Celebrate the UAE National Day with a big BLING on your Key Chain. This beautiful piece is hand-made with love and know-how and original SWAROVSKI crystals by the German Designer SARAH ASFUR.

ORDER ONLINE HERE:

http://www.souq.com/Art-Collectables/Handcrafts/NATIONAL-DAY-GIFT-UAE-FLAG-KEY-CHAIN-with-SWAROVSKI-crystals/6155529/?mode=1&lan=EN

Why do I need another credit card?

Tonia PSC:

It feels really great to know that Discover cardcontinue to show their gratitude towards their customers despite the economic downturn. Discover has actually increased the opportunity for customers to earn double reward points. I use my discover card for everything especially gas. Every swipe is a return back to me….that’s investing. Why do I need another credit card.

Feed a High School Football Player

Cathy G, Orlando, FL:

The high school I work at has a volunteer program where staff members can “adopt” a varsity football player. I have had the same player for two years and he is now a senior. For a Christmas present, I used my reward points to get him a gift card to his favorite restaurant. It’s enough for him to take his girlfriend,too. She is a varsity cheerleader.

Ian S, Bushnell, FL:

Received a quote of $49.99 from enterprise for a one-day rental, they o charge me $78. They then gave credit for all but $49.95 The $40 reward was to have been applied on that amount, but they said they would apply it when the certificate was verifed. To date I have been charged $49.95 instead of $9.95 after the discount.

Mark 9:33-37
They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.” He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”

The path to success in God’s kingdom is certainly not the path the world takes to gain success. Jesus reminds us today that greatness in God’s eyes is not being recognized as the one who saved most souls or being chosen the best in our service to God but it is instead helping people to remember God and not ourselves and serving him for his glory. This is totally contrary to success in this world where people commend us by the magnitude of our achievements, the significance of our wealth, the vastness of our reach and so on. We become a brand and success is measured by a recognizable yardstick.

In Christ, we are expected to serve him selflessly and he will reward us when we meet God face to face. Therefore, I need to be serving God as a child of God and not as Vineet because then it will be about me. My service to God is to share the good news of the gospel and point people to Christ. My joy should be to humble myself before man to show them what God’s love was, even as low as washing the feet of other men if that’s what it takes to show them God’s love. This is certainly not something most of us are willing to do and if we are, not something we will do publicly. At some point, we want recognition and some comforting of our own ego but that is where we are missing the point of the gospel. Christ came here on earth to serve us and to die on the cross for us which is our role model. I hope you are challenged to consider your service to God as joy and humility in our service as our way of showing his love to the world. Our reward is already given to us when we submitted our lives to Jesus’s authority.

In His Loving Service,
Vineet

God's Unspoken Beauty

II Timothy 2:11-13 could almost be labeled as a disclaimer for Christian faith.  If we stick with Christ we will die and yet live, and will reign with Him.  If we disown Him, He will disown us.  If we lose faith, we’re on our own.  What?  No, that’s not how it reads.  He will remain faithful because He cannot go against His own nature.  He is faithful and will always remain as such.  We, on the other hand, are fickle, following our own fancy.  We give up when we think there’s too much opposition, even when we know it is right to continue.

Jesus, along with His disciples faced some pretty strong opposition in His day.  He had it coming from political fronts, from religious fronts, and yes even from His friendship fronts.  He was nearing the end of His stay here on Earth and was preparing His friends for His departure.  He knew what was right and had purpose enough to complete the task.  It’s at this point where Peter pulls Him aside and implies that Jesus is mistaken ion this line of thought and he’d better straighten up.  Jesus was not deterred, even by a well meaning friend.  He kept at the task God had placed in his heart and mind to do.  He remained faithful to the call.

We too, have a choice to remain faithful in those tough times.  Even when our friends or family are telling us we’re headed the wrong way, God is faithful and longs for our faithfulness.  You might even be thinking about “Honor your father and mother…” and other scripture that tells us to listen to the counsel of the wise.  This is where your relationship with the King is of utmost importance.  You need to be so close to His confidence that you will be able to recognize the truth from the messages that would steer you away from keeping the faith.  If you ask, seek, and knock, He will always answer, show you the way, and open the right door.

Quran/Islam/Muhammad- open minded, nonracial and unbiased
http://forum09.faithfreedom.org/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=4920&p=82054#p82054

Manfred wrote:

The Quran is quite clear that Islamic paradise is a Muslim only “place” (for lack of a better description).

Paarsurrey wrote:

Hi friend Manfred

I don’t agree with you.

You have certainly misunderstood Quran/Islam/Muhammad.

[2:63] Surely, the Believers, and the Jews, and the Christians and the Sabians — whichever party from among these truly believes in Allah and the Last Day and does good deeds — shall have their reward with their Lord, and no fear shall come upon them, nor shall they grieve.
[2:64] And remember the time when We took a covenant from you and raised high above you the Mount, saying: ‘Hold fast that which We have given you and bear in mind what is therein, that you may be saved.’
[2:65] Then you turned back thereafter; and had it not been for Allah’s grace towards you and His mercy, you would surely have been of the losers.

http://www.alislam.org/quran/search2/sh … 2&verse=56

The above verse very clearly mentions that those persons who have the truthful beliefs and those who do good deeds suited to the situation and time would go to heaven. One who is a Muslim in name only and does not have good beliefs and or good deeds has no claim to heaven, it is purely the grace and the mercy of the Creator-God Allah YHWH, nobody else has any monopoly on the heaven; no intercession, nothing of this sort.

Please amend your concept accordingly. Yours is a very narrow and stringent concept; nothing to do with Quran/Islam/Muhammad, who are very open minded, nonracial and unbiased.

I love Jesus and Mary as mentioned in Quran.

Thanks

I am an Ahmadi peaceful Muslim

Stacye B, Thomaston, GA:

I am so excited! All year long I have saved my Discover reward points to use for Christmas gifts. I have lots of nieces and nephews who would rather have money than anything else…so I simply logged in to my Discover account and ordered Discover gift cards with each recipient’s name printed on front. Dropped the cards in pretty little gift bags with a love note and voila! Christmas shopping accomplished! Thanks Discover:-)

Every night, they showed up at a different arena and played their catalog; then they packed their stuff and moved on to the next arena.

On October 17, 2009 Metallica performed at the John Paul Jones Arena, in Charlottesville, VA. Another arena, another concert. Great show.

Except that Morgan went missing.

I was there at the concert, drinking beer with my wife as Morgan vanished. Just drinking beer, only worrying about how I could game the system to get another beer despite the draconian quota of 4 drinks for the night.

We were legion that night, but she was one of us and she’s gone. The metal community is legion and she was with us.

When you stop and think about it, that night Morgan simply ran out of luck.

She could have been your girlfriend, your friend, your sister, the georgous girl you only had a glimpse of. She was your chick, just short on luck.

Metallica  has offered 50K in addition to the 100K that Morgan’s family has managed to raise. It’s $150,000 waiting for you, if you can help find her.

And I can only think of Nevermore’s song…

“Nevermore to feel the pain
The words fall out like fire
Just believe when you can’t believe anymore”

www.findmorgan.com

Our subconscious mind has peculiar strengths and weaknesses.

The Reticular Activating System is really good at finding ways to manifest tangible things, because it sorts through images and memories of millions of tangible things every day.  One study estimated that the RAS is capable of processing 6,000 bits of information per second!  None of these ideas, however, is as intangible as “43 sales” or “$5k in commissions.”

Your subconscious mind is really good at manifesting things it can process easily, so let’s make the process easy to manifest the things you want.  Do you really want the money that lots of sales will give you?  Or do you want the things you will buy with that money?  Do you really want to know that you are the top salesman in your company?  Or do you want to see the plaque on your wall?

Make your visualizations centered around one real, concrete image that can be used like a trophy.  If there is a big bonus period ending soon, and you want to meet your quota, define the reward you will give yourself if you meet your goal.  And then, manifest that reward.

I am typing this blog post on my new Macintosh laptop.  I have always wanted one, yet never had occasion to justify the purchase to myself on a whim.  When a big quarterly bonus was coming up in my company, I was having trouble getting my emotions involved in meeting my goal.  So I asked myself: what do I really want out of achieving this goal?  What I really wanted was money, because a few thousand extra dollars sounded really nice to me.

But why?

What, specifically, did I want to use that money for?

I had all sorts of vague responses to this questions: pay off some debt, put a little more in savings, feel more comfortable, etc.etc.  Nothing really tangible for my subconscious mind to sink its teeth into, and get to work on manifestiong.

So I planned out a reward for myself.  I decided that if I qualified for this bonus, I would give myself a new Mac.  I went to the Mac store, browsed the models, and picked out the one I wanted.  I took a picture of it and inserted it into an Excel spreadsheet, with a chart showing a blank line for every sale I needed to make.  I printed it out, put it on my wall, and every time I made a sale, I wrote in the name of the person who bought from me right next to the picture of my new laptoip, and I sent up a message of thanks.

I visualized myself typing on the keys of my new laptop.  I listened to the sound of the clackety-clack on the keyboard, the exact sound I am listening to right now.  Do you see?  Because I was able to incorporate details into my visualization, details about my tangible reward, my subconscious mind had something to work with!  I gave it the tools to do what it does best: manifest what I feel emotionally.

This was what put me over the top.  Had I kept my intention to sell insurance policies, or to see the stack of paperwork filled out, it would not have been as visceral an experience to my subconscious mind as the reward that was linked to my goal’s attainment.

What unfulfilled goals do you have out there?  What will you reward yourself with when you attain your goals?  It might be a massage, or a vacation trip, or your favorite bottle of wine.  Tie the reward to the goal, and then manifest the reward, to trick your subconscious mind into manifesting your goal, too.

When I was a kid I may not have admitted it or even realized it, but I loved to have my dad’s attention and ultimately his approval.  When I wasn’t in school I would follow him around at work, whenever his job allowed.  I would walk right on the edge of the sidewalk, just like he always did.  I wore long sleeve button down shirts, just like him.  I even quit wearing shorts because he didn’t like to wear them.  I emulated him because I wanted him to find pleasure in me.  Quite honestly, I still do.

I can only imagine what the human Jesus felt when He heard His Father’s words, “You are my Son, whom I love; with You I am well pleased.”  Can you even fathom what it will be like to hear that one day?  Even the prospect of hearing it makes me push even harder to become more like my heavenly Father so that I might please Him.

I will admit that when considering the task of pleasing the Father I am overrun with thoughts of monstrous tasks, miracles to perform, etc.  And then I recall that He has asked me to simply follow the example of His Son.  If I study Jesus, His words, His actions, and His purity, with the Holy Spirit’s guidance and work continue to reflect Him more, I just might see that glance over the shoulder and smirk of amusement as He sees someone so small as me attempting to be someone like Him.

You see, it’s that smile that makes it worthwhile.  When He smiles on me I know why I’m here.  I am here for His pleasure.  I am here to please Him by being the best me I can be, the me He created me to be.  Can I do it on my own?  No.  But He doesn’t care that He’s the One who makes it possible, only that I’m committed to the task.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some pleasing to do.  Come along.  Will you join me?

How To Speed Level Up In The Farm Town Game

Tips for the Farm Town Game

Farm Town is rapidly becoming a social networking gaming sensation, and there are plenty of reasons for this. With so many options for game play, Farm Town is a pass time that never gets old. However, it also means that you can fall behind if you are not careful. You will want to move up the levels correctly and as fast as possible.

Getting Ahead

On the surface, Farm Town is not hard to play, but there are a few tips and tricks you may want to try to help you level up quickly. The higher the level you reach, the more options will be available to you in every aspect of game play, so it’s a good idea to make a point early of applying your energy to accumulating experience points so that you can reach those higher levels more quickly. This is quite doable, but you need to know how to go about it if you are going to be able to do it successfully.

Work, Work, Work and then work some more

Of course, you already know that you level up by accumulating experience points, and there are a few ways to earn these experience points. You can certainly get them by doing all of the normal farm chores, both on your farm and on those of your friends and neighbors. But at a certain point, your ability to continue to rack up the points is limited.

You can only work for each of your friends once a day, and once all your land has been harvested, plowed, and replanted, there is not much that you can do except wait until it is time to do it all over again. In the early stages of game play, it is easy to level up and you can usually get all the experience you need from working your farm and those of your neighbors (depending on how many neighbors you have too). But as you get to the higher levels, you’ll need to make greater and greater leaps in your experience point totals to move up, and that means employing a bit of a different strategy if you want to be successful.

Buy Your Way Up

The best way to grab up some big chunks of experience points early is to buy some decorations and other items for your farm. These purchases reward chunks of experience points that generally correspond in size to the cost of the item – the more expensive the item, the greater the experience bonus.

When you are first starting out in the game and trying to establish your farm, you do not have a lot of loose cash to throw around, so buying up a bunch of items isn’t really a practical option. Once you have a good stash of coins and a steady flow coming in, though, you can start using them to buy your way to the higher levels of the game.

This is really the most effective and efficient way of leveling up quickly when you are playing Farm Town. In addition, it does make sense too. After all, what do you have coins for anyway if not to buy the things you want to personalize your farm and really make it your own.

Farm Town coins are of great value in this game, you need to earn as many as possible.

There is a new guide for the Farm Town game called Farm Town Secrets and it also includes a Farm Town Cash report. We reviewed it and used it on our game and found that we were really moving up the levels quicker but best of all getting lots of cash. Read our review here : http://newgameguides.com/farmtown-secrets-guide-review-facebook-farm-town-game-cheats-guide/ and see what you think. It is much easier to have all the cheats and tips in one place!

Last night was movie night at the church. I showed the film Flywheel. That was the first movie that was done by Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga. Most of my crowd had seen the church’s other two movies, Facing The Giants and Fireproof. Only a few, though, had seen Flywheel. (For the record, I highly recommend each of the films.) At the end of Flywheel, the lead character names his new baby girl Faith. This comes on the heels of all the lessons about faith that God has been teaching him.

I once heard David Gibbs. Sr. say, “The faith walk is on a need-to-know basis.” In my own walk with the Lord, I’ve experienced enough to learn the truth of these words. God never gives me the full revelation of what He’s up to in my life. I pretty much just get the guidance and instruction I need to take the next step. Whenever I think I’ve got the path figured out and can, perhaps, run ahead, He throws me a curveball to keep Me looking to Him.

Hebrews 11:1 in the New Living Translation describes faith as “the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen” and “the evidence of things we cannot yet see.” Tell me, are you “hoping” for a particular thing from God? Are you desiring something you “cannot yet see”? Rest assured that if the thing is God’s will, He will bring it to pass in His timing and way.

But in the meantime He wants you to have real faith that He is going to do what you want Him to do. There simply is no substitute for this faith, and it makes an incalculable difference in your overall attitude and mindset. Faith creates optimism, hope, and joy; a lack of it creates pessimism, despair, and gloom. So, if you were naming your baby girl today, could you honestly name her Faith? If you couldn’t you need to admit it and have a long talk with God about it. The answers you are looking for are found in Him.

Home, home on the rage
Where the turtles gallop and graze
Where seldom is heard an un-turtle-y word
And shellers are non-physical all day!

That’s right, our latest trader item is over 50% complete, but instead of the normal clue, Grim and I decided to just flat-out tell you what the item is, and we’re extremely excited about it.  This item will be something that allows all of your turtles to become non-physical and stay within a certain radius.  This will make it so that they will not create ANY collisions, and will also make it extremely easy to have “free-range” turtles.  This also means that they won’t stay within enclosure walls unless their range stays within the enclosure, which is why this is something that will be completely optional.

This is such an important thing, though, that Grim and I have decided that this should be free for everyone and not cost any points.  What will the lottery winners get this time then, you may ask?  Each of our five lottery winners will get TWO boxes of hatchless food, valued at L$2900.

While the home item will be distributed as an item, Grim and I definitely hope that people take the script and make turtle habitats with the script in it that are pre-made non-physical enclosures for peoples’ turtles.  There will be more details about the actual usage of the item coming soon.

So, today I had my last strength workout for the week and I feel so good! It’s been a real challenge for me to have regular workouts and I finally have had a full week again. I knew I could summon up some excuses without trying too hard, but I decided I couldn’t let myself down. It’s such a great feeling knowing that you got something done when you have made yourself accustomed to finding excuses. I didn’t listen to that voice this week. Instead, I listened to the one telling me to reach for what I want.

Next week is Thanksgiving, and I’m sure many of us will find it challenging to get to the gym. What I want you to think about, though, is if you don’t, if you listen to the Excuse Monster, how’s that going to make you feel the week after? What about right after that huge Thanksgiving meal? You have to ask yourself, “Do I want to feel that way? Will that extra slice of pumpkin pie be worth the hassle of continuing to squeeze into my clothes?” Play that tape forward! Imagine yourself still sporting a muffin top next spring all because you not only quit for the day, you didn’t jump right back on the wagon.

Prepare yourself for the upcoming holidays, and prepare well. Just saying will do this and that isn’t good enough. That picture of that gorgeous model has gone up on my mirror. I have to look at her 6 pack abs every morning as I get dressed. What’s your motivation? You are going to have to write your plan down, make it visible, refer to it several times a day, and look at your motivation several times too. Remember: out of sight, out of mind. I was tracking my weight on my dry erase board in the kitchen using bright red pen. Then one day, I realized I had used a sharpie instead of a dry erase marker.  That weight is now forever in my eyesight every single darn day, but it serves as a very public reminder what I’m up against.

Plan your days. Plan around parties, appointments, and down time.  Figure everything into your schedule then plan around those making contingency plans along the way.  “Healthify” your dinner, carry protein bars, and don’t forget to allow your cheats. Being good to yourself doesn’t just mean allowing an extra piece of pie, it also means taking care of your body with healthy choices. Don’t forget your workouts, of course. In fact, I suggest a good fat blasting workout the morning of Thanksgiving to rev up your metabolism and get it ready to handle all those calories coming down the pipe! For those of you brave enough to go out on Black Friday, you may count that as your cardio!

Anyway, I’ve already chosen my new plan for the new year, and I’m working on plans to make it through the holidays.  I hope you will take some time for yourself now before all the madness begins so that you will have time for yourself later.  This weekend take some time to reaffirm your goals or find some motivation to get you through. Make it visible to you, put up reminders, pictures and positive statements.  Put it in your planner, your iPhone, Blackberry or anything else you look at all the time. Do this, and you will have an easier time of getting through the holidays without too much damage.

Today’s Times has an article on the topic of whether any public servant should be paid more than the Prime Minister. It is a two-part article with one writer arguing the case against, another the case for. The question, of course, arises from the fact that quite a lot of them already do.

Once you start debating senior pay in this way, and in public, you end up with all sorts of highly emotive but inappropriate comparisons. Just how many nurses is the Prime Minister worth? How many times the minimum wage should the person running your local council be paid? Once you go down this route you inevitably end up with truncated salary structures, and much bickering.

The salaries paid to public sector chief executives (local government, the NHS, quangos, etc.) should, as in all sectors, be based on: the skills and experience needed; what is paid for such people elsewhere; and the difficulty, or otherwise, of attracting good candidates. Whether or not you think the correct answer has been arrived at for these executives you have to admit that the third part of the test, the ease of finding candidates, goes out of the window if you make the PM’s salary the yardstick. At the very least there are the 300+ MPs who would love to reverse their initials; possibly even take a pay cut for the privilege.

“Anything you do with repetition and emotion will become your reality. If you’re not satisfied with your current experience, examine your habits.” says Dr. Andrew Weil.

The Research that it takes 21 days (3 weeks) to form a habit has been around for some time now and is widely accepted part of self-help programs. Some have challenged this quick habit change, bringing to light valid points on variation among people. No doubt not everyone’s mental states are the same and it’s also unlikely everyone will follow a strict routine to change their habit thus smearing the “21 days” goal. This is why I call this the “21 day challenge” because I believe that with repetition, emotion, focus, and a plan (goals & review) one can achieve a habit change in 21 days.

Do this

Devote 30 minutes a day to the formation of your new habit, and do this faithfully for 21 days. By the end of your 21 day challenge, it should actually be harder not to engage in the new behavior than it would be to continue doing it.

Where it all began

The 21-day concept was first introduced by Dr. Maxwell Maltz, in a book titled, Psycho-Cybernetics, A New Way to Get More Living Out of Life. Dr Maxwell Maltz, noticed that it took 21 days for amputees to cease feeling phantom sensations in the amputated limb. From further observations he found it took 21 days to create a new habit.

The science behind this goes like this;

“Brain circuits take engrams (memory traces), and produce neuroconnections and neuropathways only if they are bombarded for 21 days in a row. This means that our brain does not accept “new” data for a change of habit unless it is repeated each day for 21 days (without missing a day).” – Psycho-Cybernetics, A New Way to Get More Living Out of Life

Without missing a day? Yes. Because your conscious mind creates the belief and the subconscious mind then executes the belief – it is important to keep on “fueling that fire” until it is self sustaining.

Why this Knowledge is so Powerful?

We all want to change something about our self to some degree. Whether it is to give up or change something in our life we are always striving to reach that next level. What I am suggesting here is that all you have to do is give it 21 days (3 weeks) of 100% effort and it will become a new habit.

For example:

• Reduce your consumption of sugar for 21 days. You will be amazed what this will do to your taste buds and figure! Sugar, especially high fructose sugar is a major player in the increase of diabetes in our population. High fructose sugar is in most produce – see the label on your drink.
• Meditate for 21 days. Who says you can’t still your monkey mind and bring inner peace. The wonders of meditation are immense in eliminating stress & anxiety, giving you the power of clear focus & better decision making et al.
• Get up before 6am every day. This will give you plenty more hours in a day to enjoy with your family / loved ones and / or work on that business idea. Here are a number of steps I take to help me sleep less and have more energy.
• Eat greens (salads) for lunch for 21 days and feel better, stronger and fitter!

The list is endless. Find something needing change in your life and apply the 21 day challenge today.

Sustaining Motivation

This is the hardest part of any change. How to sustain motivation to continue throughout the 21 days. Here are some great points to keep you moving.

1. Daily Review your list of reasons for quitting or changing.
2. Create mental pictures of yourself as having already succeeded with your habit change.
3. Make affirmations, positive self-statements about your habit change. For example, “I am filled with so much health and vitality now that I exercise four times a week.”
4. Reward yourself. Make up a list of self-rewards. Reward yourself verbally.
5. Remember to take one day at a time. If you do backslide, don’t label yourself as having failed. Get out your list or reasons for quitting or changing and begin again.

So, what is your 21 day challenge?

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim

Friday, 1 Ramadan 1430 (August 21, 2009)

Sheykh Efendi was saying that Ramazan is the month of rahmet and mercy for the believers who take it seriously, trying to come closer to ALLAH swt. It is the month of patience – to have authority on yourself and to show compassion to the ones you have authority over. The worst confusion is going to come out from the shaykhs and the imams in the hutbe place – calling people toward dunya. Prophet saws said that for your good deeds during Ramazan, the rewards are multiplying. Fast from all haram and from your bad habits.

Download (23:07 mins) | Listen to the sohbet:

‘The FBI has jumped in on the pursuit of a California robbery suspect authorities have dubbed the “Geezer Bandit.” The most recent of the five heists came yesterday outside San Diego; surveillance video of previous incidents shows a man believed to be in his 70s and, in at least one case, toting an oxygen tank. “Armed and dangerous” still applies, say authorities, who’ve posted $16,000 in reward cash.’ -San Diego Union