Like a Slingshot!

Sometimes a setback is just a setup, for a comeback, like a slingshot!

Become a beginner and be a winner!

"You can learn new things at any time in your life if you're willing to be a beginner. If you actually learn to like being a beginner, the whole world opens up to you."~Barbara Sher

Making your life count for Christ

Today I saw the movie Julie & Julia. It was an awesome movie and detailed how an individual can have so many gifts and skills, yet feel so insignificant. Then one day something happens to change that. You find purpose and passion in life.

I can't really say that I'm there yet, but this movie really helped me to see that really nothing happens by accident, and yet we must take initiative to sometimes fulfill the plans and purposes God has in store for us. We can't sit back idle and expect destiny to jump in our laps.

Take today and tomorrow Labor Day to reflect on Christ's labor of love and how special we are in His eyes. He has everything so marvelously worked out if we would only accept...it.

The Joy Movie

The Mission

La Mision

Our Mission

The movie The Mission with Robert DeNiro was brought to my mind today. Watch it, it is a life changing movie, especially the scene of him climbing up the side of a mountain with pounds and pounds of supplies on his back. So oppressing! He takes the heavy load, cuts and lets it fall to the bottom. He continues his climb, looking up and to the place above -- his destination.

I thought about my daily life and how I try to climb to the top so many times with so much baggage. I get focused on the weight instead of the Lord and it's days like today when I'm waiting in a hospital with my 87 year old father who is faced with the threat of cancer, and he's making the nurse laugh and feel better after she's just rolled his vein. "It's ok," he said, "You didn't hurt me." He's told me so many times, that he just doesn't like making anyone "feel bad." It's times like this I see the man God created so beautifully nearly a hundred years ago.

Eac day and each place and person we meet is a mountain. We can address the climb weighted down, or cut the bundle of burdens we carry or think we need, and just simply enjoy the beauty of the mountain climb on our way to the destination and places God wants us to go to carry His love.

As we carry His love, He is faithful to carry us through any situation we find ourselves in.

Take a break and watch this very relaxing and powerful video. It's only a couple of minutes. You DO HAVE TIME!

Only One Name Under Heaven - Yeshua

Avion Blackman "Yeshua" from Impressive Creations on Vimeo.

Removing Clutter from Your Life

Kay Gallegos owner of Clutterbusters in Winter Park sent me this email today. It's worth taking the time to read. Get a cup of tea, coffee or something you love and make time to visit this site. It will help you to "center" and feed your spirit. God wants us to be free from stress, full of joy, and a vessel that is always abounding in the work of the Lord.

This "Free Ebook" will Free your spirit....This morning I received a link to a free ebook, "Thriving on Less - Simplifying in a Tough Economy". The first chapter talks about the benefits of simplifying your life. The subsequent chapters contain some practical information that can benefit everyone.

To read more, please visit the following link:

http://media.thepowerofless.com/ThrivingonLess.pdf


Table of Contents
Introduction
1. A Simple Lifestyle
2. Focus on the Essentials
3. Thriving on Less, Not Struggling
4. Focusing on Enough, Not More
5. Make Small Financial Changes First
6. Look at Large Expenses for the Long Term
7. Changing Your Spending Habits
8. A Guide to Getting Out of Debt
9. Tools for a Frugal Life
10. Resources

Let Kay help you "Clutter Free Your Life"
Send her an email at kgallegos@clutterbusters.com

Today was a “GOD” day!

Today Cinderella Released met Tessa Treu and we became "forever friends." Today my life was changed and blessed because God introduced me to a woman who loves God and radiates His presence.

Tessa's life changed when she gave birth to her first child at age 16. She had to make some choices and changes. She learned what she needed to do to become a good mother and has learned to receive the wonderful gift of grace and love in her life. The Lord has given her big dreams and powerful vision. "Inside Out" is the name of the organization and she is empowering young women.

For more information about this wonderful mission and ministry please visit website http://www.yourinsideout.net. You will be blessed like I was. Please put Tessa, her wonderful husband Joe and their three children Jordan, Olivia and Victoria on your prayer list. I did. It is so "GOD" when you see, feel and hear about what the Lord is doing in our midst.

For support, referrals, and donations you may contact Tessa Treu at tessatreu@yourinsideout.net. Inside Out is a not for profit organization and is supported by Eye of the Storm Ministries, Inc. and Cinderella Released.

Three Friends - Fact, Faith & Feeling

Fact, Faith, and Feeling were walking on the fence together. Fact is God's Word, it says, nothing shall ever separate me from the love of God, my Faith accepts and receives this, and it makes me Feel good.

I am ok as long as I allow "Feeling" to follow "Faith and Fact".

Signs and wonders follow those that believe(have faith in) the fact (truth of God's words). If we are walking on the fence in this manner, we will be steadfast and feel good about our walk.

Picture this scenerio; The three (Fact - Faith - Feeling)turn around and began to follow Feeling . They all three fell off the fence! WHY? We can't follow feeling.

We must follow Fact based on Faith which will eventually produce the right Feeling...

Romans 8:35-39 (The Message)

31-39 So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn't gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God's chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:

They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.
We're sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.
None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I'm absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.

The Coffee Cup

Dear Seed Sower Deb,

You asked about my dad. This morning I'm home with him. His heart is getting weaker and weaker but he is still able to crack a joke.

I always make coffee when he stays home and this morning I took him another cup. Usually I take him a small delicate cup, but this one was heavier. He needs the exercise! Of course he lays down and drinks his coffee because he is weak. I poured him a refill and he said, "This is the height of laziness." He meant, laying in bed drinking coffee.

He keeps asking me if his brain is ok? He's worried about becoming demented. I assure him he's still all there. This has been a serious learning experience being at home with my dad who is 87. I've learned a lot.

He is always thankful for every little thing and rarely complains. One thing I've noticed is that he is able to discern whenever he is anxious about something. He knows and understands whether or not something is a matter that you should get upset about. He says, "my nerves are bad, I get upset over something I shouldn't get upset over."

This reminded me of Phil 4:6 "Be careful (anxious)for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God."

For those of you out there with older parents...appreciate their wisdom....and love their life....that all may go well with you and you will live a long life. Cinderella Released...from ashes to beauty. cinderella.eyeofthestorm@gmail.com

Flowers By Steps

Cinderella Released, Below is today's reading from Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest. I thought of you (and me too) when I read this.

I, like you, want to do for God. Do this, do that, do something. But, here I am at home with Jordan... Reading this, my heart burst with joy.... what better place to be... here... able to minister to my little boy, focus on the Creator of the universe, in His Word, pray, sing songs of praise... concentrating on Him only to grow spiritually as the lillies. I am going to buy and plant some flowers at my back door steps... this is one thing I can do and concentrate on my creator at the same time. When I come in and go out, I will be reminded of how the God of all creation cares and loves me (and you). The second italicized portion below reminds me of you - you have always been a faithful woman of God, like the stars at night there each night shining out, consistent as a friend, a mother, a daughter. Shine on. Take care my friend. See you soon. Love, deb


"Behold the fowls of the air." . . . "Consider the lilies of the field." Matthew 6:26, 28
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they simply are! Think of the sea, the air, the sun, the stars and the moon - all these are, and what a ministration they exert. So often we mar God's designed influence through us by our self-conscious effort to be consistent and useful. Jesus says that there is only one way to develop spiritually, and that is by concentration on God. "Do not bother about being of use to others; believe on Me" - pay attention to the Source, and out of you will flow rivers of living water. We cannot get at the springs of our natural life by common sense, and Jesus is teaching that growth in spiritual life does not depend on our watching it, but on concentration on our Father in heaven. Our heavenly Father knows the circumstances we are in, and if we keep concentrated on Him we will grow spiritually as the lilies.

The people who influence us most are not those who buttonhole us and talk to us, but those who live their lives like the stars in heaven and the lilies in the field, perfectly simply and unaffectedly. Those are the lives that mold us.

If you want to be of use to God, get rightly related to Jesus Christ and He will make you of use unconsciously every minute you live.



--
From Debby, living by the Grace of God. How can a seed grow unless it is first planted? visit Seed Sower site: http://seedsowersseries.blogspot.com

My Princess I Will Protect You

MY PRINCESS…
I WILL PROTECT YOU

I am your shield of protection. Many times you wonder where I am in the midst of the battle that rages around you. You feel abandoned on the battlefield. Don’t be afraid and don’t lose faith. I am here, and I am always victorious. I will protect you, but you must trust Me. Sometimes I will lead you to shelter for safety and restoration. Other times I will ask you to join Me on the front line in the heat of the battle.

The truth is, I can kill any giant that threatens your life, but, just like David the shepherd boy, it’s up to you to march forward, pick up the stones, and face your giant. I love to prove My strength when the odds are the greatest and hope is the smallest. I am truly your shelter and your deliverer – I will protect you no matter where you are.

Love,
Your King and your Protector

“You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.” ~ Psa. 32:7

Cinderella Tours and other Noteworthy Places

Check out Break Away Moments for great trips to the Carribean.

Free The Slaves International Awareness Day

Free at Last
How Christians worldwide are sabotaging the modern slave trade.
Deann Alford | posted 2/21/2007 08:51AM

Seven years ago, Sandy Shepherd got an unexpected phone call as she headed to her daughter's high school musical rehearsal. A mother of three, living in affluent Colleyville near Fort Worth, she was already beginning to imagine life as an empty nester. She wasn't thinking about changing the world.

On the line was Deacon Neel Choate from her church, First Baptist. He told her that the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) had just picked up seven Zambian boys—all part of a touring choir they both knew. First Baptist had hosted the choir previously. Choate said the boys needed a place to stay or they would spend the night in jail.

Could she house all seven overnight?

Shepherd took a deep breath. For two years, Shepherd had passionately supported this choir, utterly unaware that she and her church were being duped.

A Baptist missionary, Keith Grimes, had recruited the boys to tour America with his ministry, TTT: Partners in Education. Grimes had made big promises to the boys and their families. He had inspired them with talk of salaries, an American education, and stipends for families back in Zambia. Grimes had also claimed the tour would raise money for Kalingalinga, the grindingly poor shantytown that provided its fresh-faced sons for these tours 6,000 miles from their homes.

For the rest of this article

Raising Awareness for Free the Slaves Organization

Help stamp out slavery in our lifetime!

Visit: Free The Slaves Organization

We had many respond to the Free The Slaves International Awareness Day, March 27th.

One blog created by Marj McCabe Visit her blog: http://survivorscanthrive.blogspot.com/2009/03/free-slaves.html

Join me in the fight for freedom!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clAZT_YzY5U

Abuse Leaves Its Mark on the Brain

Abuse Leaves Its Mark on the Brain

By Constance Holden
ScienceNOW Daily News
23 February 2009

Child abuse doesn't just cause emotional problems; it also causes long-lasting changes the brain. A new study shows that in men who were abused as children, a gene involved in stress control is affected even decades later, following a pattern also seen in stressed baby rats.

Rat studies have revealed that maternal neglect alters the workings of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, a system that secretes particular hormones in response to stress (ScienceNOW, 2 August 2004). In the abused animals, the regulatory region of a gene for the glucocorticoid receptor, responsible for damping down the HPA response, doesn't do its job properly. As a result, the animals experience chronically higher stress levels.

Now, researchers have identified the same phenomenon in human brains. Neuroscientist Michael Meaney and colleagues at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, compared postmortem brains of 12 men who had been abused as children and had committed suicide with those of two age-matched groups: nonabused men who had also killed themselves, and nonabused men who had died suddenly from other causes.

The researchers extracted DNA from the hippocampus, a brain area where the gene is active. They found that the abused men showed the same changes as the abused rats: increases in methylation at a site in the promoter of the gene, which made it less capable of modifying the stress response. The change was not seen in the two other groups.

"This is a beautiful study," says neuroscientist Eric Nestler of Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. It supports the idea that epigenetic changes--that is, events that affect gene expression but not the DNA sequences of the genes themselves--in specific nervous system genes "may be an important mechanism by which environmental exposures cause long-lasting behavior change."

Over the past decade, evidence has been accumulating that "abused individuals are less healthy in adulthood," Meaney says. They suffer not just from mental illness but also from obesity, heart disease, and autoimmune disorders. This research, he says, may be a first step in finding out why.

Mothers - Count Your Blessings

Having four sons, this video really touched my heart with the love of Christ and how there are so many Christians in the world making a difference for him.