UND-Pilsa Blog

by James DeMetselaer Have you been attracted to Hebrew, the original language of the Bible, but you thought it’s too difficult: the letters are strange, the language is strange, the language is read Right to Left instead of Left to Right? Well then, I have good news for you. I have found a series of easy-to-use Software Hebrew Courses. The first program is called “At Home With Hebrew”; the second program is “Hebrew Kindergarten”; and the third program is called “Shirei Ha-Shabbat.” “At Home With Hebrew” is a cool Hebrew Tutorial. Many Hebrew course programs will give you a word and expect you to pronounce it - almost from the beginning, but, “At Home With Hebrew” is different. First, the creator/developer of the program, Neal Walters, is a professional teacher/trainer and student himself. He knows what it is like to learn a new language; so, he developed this program with regular people like you and me in mind. You start by learning the Hebrew Alef-Bet (or Alphabet) - click on the character and hear the Hebrew letter pronounced. From there, you’ll learn the vowel sounds which are very similar to the vowel sounds of Spanish or Italian. After that, you’ll be learning words and simple phrases. Andwhat’s cool about the program is you can mouse-over (or point-and-click) on the word and hear it pronounced and see an English transliteration of the word so you can phonetically pronounce it. The next program in the series is “Hebrew Kindergarten.” Don’t be fooled! This is your next step to learn Hebrew. It picks up where “At Home With Hebrew” leaves off; only, the program introduces you to more advanced grammar concepts. But this program has more to make sure you learn Hebrew: there are quizzes, games, simple video animations, and audio instructional material - you hear Neal having a conversation with an Israeli speaker discussing grammar and pronunciation. This Hebrew course comes complete with a 200 page instructional manual - Simply amazing! The last program in the series is actually the latest creation from Neal Walters and his crew. It’s called “Shirei Ha-Shabbat: Songs of The Shabbat.” This Hebrew tutorial introduces you to the beautiful sounds of traditional Shabbat-Jewish liturgy. I can’t help but say it - it’s another cool way to learn Hebrew. You learn two different styles of Canting Hebrew liturgy: Ashkenazi and Sephardi. The program incorporates a feature which allows you to hear two young cantors - one Ashkenazi and the other Sephardi - sing, or cant, some of the songs from the Shabbat Liturgical services. Plus, the program includes all the features previously mentioned above so you learn Hebrew as well: mouse-over (or point-and-click), games, and quizzes. All in all, I was very impressed by these programs. You learn Hebrew and at the same time you are having fun learning - Now, isn’t that a switch? How many other Hebrew courses on the market can say that? Great Hebrew Tutorials - It’s easier than you think.

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The rules, regulations and principles that God tells us to abide by in the Bible are all there for our own good. They are there to protect us physically, mentally and spiritually.

In the Lord’s Prayer it says, “Forgive us our trespassers as we forgive those who trespass against us”.

Why is forgiveness so important? Why is it essential to our own well being and our spiritual walk?

There are several reasons. Firstly unforgiveness hampers our relationship with God. We are disobeying him if we don’t forgive others, which retards our relationship with him. It also leads to pent up resentment toward the person who has sinned against us. We cannot love God and hate our fellow man, as written (Mat 22:39) “….Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”. Harbouring unforgiveness that keeps us in a state that is other than loving can dampen our spiritual walk.

Secondly unforgiveness can lead to internal emotional turmoil. It means that we are permanently tied to the act of sin against us. We cannot get over it or get release from it, and move on with our lives until we forgive the person and put the consequences of their actions into God’s hands to deal with. Bad things that have been done to us in the past cannot be changed. Having grudges does not help us and does not hurt the person who we hold the grudge against. They have sinned against us and moved on with their life, but we cannot detach ourselves and move on until we give it over to God and forgive them.

Resentment and pent up anger can be extremely damaging both emotionally and also physically. Many illnesses and mental conditions are directly linked to these negative emotions. Unforgiveness can lead to turmoil and torment.
Forgiveness allows our heart to start healing. It is often a slow process, if the emotions have been bottled up for many years.

We need to remember that forgiving someone is showing them mercy that they do not deserve - just as God through sending his son to die for our sins showed that he gave us mercy that we didn’t deserve.

Forgiving others begins the process of alleviating the pain that we have kept hold of, due to the hurt that the other person has caused us. When you start to forgive the pain will start to reduce and eventually go all together.

We do not need the other person to ask for our forgiveness to give it to them. Forgiveness is not really between us and the person who sinned against us it is really between us and God. God makes it clear that it is his job to take ‘vengeance’, not ours.

Forgiveness is not an emotion it is a personal choice, effectively an action that we need to perform. We have to choose to forgive and keep on choosing it. When we do this we cut the ties to the emotional hurts and can begin to heal.

Forgiveness releases us from the bondage of resentment and bitterness and gives us freedom and peace.

Debra Lohrere is the author of several books and many articles on property investment, how to create financial security and related topics, as well as on subjects of spiritual encouragement. Please visit her homepage www.debra.lohrere.com/home.shtml or storefront at www.lulu.com/DebraLohrere

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I would like to share a spiritual experience with you that not
only was very personal to me, but I believe it has value to
every person’s life. I would pray that the precious Holy Spirit
would touch you, and show you how it may apply to your life as
well.

This occured in a devastating moment of my life. My husband was
into some really terrible things that had destroyed our
marriage, and we had just told our two children that we were
getting a divorce. If you have been through this experience,
you’ll relate to the place and pain I was in.

After the kids had been settled and got busy, I had time alone
in my room. I was praying and crying, and I felt Jesus’s hand on
my head, stroking my hair and comforting me.

Soon, I literally saw a vision of heaven, at first it was the
Lord and I walking through beautiful green fields, then I saw a
lion eating grass. I love animals and this hit me as being
profoundly strange. Soon a lamb went up to the lion and they
began playing together. I knew then what I was seeing wasn’t
earthly, but heavenly.

We then approached a city, where there was a lot of activity,
but I wasn’t shown what they were doing, (heaven isn’t boring!)
they moved in love and with a sense of purpose, but it was a
joyful, light thing. Not a stressed out busyness that’s common
to us. I saw some people dressed in white robes, but were rather
plain, I then saw others also in white robes, but they were
magnificent, obviously held in high regard and honor.

I questioned the Lord about the differences between the two
groups of people. He then showed me the plain, first group and
what their lives on earth were like, they had sorrow, pain and
hardship, and they worked VERY hard at fixing their lives. The
Lord asked me what I saw. “I see people in pain working so
desperately to fix their lives”. Exactly He said.

Then He showed me the second group of people, the dazzling
group, and their lives on earth also, and I saw the same
circumstances in their lives (some worse in fact), pain,
suffering and hardship, but I saw them down on their knees
crying out to God for help. They gave their lives over to Him,
placing their circumstances in His hands and trusting Him to
move for them.

He then showed me their “after” appearance and then asked me
what I saw. “Wow, I see God in their lives.” Exactly He said. He
showed me both groups were equally loved, both groups were
equally in hardship, but the difference it made in eternity was
HOW we responded here on earth to those hardships.

He then told me, “I’m going to introduce you to My Father, you
need Him now.” At that moment I tried to tell Him no, because
all of the sudden I felt great fear.

I had NO idea I had a fear of facing The Heavenly Father, until
it was presented to me. But it all unveiled so quickly, I really
didn’t have much time to protest. Jesus sat down at the Father’s
side, and it was like a veil or curtain was pulled aside, and
there I was, face to face with The Father!

You know how when you are shocked, sometimes the oddest things
fly out of your mouth? Your brain is totally by-passed? That’s
what happened, the first words out of my mouth were “Oh, You’re
kind!” “I was afraid of You.” He chuckled and told me that most
people are too. I knew that if ANYONE got even one, fast glimpse
of His face, they would fall instantly in love! It would be
impossible not to, He was so incredible.

I was aware that my heart was exploding with love for Him, and I
had a strong desire to give Him something special. I started
looking around to see what was around me that I could give Him.
I realized that not only was there nothing good I could present
to Him, but to my horror the only thing I possessed was a sack
of garbage in my hand. I felt bitterness and sadness wash over
me, that was all I had. I had no gift to bring.

He immediately knew I was feeling this and told me, “Valerie, I
LOVE garbage.” I was again stunned! “How could this be Lord?” He
told me to remember the previous groups of 2 people I had met
earlier, and said that He can take the garbage in our lives, and
change it into something beautiful. That each component made a
unique masterpiece, each life totally different, but all to His
glory.

He then giggled, and His eyes lit up (yes, really) and acted
almost like a child about ready to open a birthday present, and
invited me to bring Him my sack of garbage, that we could go
through each piece together, one by one, and I could tell Him
the story of my garbage. I felt we had all the time in the
world, there was no hurry, or people banging on the door wanting
their turn with Him. It wasn’t like a Santa Claus line like I
always had imagined, having to wait and wait to get a chance to
be alone with God.

I then approached Him and together we looked into my garbage
sack. The first item I pulled out was a rotten sock, it was
dirty and had so many holes in it, it was barely recognizable as
even being a sock. I told Him this one was my favorite. It
represented my husband. He stretched out His hand, and I placed
the sock in His hand and He said it was His favorite too.

The next in the bag was my wedding ring, it was broken and
smashed. I told Him it was my marriage. I put the broken pieces
of the ring in His hand.

The 3rd item I pulled out a heart (mine), it was bloody,
mangled, bruised and broken. He knew it was my heart too, and he
carefully took my heart into His hands and told me, “I’m really
good at fixing those.”

The fourth item was a bitter root. I told Him that was my sin
and I was sorry for my bitterness and that it was ugly. I placed
that into His hand too, He thanked me for giving that to Him and
smiled.

I thought at this point my bag was empty, when all of the sudden
a horrific smell came out from the bag. I looked around inside,
and found in a hidden corner at the bottom a dead, rotting and
decaying mouse. I grabbed it by its tail and pulled it out and
was looking for a garbage can because I didn’t want to put this
foul thing in His hand. He didn’t give me a choice here and
wisked it out of my hand and said, “I’ll take care of that one.”
It represented the enemy’s evil plans and schemes that had
caused great damage in my life.

NOW, my sack was empty, but I didn’t know quite what to do with
it. I knew if I carried around an empty sack, I would probably
want to put those things back in there. He sensed my thoughts
and suggested giving Him even the sack so I wouldn’t be tempted
to take those things back. I told Him yes please, and if I asked
for my garbage back, to please tell me no.

I felt loved and free, He even LIKED me! He then told me it was
time to go back and to watch Him make a masterpiece out of this.
He did warn me that masterpieces take time to build.

Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal if you have garbage in your life.
Ask Him what is in your garbage sack and what it represents. I
would encourage you to place those things in His mighty hand,
and watch Him make a masterpiece in YOUR life.

As an update footnote: This happened to me several years ago,
the Lord did deal with my husband, my husband ended up finding
the great love of God, He did heal my broken heart, and He has
healed our marriage. Our divorce was cancelled, all glory goes
to God! Day by day His grace helps us.

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We are repeatedly told of the necessity to plan. “If you fail
to plan, you plan to fail”, “Plan your work, work your plan” etc.

In terms of goalsetting and achieving goals, when people
talk of planning, they generally mean:

1. You set your goals

2. You make a plan for achieving your goals

This, for us, is putting things upside down. And we are
going to put things right back on their feet.

If planning is really necessary, it is much more UPSTREAM,
i.e. BEFORE goalsetting - you decide what you want, when,
where, how you are going to “affirm and visualize”, than
DOWNSTREAM i.e. AFTER goalsetting - how you are
going to achieve your goals.

This “upstream planning” is generally not considered as
planning. It is normally called “decision-making”:
You decide WHAT, explore the reasons WHY, and organize
your affirming and visualizing activity (time, place etc.)

This is different from planning :

For example if your goal is to buy a house in 1 year’s time,
you would be planning for HOW to achieve you goal (save,
invest, work more etc.)

Now I am going to shock you with one little-known success
mindset secret: once you know exactly what you want,
visualization is more important - even more necessary - than
planning, in other words, thinking about how you are going
to enjoy whatever you want once you get it is more important
- even more necessary - than thinking about how to get it in
the first place!

Visualization is much more productive, much more efficient,
much more motivational and inspirational than planning.
Besides, it is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY.

Once (and even before) you’ve set your goals, FAITH is also
much more important than planning.

Planning is in inverse proportion to faith: the stronger your
faith, the less necessary it is for you to plan.

If you really have faith, you don’t need any planning
(another “shocking” statement!)

Let us simply say that planning is only good inasmuch as
you need to be reassured that what you want is really
possible or what you want to do is really feasible.

The truth about planning is that it only causes limitations,
in that lots of possibilities outside the plan are not even
considered.

So, just state whatever it is that you want and don’t worry
too much about HOW you are going to get it, because
there are always far more ways than you could ever plan
for, or even imagine.

Focus on what you want and keep your mind open to the
idea that there are always other ways.

Focus on your goal and obstacles will disappear, because
“obstacles are things a person sees when he takes his eyes
off his goal” (E-Joseph Crossman).

The best way to get rid of obstacles is to keep your eyes
on your goal.

Now, you may ask: ” Won’t you trip and fall if you
concentrate too much on your goal and forget to look where
you’re walking?”

Here is my answer to your question: ” If you have enough
faith, you don’t WALK to your goal, you FLY over all possible
obstacles, straight to your goal”

So, affirm, visualize, and receive: if you have enough faith,
failure is impossible!

A.M.Sall

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A 30+year experience - translator, teacher, traveler, musician,
writer, plus crosscultural awareness, worldwide ancient spiritual
traditions… Success Mindset Philosopher A.M.Sall helps you
“be whatever you want to be and get whatever you want to get “.
http://www.health-beauty-wellness.com/avr.htm

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