Deep Thanks

With Thanksgiving coming this week, it's the perfect time to remember the blessings of life.
We serve such an awesome God and He gives us so much.
One of my pastor's recent sermons was about deep thanks, and how a Christian living in the light of Christ's sacrifice could never be without cause for thanksgiving.

In a very real sense, our degree of thankfulness is a thermostat to how "in touch" we are with God's judgment, which necessarily entails sentencing. If we know the judgment (that we are guilty, in one way or another) and we know the sentence: eternal damnation--it makes us eternally grateful (yes, thankful) for Christ's sacrifice for us. We are spared the judgment, the sentence, the very wrath of God.

Instead of trying to say in this short piece what he put so well in a sermon, I give you a link to hear Rob Turner, a Senior Pastor at Apex Community ( "A Gathering of Churches") here.

Give the subject just a few minutes of deep thought--and you too, will find yourself in a spirit of deep thanks.
Warmest Blessings,

Linore

Random Acts of Kindness

Reprinted from a blog post of Phyllis Zimbler Miller (with comments by me--in red) : )

Internet marketing is a subject that I usually discuss in terms of promoting your own brand, book or business.

Yet one of the things that I truly love about Internet marketing is the opportunity to commit random acts of kindness from the comfort of my computer screen.

Many of you know the concept of "pay it forward" - doing a kind act and not expecting any return except for the receiver of the kind act to do a kind act for someone else.

Internet marketing is a global opportunity to "pay it forward."
Actually, internet participation on most any level brings opportunities to pay it forward, if you think about it. Social networks, yahoo groups, any group you belong to, all come with some people who need help of some kind or another.

Watch for an opportunity today to offer help to someone as you go about your daily involvement on the web. I can just about guarantee you'll find one or more opportunities to commit a random act of kindness. In fact, the Lord brings us these opportunities, even if only because helping others is a wonderful boost to our own self-esteem and "happiness quotient."

Yes, sometimes you can commit a random act of kindness and the person returns the favor to you. But that is't the point. The point is doing a random act of kindness that, if you were in need, you hope someone would do for you.
I love how this is really an acting-out of the Golden Rule: "doing unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Thus I want to urge the readers of this column to spread their generosity through cyberspace whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Now I don't mean you should spend hours of [the] day trolling for people asking for free help.

What I do mean is, for example, if you see a brand-new person on Twitter ask the Twitter universe if she should add a bio to her profile, you reply to her and say "yes and add a photo too."

(Note that this type of reply can be done publicly. If it were a more sensitive question, a direct message might be required, which then requires that person to be following you. You could, of course, tweet a public reply asking the person to follow you so that you could share info with her.)

Answering this public tweet only "costs" you a couple seconds of your time, and it's the kind of random act of kindness that's great to commit.
Amen!

If you think of cyberspace as a level playing field where everyone can join in the game (which I do), then keep your eyes open for opportunities to commit random acts of kindness.
___________________

Article reprinted from Miller Mosaic, LLC Power Marketing: http://www.millermosaicllc.com

THRIVING ON LESS


Today I'm simply sharing the availability of a free ebook, called, "Thriving on Less." My quiet times lately have resulted in a spree of reducing, eliminating and trimming of "fat" around the house. I haven't read this ebook yet, but I downloaded it, and the table of contents looks like it will help me declutter even more.

Here's the 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

Debt is not my problem, but nevertheless there are some chapters that hold promise for me. I am also reading a book on de-cluttering, by the way, which has been useful. I'll talk more about that soon.
Why am I focusing on cleaning when this blog is supposed to be "devotional?"
Because having a neat and orderly environment helps me focus on other things, including God. I just find it easier to pray when I'm not distracted or weighted down by a cluttered room. An added bonus is that I've recently discovered a thrift shop whose mission is to support other missions. Therefore, my giving results in helping missionaries whose call is to spread the gospel. That's what I call a win-win situation~!