, And He Will Be Found

In 1991 our ministry took a group of people in our 15-passenger van to Nacogdoches, Texas, to minister in the town's Senior Citizen Hall. After praise and worship was over, I brought the usual 45-minute message, then the fun part began. We passed around the congregation a large basket that was full of blank audio cassette tapes for each person to take one. Those of us who came to minister formed a line across the stage with each one of us holding a tape recorder. As the people came up with their tape in hand they would stand before each one of the ministers, handing over their tape to receive a word. Everyone who came received at least four or more prophecies. However, I noticed there were three men on the front row who obviously did not want to be there and had refused to take a tape. With their arms crossed they sneered at us as we ministered, obviously not in agreement with what we were doing.

The last person in line was a little old woman who had waited until the end of the service to come up for a word. As I ministered to her, the Holy Spirit said, "Ask her about James, James Kay, and tell her he is with me." So I asked the little woman, "Who is James?" She said gruffly, "He's my husband!" Again I asked, looking for confirmation, "Who is James Kay?" Staring at me like I should know, she replied, "Well, he is my husband!"

Now I had all the information I needed to know I was hearing God clearly. Boldly I said, "God wants you to know James Kay is with Him!" The woman broke out in tears. Obviously James was not a very strong Christian, but she finally knew her husband would be waiting for her in Heaven. Even the three angry men sitting on the front row knew James Kay and also believed there was no way I could have known James Kay except by hearing God. By the gift of the Holy Spirit, through the word of knowledge, I was given the words needed to bless the little old woman and make Believers out of three rough-looking oil field workers.

After the services were over a group of women served sandwiches, chips, and drinks. When I sat down to eat, the three men rushed over and sat down right across from me and wanted to know everything about the Holy Spirit. That night was my first prophetic evangelistic experience, as recorded in 1 Corinthians 14:24-25: "But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an uninformed person comes in, he is convinced by all, he is convicted by all. And thus the secrets of his heart are revealed; and so, falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is truly among you."

Kent Simpson, Prophetic Pastor
Prophetic Ministries Today
Email: PMT@propheticministries.org
Website: propheticministries.org

An Answer to Prayer

        Don't you love it when it is apparent the Lord is working in a situation?
        In addition to the Heritage Days Festival, our committee has been working on a project to raise money and build an amphitheater in our town.  It has obviously been a learning experience for all of us.  Our town does not have building codes or permits so it seemed an easy thing to do.  We had already found a good builder who has build all kinds of structures in our county.
         In April we had raised a significant amount of the money we thought we needed and were ready to begin building Phase 1.  Then someone stepped in to say that it must be built according to the Illinois Building Code in order to be certain the City would accept it after we had built it at no cost to them using private funds.  We were then told we should hire an architect who would attach his seal saying it passed the Illinois Code.  One was recommended to us who, after negotiations, agreed to do the plan for $6,000--a major added expense, we thought, but if it had to be done, so be it.  We told him what we wanted, gave him a picture of one we had found on the internet similar to what we wanted it to look like, and a computer drawn floor plan.  He sent us a revised plan that left out the side porches and included significant space in our dressing area for 2 handicapped accessible bathrooms and a 5 foot wide hallway so 2 wheelchairs could pass.  (We had wanted a bathroom to be used by the performers which wouldn't be open to the public and the possibility of 2 wheelchairs being in the dressing area at once was about 100 million to one!)  How disappointing!
       We invited the architect to come look at the site.  He didn't have any suggestions of where to locate the amphitheater, saying the plan he was drawing would fit wherever we wanted it so we were left on our own to decide where to place it.  Of course, there were many differing opinions where that should be!  Needless to say, we were feeling much frustration but decided to table the discussion and plans till after the Festival.
      While I was standing in the Information Booth at the Festival a man came up asking where the amphitheater was going to be located.  He was very concerned we get it in the right place.  Since I've had numerous people give me their opinion I wasn't really very interested in talking with him until he told me he was an architect!  Here was an answer to prayer!  Someone who knew something and who was interested and willing to help us figure it all out!
      Several of our committee met with him yesterday at the Linn Park.  He helped us discover what seems to be the perfect location for the amphitheater, and had several suggestions of how we could save money on parts of the project.  He also didn't think there was a need for 2 handicapped accessible bathrooms when they were not going to be used by the public so he was going to look into that.
He said he would work on some ideas he was thinking about this weekend while he is in town and so we're stopping by his place on Sunday to talk with him.  I am certainly encouraged!
      This morning I'm praising the Lord for sending us just who we needed at exactly the right time.  Part of me wishes we had met him before we hired the other architect, but I am standing on the promise that God works all things together for our good.  Praise His Wonderful Name!

People need to know this!

Mark Alexander's column in the Patriot Post today:

ALEXANDER'S COLUMN Living Rich and Famous, Obama Style If Not for Double Standards... The $100 MILLION Family Vacation By Mark Alexander · June 20, 2013       "We have heard of the impious doctrine in the Old World, that the people were made for kings, not kings for the people. Is the same doctrine to be revived in the New, in another shape...? --James Madison (1788) Obama One For all the class warfare rhetoricspewed by Barack Hussein Obama and his NeoCom cadres, he and his co-conspirator, Michelle LaVaughn, live like royalty. Their let-'em-eat-cake lifestyle is even more contemptible, however, when one considers that it comes at the expense of those whom they purport to represent. For all the references to "fat cats," it turns out the fattest cats of all now occupy the White House, and much like their record accumulation of national debt, their unmitigated arrogance and bloated hypocrisy exceeds all that of previous executive administrations combined. Perhaps there are no better cases in point than the Obamas' exotic resort vacations and golf junkets whilst the rest of the nation exercises austerity measures necessitated by the regime's failed economic policies. This week, Michelle and daughters Malia and Sasha hitched a ride on Air Force One to the G8 Summit in Northern Ireland. Then MO requisitioned Air Force Two so that she and her entourage could spend two days touring Dublin and the surrounding area. Once there, MO, her 11- and 14-year-old kids, and 30 members of her retinue set up shop in the lavish 5-star Shelbourne Hotel, where she booked the $3,300-per-night Princess Grace Suite. By day, they hobnobbed with glitterati, lunching over Dalkey Lobster and Crab Salad or Road Rack of Wicklow Spring Lamb with such notables as U2 singer Bono. By night they were treated to royal boxes at theater performances such as "Riverdance," where Michelle told an adoring crowd, "It is good to be home." Conde Nast, leftist travel magazine of the rich and famous, devoted a special section under "Bigwig Vacations," to Michelle's travel plans, noting, "It looks like she has taken a leaf or two from our 'Iconic Irish Itinerary.'" The Huffington Post Style pages opined under the heading, "Michelle Obama's Ireland Trip Wardrobe Is Making Us Jealous," then gushed about her "awesome printed Lela Rose vest, an on-trend Burberry trench coat and a covetable utility jacket." Isn't that special. Post Your Opinion Michelle's two-day $5.2 million side trip, however, was a mere slum tour compared to the Obamas' next taxpayer funded junket -- a "heritage tour" of three nations in southern Africa the week of June 26 to July 3, with an estimated cost between $80 and $100 million. Beyond the five-star accommodations, this Africa tour will put an enormous burden on the Air Force. In addition to the already-huge operational cost of Air Force One, USAF cargo planes will airlift 14 limousines and 42 support vehicles, including three trucks with sheets of ballistic glass for the royal family's hotel windows. Helicopters will be ferried in along with the largest Secret Service team and support network ever. The entire trip with be under 24-hour cover of Air Force fighter jets, and a large Navy presence will be maintained off the east coast of Africa in case of any security or medical emergencies. Calculating the total cost of the Africa trip is difficult, because so many expenses are classified, but the $100 million estimate came from the Washington Post. When the Post questioned the added cost of one excursion, an exotic Tanzanian safari, the White House canceled it. Seems that would have just been over the top... According to Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy adviser for strategic communications, "The infrastructure that accompanies the president's travels is beyond our control." (Yes, that's the same Ben Rhodes who's "credited" with the White House Benghazi rewrites, and the same Ben Rhodes whose brother David is the president of CBS News.) However, canceling exorbitantly expensive vacations is completely within Obama's control. For the record, presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush also made trips to Africa at enormous cost to taxpayers and military budgets, but not at the same time they were blaming what Obama calls "the Republican Sequester" for across-the-board cuts to government agencies, with the deepest cuts of all hitting our nation's military budgets. (Ironically, national defense is one of the few federal expenses that is actually authorized by the Rule of Law enshrined in our Constitution.) Post Your Opinion Also for the record, neither Clinton nor Bush devoted reams of classist rhetoric condemning corporate depreciation of private aircraft all while commuting in the world's most expensive taxpayer-funded exec jet. On a political junket a few months ago, Obama said, "What we don't want to do is give somebody who's buying a corporate jet an extra tax break that ordinary people can't get because they don't need it. ... They don't need an extra tax break, especially at a time when we're trying to reduce the deficit. Something's got to give." Barack's "Heritage Tour" Outfit Only an archetypal case study ofNarcissistic Personality Disorder would commute on Air Force One to Kansas for a socialist stump speech, at a cost to taxpayers of $181,757 per flight-hour, not including the enormous cost of support personnel, facilities, and additional support aircraft, and lecture laid-off aircraft workers about why private-sector companies shouldn't receive the same write-off for an aircraft that they do for other business equipment. Need I also mention the enormous cost to states and local government treasuries, and the significant inconvenience to other air travelers and local commuters every time Obama comes to town for a fundraiser? Writing about the opulence of this administration in "Presidential Perks Gone Royal," author Robert Keith Gray notes that $1.4 billion in taxpayer funds was spent on the Obamas last year, including "the biggest staff in history at the highest wages ever" and Air Force One "running with the frequency of a scheduled air line." Not only does Obama have the audacity to chastise corporate use of aircraft, but among the high profile sequester cuts Obama demanded was the cancelation of traditional flyovers at the Air Force and Naval Academy graduations two weeks ago. So here's the question nobody has asked Obama spokesman Jay Carney: How does Obama justify the cancelation of flyovers to honor the commitment and sacrifice of our next generation of young military officers taking their oaths "to support and defend" our Constitution with their blood and lives, while their commander in chief is using Air Force One to ferry him and his adoring entourage around the nation to political fundraisers, and around the world on vacation junkets, at colossal expense to the defense budget and American taxpayers? USAF Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh said this week that Obama's sequester has grounded 33 squadrons, and many pilots are losing their proficiency. "If we were ordered to go do" a no-fly zone over Syria, "we'd go do it," but we would be "accepting the risk of those people not being as current. For me, that's a risk we don't want to be accepting." Perhaps we should sequester the use of Air Force exec jets, including Air Force One, and also sequester $100 million royal family vacations. Perhaps these savings could offset the $70 million in IRS bonuses to be paid this year -- to administrators who have benignly supported the harassment of Obama's "Enemies List." The Africa heritage tour funds alone would be sufficient to reopen public White House tours for the next 25 years. Indeed, if it weren't for double standards, BO and MO wouldn't have any. If there's one defining characteristic of Leftist protagonists that is universally true, it is their consummate hypocrisy. Pro Deo et Constitutione — Libertas aut Mors Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis Mark Alexander Publisher, The Patriot Post