God through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior; found our hearts worthy enough to save, and to entrust us to spread the Gospel. Including handing us the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Let us not grow weary of His cause. And by His grace and mercies given us be proven worthy of our call. The harvest are plenty but the gatherers are few. Let's stand for our call in Jesus Christ. HAPPY SUNDAY WORLD
7 Ways to Get Rid of Negative Energy and Become Positive
Negativity affects ourselves and everyone around us. It limits our potential to become something great and live a fulfilling, purposeful life. Negativity has a tangible effect on our health, too. Research has shown that people who cultivate negative energy experience more stress, more sickness, and less opportunity over the course of their lives than those who choose to live positively.
When we make a decision to become positive, and follow that decision up with action, we will begin to encounter situations and people that are also positive. The negative energy gets edged out by all positive experiences. It’s a snowball effect. Although negative and positive thoughts will always exist, the key to becoming positive is to limit the amount of negativity that we experience by filling ourselves up with more positivity.
Here are some ways to get rid of negativity and become more positive.
Become grateful–for everything
When life is all about us, it’s easy to believe that we deserve what we have. An attitude of entitlement puts us at the center of the universe and sets up the unrealistic expectation that others should cater to us, our needs, and our wants. This vain state of existence is a surefire way to set yourself up for an unfulfilled life of negativity. People living in this sort of entitlement are “energy suckers”–they are always searching for what they can get out of a situation.
People that don’t appreciate the nuances of their lives live in a constant state of lacking. And it’s really difficult to live a positive life this way.
When we begin to be grateful and appreciate everything in our lives–from the small struggles that make us better, to the car that gets us from A to B every day–we shift our attitude from one of selfishness, to one of appreciation. This appreciation gets noticed by others, and a positive harmony begins to form in our relationships. We begin to receive more of that which we are grateful for, because we’ve opened ourselves up to the idea of receiving, instead of taking. This will make your life more fulfilling, and more positive.
Laugh more–especially at yourself
Life gets busy, our schedules fill up, we get into relationships, and work can feel task oriented and routine-driven at times. Being human can feel more like being a robot. But having this work-driven, serious attitude often results in negative and performance oriented thinking. Becoming positive means taking life less seriously and letting yourself off the hook. This is the only life that you get to live–why not lighten up your mood?
Laughter helps us become positive by lightening our mood and reminding us not to take life so seriously. Are you sensitive to light sarcasm? Do you have trouble laughing at jokes? Usually, people who are stressed out and overly serious get most offended by sarcasm because their life is all work and no play. If we can learn to laugh at ourselves and our mistakes, life will become more of an experiment in finding out what makes us happy. And finding happiness means finding positivity.
Help others
Negativity goes hand in hand with selfishness. People that live only for themselves have no higher purpose in their lives. If the whole point of this world is only to take care of yourself and no one else, the road to a long-term fulfillment and purpose is going to be a long one.
Positivity accompanies purpose.
The most basic way to create purpose and positivity in your life is to begin doing things for others. Start small; open the door for the person in front of you at Starbucks or ask someone how their day was before telling them about yours. Helping others will give you an intangible sense of value that will translate into positivity. And people might just appreciate you in the process.
Change your thinking
We can either be our best coach or our best enemy. Change starts from within. If you want to become more positive, change the wording of your thoughts. We are the hardest on ourselves, and a stream of negative self talk is corrosive to a positive life.
The next time you have a negative thought, write it down and rephrase it with a positive spin. For example, change a thought like, “I can’t believe I did so horribly on the test–I suck.” to “I didn’t do as well as I hoped to on this test. But I know I’m capable and I’ll do better next time.”
Changing our self-talk is powerful.
Surround yourself with positive people
We become most like the people that we surround ourselves with. If our friend group is full of negative energy-suckers and drama queens, we will emulate that behavior and become like them. It is very difficult to become more positive when the people around us don’t support or demonstrate positive behavior.
As you become more positive, you’ll find that your existing friends will either appreciate the new you or they will become resistant to your positive changes. This is a natural response; change is scary. But cutting out the negative people in your life is a huge step to becoming more positive. Positive people reflect and bounce their perspectives onto one another. Positivity is a step-by-step process when you do it solo, but a positive group of friends can be an escalator.
Get into action
Negative thoughts can be overwhelming and challenging to navigate. Negativity is usually accompanied by a “freak-out” response, especially when tied to relationships, people and to worrying about the future. This is debilitating to becoming positive and usually snowballs into more worry, more stress and more freak-outs.
Turn the negative stress into positive action. The next time you’re in one of these situations, walk away and take a break. With your eyes closed, take a few deep breaths. Once you’re calm, approach the situation or problem with a pen and pad of paper. Write out four or five actions or solutions to begin solving the problem. Taking yourself out of the emotionally charged negative by moving into the action-oriented positive will help you solve more problems rationally and live in positivity
Take full responsibility; stop being the victim
You are responsible for your thoughts. People that consistently believe that things happen to them handicap themselves to a victim mentality. This is a subtle and deceptive negative thought pattern. Phrases like “I haveto work” or “I can’t believe he did thatto me” are indicators of a victim mentality. Blaming circumstances and blaming others only handicaps our decision to change something negative into something positive.
Taking full responsibility for your life, your thoughts and your actions is one of the biggest steps in creating a more positive life. We have unlimited potential within to create our own reality, change our life, and change our thoughts. When we begin to really internalize this, we discover that no one can make us feel or do anything. We choose our emotional and behavioral response to people and circumstances.
Make positive choices in favor of yourself.
Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habit.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny
The major world religions and their beliefs about God. Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, and New Age...
BY: RAPH T RAPHAEL TYOADE
We all want to make it through life with success, some sense that we did it right. So what about the major world religions? Is there anything in them that might give our lives greater depth and direction?
The following looks at the major world religions... Hinduism, New Age, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity.* There is a brief description of each, their view of God, and what a person can gain from that religion. The ending explains how Jesus' teaching differs from the major religions.
*Each of these religions has sects with differing beliefs. The description given here focuses on the core beliefs of each religion. Other major religions, such as Judaism, could be discussed, but for brevity, we have chosen these.
Hinduism and its beliefs
Most Hindus worship one Being of ultimate oneness (Brahman) through infinite representations of gods and goddesses. These various manifestations of gods and goddesses become incarnate within idols, temples, gurus, rivers, animals, etc.
Hindus believe their position in this present life was determined by their actions in a previous life. Hinduism therefore provides a possible explanation for suffering and evil in this life. If a person’s behavior before was evil, they might justifiably experience tremendous hardships in this life. Pain, disease, poverty or a disaster like a flood is deserved by that person because of their own evil actions, usually from a previous lifetime.
A Hindu's goal is to become free from the law of karma...to be free from continuous reincarnations. Only the soul matters which will one day be free of the cycle of rebirths and be at rest.
Hinduism gives a person freedom to choose how to work toward spiritual perfection. There are three possible ways to end this cycle of karma: 1. Be lovingly devoted to any of the Hindu gods or goddesses; 2. Grow in knowledge through meditation of Brahman (oneness)...to realize that circumstances in life are not real, that selfhood is an illusion and only Brahman is real; 3. Be dedicated to various religious ceremonies and rites.
New Age and its beliefs
New Age promotes the development of the person's own power or divinity. When referring to God, a follower of New Age is not talking about a transcendent, personal God who created the universe, but is referring to a higher consciousness within themselves. A person in New Age would see themselves as God, the cosmos, the universe. In fact, everything that the person sees, hears, feels or imagines is to be considered divine.
Highly eclectic, New Age presents itself as a collection of ancient spiritual traditions. It acknowledges many gods and goddesses, as in Hinduism. The Earth is viewed as the source of all spirituality, and has its own intelligence, emotions and deity. But superseding all is self. Self is the originator, controller and God of all. There is no reality outside of what the person determines.
New Age teaches a wide array of eastern mysticism and spiritual, metaphysical and psychic techniques, such as breathing exercises, chanting, drumming, meditating...to develop an altered consciousness and one's own divinity.
Anything negative a person experiences (failures, sadness, anger, selfishness, hurt) is considered an illusion. Believing themselves to be completely sovereign over their life, nothing about their life is wrong, negative or painful. Eventually a person develops spiritually to the degree that there is no objective, external reality. A person, becoming a god, creates their own reality.
Buddhism and its beliefs
Buddhists do not worship any gods or God. People outside of Buddhism often think that Buddhists worship the Buddha. However, the Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama) never claimed to be divine, but rather he is viewed by Buddhists as having attained what they are also striving to attain, which is spiritual enlightenment and, with it, freedom from the continuous cycle of life and death. Most Buddhists believe a person has countless rebirths, which inevitably include suffering. A Buddhist seeks to end these rebirths. Buddhists believe it is a person's cravings, aversion and delusion that cause these rebirths. Therefore, the goal of a Buddhist is to purify one's heart and to let go of all yearnings toward sensual desires and the attachment to oneself.
Buddhists follow a list of religious principles and very dedicated meditation. When a Buddhist meditates it is not the same as praying or focusing on a god, it is more of a self-discipline. Through practiced meditation a person may reach Nirvana -- "the blowing out" of the flame of desire.
Buddhism provides something that is true of most major religions: disciplines, values and directives that a person may want to live by.
Islam and its beliefs
Muslims believe there is the one almighty God, named Allah, who is infinitely superior to and transcendent from humankind. Allah is viewed as the creator of the universe and the source of all good and all evil. Everything that happens is Allah's will. He is a powerful and strict judge, who will be merciful toward followers depending on the sufficiency of their life's good works and religious devotion. A follower's relationship with Allah is as a servant to Allah.
Though a Muslim honors several prophets, Muhammad is considered the last prophet and his words and lifestyle are that person's authority. To be a Muslim, one has to follow five religious duties: 1. Repeat a creed about Allah and Muhammad; 2. Recite certain prayers in Arabic five times a day; 3. Give to the needy; 4. One month each year, fast from food, drink, sex and smoking from sunrise to sunset; 5. Pilgrimage once in one's lifetime to worship at a shrine in Mecca. At death -- based on one's faithfulness to these duties -- a Muslim hopes to enter Paradise. If not, they will be eternally punished in hell.
For many people, Islam matches their expectations about religion and deity. Islam teaches that there is one supreme God, who is worshiped through good deeds and disciplined religious rituals. After death a person is rewarded or punished according to their religious devotion. Muslims believe that giving up one’s life for Allah is a sure way of entering Paradise.
Christianity and its beliefs
Christians believe in a loving God who has revealed himself and can be known in a personal way, in this life. With Jesus Christ, the person's focus is not on religious rituals or performing good works, but on enjoying a relationship with God and growing to know him better.
Faith in Jesus Christ himself, not just in his teachings, is how the Christian experiences joy and a meaningful life. In his life on Earth, Jesus did not identify himself as a prophet pointing to God or as a teacher of enlightenment. Rather, Jesus claimed to be God in human form. He performed miracles, forgave people of their sin and said that anyone who believed in him would have eternal life. He made statements like, "I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."1
Christians regard the Bible as God's written message to humankind. In addition to being an historical record of Jesus' life and miracles, the Bible reveals God's personality, his love and truth, and how one can have a relationship with him.
Whatever circumstances a Christian is dealing with in their life, the Bible teaches that they can confidently turn to a wise and powerful God who genuinely loves them. They believe that God answers prayer and that life takes on meaning as they live to honor him.
How distinct are these major religions?
In looking at these major belief systems and their views of God, we find tremendous diversity:
Hindus acknowledge multitudes of gods and goddesses.
Buddhists say there is no deity.
New Age followers believe they are God.
Muslims believe in a powerful but unknowable God.
Christians believe in a God who is loving and approachable.
Are all religions worshiping the same God? Let's consider that. New Age teaches that everyone should come to center on a cosmic consciousness, but it would require Islam to give up their one God, Hinduism to give up their numerous gods, and Buddhism to establish that there is a God.
The world's major religions (Hinduism, New Age, Buddhism, Islam, following Jesus Christ) are each quite unique. And of these one affirms that there is a personal, loving God who can be known, now in this life. Jesus Christ spoke of a God who welcomes us into a relationship with him and comes along side us as a comforter, counselor and powerful God who loves us.
In Hinduism a person is on their own trying to gain release from karma. In New Age a person is working at their own divinity. In Buddhism it is an individual quest at being free from desire. And in Islam, the individual follows religious laws for the sake of paradise after death. In Jesus' teaching, you see a personal relationship with a personal God -- a relationship that carries over into the next life.
Can a person connect with God in this life?
The answer is yes. Not only can you connect with God, you also can know that you are fully accepted and loved by God.
Many world religions place an individual on their own, striving for spiritual perfection.
Buddha, for example, never claimed sinlessness. Muhammad also admitted that he was in need of forgiveness. "No matter how wise, no matter how gifted, no matter how influential other prophets, gurus, and teachers might be, they had the presence of mind to know that they were imperfect just like the rest of us."2
Jesus Christ, however, never alluded to any personal sin. Instead, Jesus forgave people of their sin and he wants to forgive us of our sin also. We all are aware of our faults, the areas of our lives that may cause others to think less of us, areas that we ourselves wish were not there.
I am my own biggest critic. Before anyone else has criticized me, I have already criticized myself. But for the rest of my life, I am going to be with me and I don't want to spend my life with someone who is always critical. So I am going to stop being my own critic. It's high time that I accept all the great things about me.
Anyone can come into your life and say how much they love you. It takes someone really special to stay in your life and show how much they love you.
Happiness is not determined by what’s happening around you, but rather what’s happening inside you. Most people depend on others to gain happiness, but the truth is, it always comes from within.
TEN TYPES OF GIRLS EVERY GUY DATES BEFORE MEETING THE ONE
Guys, it is a tough dating world out there. There are loads of girls you have to go through before finding Ms. Right. Good thing you don’t particularly mind dating lots of different women. It will give you something to reflect back on when you’re old and not as devilishly handsome as you are right now. Let’s cover the different types of women you may meet on your road to eventual coupledom.
1. DADDY'S GIRL
This girl may be 25, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t love to spend quality time with Daddy. In fact, not only does he financially subsidize her, but he’s also the first person she calls when her car breaks down, her boss yells at her, or she has an extra ticket to a concert. Hey wait a second; isn’t that supposed to be your role? Then there’s the time you find Daddy polishing his machete collection and staring at you. When you break up with the Daddy’s girl, she doesn’t seem to notice; she’s off to Tahoe to ski with Dad that weekend.
2. THE PARTY GIRL
This girl always knows where the party is. Not only that, but she has friends wherever you go, and they all have funny stories about that time she got wasted and made out with other people’s boyfriends. Then, what do you know, you find her in a closet doing the same thing when she was supposed to be in a relationship with you. You try to dump her but she’s too busy making out with that random guy to listen.
3. THE STRAIGHT A STUDENT
This girl is super smart and it would be great to talk to her…if she ever had time to talk. Not only is she a straight A student but she’s involved in every activity on campus, whether she’s an undergrad or a grad student. She takes on extra work like it’s going out of style, and she’s more emotionally committed to her study group partners than to you. When you break up with her, she turns it into an excellent piece of nonfiction for her writing seminar and gets, of course, an A.
4. MISS JEALOUSY
“What did you really mean when you said ‘Nice shirt’ to your coworker at that party? What was nice about the shirt? Are you secretly in love with her? This reminds me of what you said last weekend to my sister, remember? ‘I like your car’. You meant you wanted to ride off with her somewhere private and put down the back seat, didn’t you? DIDN’T YOU?” You dump her by telling her you have a terminal illness because you’re scared of the repercussions.
5. GOSSIP GIRL
This girl talks your ear off about her friend, her friend’s friend, her friend’s boyfriend’s friend, and that guy’s cousin. All of her stories seem to be about someone in a bad situation that your girlfriend can pretend to empathize with while she secretly acts better than them. You break up with her after you start fantasizing about Miss Jealousy, who was at least focused on you.
6. YOUR MOM'S HOPEFUL DAUGHTER-IN-LAW
This girl and your mom get along like gangbusters. Your mom drops hints about how it’s time to settle down, and your girlfriend talks about how awesome a listener your mom is. But, to be honest, your mom has more chemistry with this girl than you do. You start hanging out in the library hoping to run into The Straight A Student and let your mom break the news to your girlfriend gently.
6. THE ANXIETY CASE
This girl is nervous and worried about everything. When you go on a snowboarding trip, she worries about you breaking your leg. When you eat quickly, she worries about you choking. When she is too nervous about flying to take a vacation with you, you find her a good therapist and say “hasta la vista”.
7. THE DRAMA QUEEN
This girl is exciting, and it’s never boring to be around her. But soon you realize that it’s exhausting to ride her emotional roller coaster every day. After a few breakup/makeup cycles, you find yourself yearning for the anxiety case. At least she was consistent. When you break up with her, the scene is heart-wrenching. But it is strange how she starts dating that guy from her building the very next day.
8. THE TRENDSETTER
You are not sure if what she is wearing is a shirt or a dress, or what exactly is up with her make-up, but you know whatever it is, it’s right on trend. This girl knows what’s in style months before everyone else. It’s great to think you landed someone so stylish and cutting edge, until she starts to throw out some of your favorite clothes in an attempt to make you edgier. You like your high school T-shirt collection, so you have to say goodbye.
9. THE BEAUTY QUEEN
This girl is so hot that you can’t believe you snagged her. Your friends are envious and guys’ heads turn when she walks into the room. It’s pretty cool, until you realize you don’t really have much to talk about, since you have nothing in common. You try to make it work anyway, until you realize that she isn’t being ironic with her taste in music. While you’re in the middle of breaking up with her, a guy drives up in a BMW and asks her on a date.
10. THE ONE
This girl is smart, beautiful, sweet, and is so great that you mom forgets about the other girl she liked so much. She laughs at your jokes, and you laugh at hers. Your taste in music, movies, and books is weirdly similar, and her friends get along with your friends. You wonder what you did to deserve someone so wonderful. Oh right, it was dating all those other girls.
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