Ecclesiastes 1:14

I have seen all the things that are done under the sun;
all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

I can’t tell you how many times I have prayed these exact words; What DO you want from me Lord?

I truly love the Lord with all of my strength and all of my heart and all of my soul…but now what? For me, there is this constant, strengthening magnetic pull from within to serve, the only problem is that I have no idea what it is I am suppose to do. Most people that have witnessed me, and my behavior, this past year are probably convinced that I have some rare form of adult spiritual attention deficit. I hop from one mission to another in a heartbeat, continually waiting for that special one that is going to fill this great need of servitude in my heart. There have been times that I, myself, have thought there was something seriously wrong with my brain.

All I can say is that it hasn’t been for lack of trying on my part. Although none of my missions have filled the need in my soul, they have each nourished it in some way. The greatest thing I have achieved is a true love for people. In the past, I have always shied away from interacting with others. Maybe out of fear, maybe distrust, but more than likely just plain old lack of self-esteem. Other people seemed to have it all together and here I was still trying to figure out how to just be a decent wife and mother.

I have to admit that I started losing faith in my purpose. I gave everything I was doing 100% and yet nothing was bearing fruit as far as I could see. So I quit. Maybe the Lord didn’t have a purpose for me, so I might as well just do the dishes and be done with all my hopes and dreams of being a true servant. It wasn’t until I quit that I started to hear the Lord’s answer and it was nothing near what I imagined. In the quiet of my heart, He asked what I wanted. Of course this started another argument in my mind, surely He missed a prayer or something because I wanted to serve HIM. But no, He doesn’t miss prayers; He knows my heart even when I don’t, so why was He asking ME what I wanted? This definitely sent me into a tailspin for a while. Sometimes we get to thinking so much, that we forget how important it is to listen.

When I finally shut my mind up long enough to listen, the message was clear, God wants me to be happy. Whoever said that there is beauty in simplicity, knew how to listen when the Lord speaks. God doesn’t need you to change the world. That’s not saying that the world doesn’t need help, but seriously…He’s got it under control. Sometimes we get so full of our own knowledge and influence that we forget where it comes from. You alone cannot cure world hunger, you alone cannot shelter the homeless, and you alone cannot remove hypocrisy, hate and evil. What you alone CAN do is trust that all of the little things you do every day make a difference to God and HE ALONE can change the world. It’s an amazing concept I know, but definitely one worth experiencing.

Psalm 13:5
But I trust in your unfailing love.
I will rejoice because you have rescued me.

You weren’t there
the night He found me
You did not feel what I felt
when he wrapped
his love all around me
and you don’t know the cost
of the oil in my alabaster box

- Alabaster Box, CeCe Wynans -

My husband and I were reading Genesis tonight, more specifically – the story of Joseph and how his own brothers sold him out because of jealousy. I got to thinking about character again … more specifically, attacks on your character.

If it wasn’t bad enough that Joseph’s brothers sold him out as a slave, his lot got much worse. Joseph found favor with Potiphar, an officer of the Pharaoh, and according to the bible “…his master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand” (Gen. 39: 3). In view of the excellent character of Joseph, Potiphar placed great confidence in Joseph and he excelled — even as a slave.

Then enters Potiphar’s wife. She wanted Joseph — and tempted him, but loyal not only to Potiphar – but to God Almighty, he showed amazing strength and character above approach, but what did he get for his efforts? He was accused of assaulting his master’s wife and thrown into prison.

I’m sure many of you have experienced this, I know I have. You do everything you know in your heart that is right, and yet the weight of the world slaps you in the face and you wonder….why God? Where did I go wrong this time? I wonder if Joseph thought the same, or if he was 100% confident in the decisions he made.

I have to admit…many people have called me different in the course of my life. I use to take offense at that in the beginning, but the longer I live – the more I appreciate that I am different. I don’t want to be a cookie-cutter image of somebody else, I just want to be me. I get weary of people trying to pour me into the mold of what they think I should be, or what society deems ‘acceptable’, because I know that it does not reflect who I truly am.

According to the World English Dictionary, character is the set of qualities that make somebody or something distinctive, especially somebodies qualities of mind and feeling. Going by that definition, when people attack your character – I think it implies that that they don’t want you to be distinctive, they want you to fit the mold and go with what society deems acceptable. Isn’t this the sand-pit of youth? Peer pressure? Is there ever an age where we outgrow the need to be one of the crowd? To be accepted as who we are?

Sometimes I feel I’ve kept my mouth shut for long enough. Yes world…I do have a backbone! I don’t want to be like you, and although I’m sorry you don’t understand that, I’m tired of wasting time on the trivial matters that you find so important – - because as far as I’m concerned, they aren’t really that big of a deal.

Where is your money now?
Where is your power?
Where is your freedom?

I have faith, extraordinary faith. God works all things toward good and I believe that, no matter how many fingers you want to point at my mistakes. I never claimed to be perfect – just basically good, and I believe that this is the humbleness that God desires.

Call me lofty, egotistical – whatever word you want to plug in there

- but as the world fails you,
- and judges you,
- and condemns you
- – you remember these words:

God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

May God Bless CeCe Winans for this song! I just want to be me and love the Lord, I just want to be happy – and that’s okay – - so look in the mirror before you want to judge who I really am – because you don’t know the cost of my alabaster box!

I am no better than the woman at the well, but I know the power behind the throne – - worship whatever God you want, but I know for a fact that I am saved! Can you confidently say the same? Time is growing short, let the Lord fill your cup from a well that never will run dry!

NASA’s orbiter is sending back evidence of massive volcanism, strange impact craters and magnetic tornadoes that funnel plasma directly from the sun to the planet’s surface. We’re seeing a very dynamic planet that has a lot going on today.

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According to the celestial calculations of a Talmudic sage named Shmuel, at the outset of spring every 28 years, the sun moves into the same place in the sky at the same time and on the same day of the week as it did when God made it. This charged moment provides the occasion for reciting a one-line blessing of God, who makes the work of creation.

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 A NASA-funded study describes how extreme solar eruptions could have severe consequences for communications, power grids and other technology on Earth.

Severe Electrojet Disturbance Scenerio

The National Academy of Sciences in Washington conducted the study. The resulting report provides some of the first clear economic data that effectively quantifies today’s risk of extreme conditions in space driven by magnetic activity on the sun and disturbances in the near-Earth environment. Instances of extreme space weather are rare and are categorized with other natural hazards that have a low frequency but high consequences.

“Obviously, the sun is Earth’s life blood,” said Richard Fisher, director of the Heliophysics division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “To mitigate possible public safety issues, it is vital that we better understand extreme space weather events caused by the sun’s activity.”

Besides emitting a continuous stream of plasma called the solar wind, the sun periodically releases billions of tons of matter called coronal mass ejections. These immense clouds of material, when directed toward Earth, can cause large magnetic storms in the magnetosphere and upper atmosphere. Such space weather can affect the performance and reliability of space-borne and ground-based technological systems.

Space weather can produce solar storm electromagnetic fields that induce extreme currents in wires, disrupting power lines, causing wide-spread blackouts and affecting communication cables that support the Internet. Severe space weather also produces solar energetic particles and the dislocation of the Earth’s radiation belts, which can damage satellites used for commercial communications, global positioning and weather forecasting. Space weather has been recognized as causing problems with new technology since the invention of the telegraph in the 19th century. 

NASA: 2003 Solar Flare

A severe space weather event is likely when an intense flare occurs on the Earth-facing side of the sun. In 2003, this flare (left image) is followed immediately by an enormous interplanetary blast wave (right image) called coronal mass ejection or CME that propagates rapidly away from the sun towards Earth. Depending on severity and nature of the storm, the collision with Earth’s magnetic field called a geomagnetic storm can affect satellites, air travel and power grids. Credit: NASA

 A catastrophic failure of commercial and government infrastructure in space and on the ground can be mitigated through raising public awareness, improving vulnerable infrastructure and developing advanced forecasting capabilities. Without preventive actions or plans, the trend of increased dependency on modern space-weather sensitive assets could make society more vulnerable in the future.

NASA requested the study to assess the potential damage from significant space weather during the next 20 years. National and international experts from industry, government and academia participated in the study. The report documents the possibility of a space weather event that has societal effects and causes damage similar to natural disasters on Earth.

“From a public policy perspective, it is quite significant that we have begun the extremely challenging task of assessing space weather impacts in a quantitative way,” said Daniel Baker, professor and director of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Baker chaired the panel that prepared the report.

“Whether it is terrestrial catastrophes or extreme space weather incidents, the results can be devastating to modern societies that depend in a myriad of ways on advanced technological systems,” said Baker. “We were delighted that NASA helped support bringing together dozens of world experts from industry and government to share their experiences and begin planning of improved public policy strategies.” 

NASA: Geomagnetic Storm Image

The geomagnetic storms’ effects can be visualized over the U.S. by showing changes of the electron density in the Earth’s outermost atmospheric layers. The before image shows the ionosphere electron density as high over wide parts of the lower 48 states. The after image shows electrons strongly diminished over the central and northeastern parts of the U.S, and increased over the northwest. Extreme, rapid changes in the ionosphere can inflict strong currents in the power grid that may lead to blackouts. Credit: NASA

The sun is currently near the minimum of its 11-year activity cycle. It is expected that solar storms will increase in frequency and intensity toward the next solar maximum, expected to occur around 2012.

The Heliophysics Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington provided funding for the study. The division seeks to understand the sun, its solar processes and the interaction of solar plasma and radiation with Earth, other planets and the universe. Understanding the connections between the sun and its planets will allow better prediction on the impacts of solar activity on humans, technological systems and even the presence of life itself in the universe.

The National Academies are chartered by Congress to provide independent technical and scientific advice to the federal government.

 Source:  Visit NASA.GOV for more information on this article and related topics

 

Fueled by a crop of books, Web sites with countdown clocks, and claims about ancient timekeepers, interest is growing in what some see as the dawn of a new era, and others as an expiration date for Earth: December 21, 2012

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My husband has been gravely concerned about the stock market lately and even more so after the stock market events of today. Apparently his 401(k) has pretty much been torn to shreds, just another wave of the working class chaos going on in America. Getting really old if you ask me, but of course – nobody does.

I don’t know who else was affected by the markets today – but I do know just by my own knowledge of the trickle-down theory – that all Americans are suffering at some level. I have been telling him about this website going on 2 years now. He wasn’t so impressed up until today’s market crash. I, on the other hand, have thought it absolutely mind-boggling since the day I stumbled upon it. They use a special program they developed to harvest keywords used in google, message boards, blogs, groups etc., and then they track them, chart them, study them – day after day, and somehow through this process they have their fingers on the very pulse of mankind, seriously.

This is all perfectly legal – I guess anyone that has actually read one of those privacy agreements understands what I mean. However, to keep it simple for him (since he is not a big user of the internet) I told him that all of the words on the entire internet are free for anybody who wishes to collect them. Bloggers use them all the time to pull interested people to their blogs, spammers use them, web developers use them, advertisers use them, politicians use them…. pretty much everyone that wants to get into your mind and see what you think, uses them. This site just makes that info open to the general public.

Anyway, to keep it short – below is a snippet of this morning’s post. They forecasted the bank/housing crash many many moons ago and have long been talking about the kind of crash that occurred today, as usual – I find their opinion timely and right on target.

(if you enjoy the article – please leave a comment – even if you don’t, I’m open-minded)

I Call it B.S. – The Fix Is In
www.urbansurvival.com

Let’s have a little chat about “Bailout/Stabilization” with the first cup of coffee this morning. The long and short of the discussion ought to begin with “Do we believe in ‘free markets’ or not?” The answer is important because in genuine free markets, banks would be failing by the dozens and the folks who set up a floating craps game based on your regular house payments as a revenue stream beneath it all, would be thrown out of business (and in jail for fraud) and while there would be momentary pain and suffering, the ‘free market’ would do its job and clear out the mis-investment and mal-investment that has characterized serial bubbles since 2000.

If you think that’s a snide reference on my part to the Internet Bubble, Housing Bubble, and now the Housing Bubble Collapse, and now the Banker Bubble, congratulations, you have a pulse, it’s Monday, now get your ass back to work.

With just over a week to go until our “hot date” of October 7th shows up, hot based on the predictive linguistics work of www.halfpasthuman. com, we read this morning how the PowersThatBe are trying to ‘fix’ the outcome of the present ‘bailout debate’ in Washington so as to save the hides of the Bankster Class and do as little as possible for the back-home folks who write the checks.

Not that this is a ‘first time’ kind of event, but the grandeur of this latest scheme to steal from the American public is almost unbelievably large. So large, in fact, that most people won’t look it square in the eye and call it “crime” – although that’s more of less what it is. Until it’s passed by CONgress, then it becomes law. Magic.

While I realize that’s a serious charge to be made, a conversation with my friend The Bond Dude, made it perfectly clear to me that this latest “bailout” is nothing more than the bought-off right wing/conservatives getting one more big pay day from the corporate trough.

For openers, the proposed bailout does about zip – other than make promises which we’ve heard bandied about previously, to the folks who actually go to work trying to hang onto their homes.

“Until these geniuses can actually do something about the underlying causes of the problem, explained The Bond Due, the economy is going to crater and we’ll get to your Bastille Day.”

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE AT www.urbansurvival.com

L A U G H   A L L   T H E    W A Y   H O M E ! ! !

 

The Three Little Pigs  by   Chonda Pierce

Deuteronomy 4:29

But if from there you seek the LORD your God,
you will find him if you look for him
with all your heart and with all your soul.

You are the single most distracting obstacle between your own failure and success. Each day you make a series of immediate decisions that ultimately shape the course of your life. Failure and success are not immediate procurements; they are slow fades evolving from the good and bad decisions you make each and every moment of your life.

Don’t ever believe that God does not have a will and purpose for your life. Even if you feel lost in the gray area between black and white – remember that your position in life today, has been your choice and yours alone.

Nothing can stand between you and God’s will, except you.

Right now, simply by reading this – you are reaching to find that will. You are seeking.

Matthew 6:31-34

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given to you as well.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow,
for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own.