Is Your Religion an Illusion? Who is God?

Most people that I run into on a regular basis while out and about on my journey through life, seem to believe in something. Most of them when asked, fear death and are often looking forward to going to a better place, like heaven when they die. Some of them will start talking about all the good things they've done in their lifetime, while others live in a very humble world.

If you're a strong believer and are told not to read or listen to anything outside of your religious text. This probably comes from fear and will keep you living in your religious illusion of faithfulness. Jesus once said, Matthew 7:7 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."

I'm sure that religious scholars can interpret this in a hundred ways and some of them will even make sense to people like me but the words are simple and straightforward. Seek and you will find is pretty simple to understand. If I'm looking for the answers while seeking the truth, I should be able to find it.

Here's where the problem comes in, why don't more people seek the truth. If you believe that seeking the truth is reading your religious text on a daily basis, read them with an open mind and soon you will find text that some of it is outdated, doesn't make sense, and some of it even contradicts itself. There is some wonderful information in these texts also. I've read some of the Holy Bible and love Proverbs and the Story of Job.

Just because I liked the stories and other parts of the Holy Bible, does it make me a believer in Jesus or the God of the Holy Bible. I can no longer agree with my past beliefs, how I was raised or have the same beliefs as the majority of people in my community. I am still seeking the truth but no longer falling into the trap and believe most religions create an illusion of a better life, but can't seem to deliver the goods, especially here on earth. The promise of something better entices some people to live a godly life but at what expense, sometimes.

There are plenty of religious followers who will tell you that they're happy and they love following their religion. Some of these people are liars, others are honest but most of them aren't very educated about their own religions or others throughout the world. Don't get caught up in the religious trap, that your religion is right and others are wrong. This could become more frustrating once you truly start to seek the truth.

Fooling Christians Today

You are free to copy this article to your site as long as you include the following resource information with an active link to my site:

Greg Vanden Berge is a published author, internet marketing expert, motivational inspiration to millions of people all over the world and is sharing some of his wisdom with experts in the fields of writing,marketing, and personal development.

Greg is currently working on a self help library filled with great subjects on a wide array of topics, like religion, self help and spiritual changes in the world. His views on religious freedom are slowly changing the way people think about institutional religion.

Time To Yourself And Meditation

Persuasion Techniques

Don't you just envy how some people seem to get their way more often than not? These people always seem to have all the right words and all the right moves. However, if you take the time to actually study these people, you may be surprised to discover that they have more than just a few persuasion techniques in common.

These persuasion techniques allow them to easily get people to their side and persuade others to their way of thinking. And if you read the rest of this article, you too will be able to tap into this extraordinary power.

Know your audience

As wonderful as it would be to just magically convince another person to share your views, life doesn't quite work that way. You have to know where your audience is coming from in order for you to know which angle you can best appeal to.

If you're dealing with somebody who is more emotional, you can actually use feelings to plead your case. The chances of your success will definitely increase.

Turn weaknesses into strengths

During a job interview orientation, one of the moderators gave me a very helpful advice. She said that when asked for your weaknesses, try to position your statement into something more positive. Instead of, "I'm very shy and soft spoken," you can say, "I'm currently working on my communication skills."

By using persuasion techniques like this, you don't run the risk of scaring your customers away. In fact, they will be delighted to hear somebody with such a positive outlook on life.

Cite the positive facts

Naturally, you would want to tell your audience what the benefits are. People are generally happy to learn what they can gain from something.

You're not going to lie or make up stories. Those do not fall under persuasion techniques. When you persuade, you have to be certain that all your facts are true. Otherwise, your lies will come back to haunt you.

Even when you don't have magic on your side, these persuasion techniques will certainly help you win your audience over. Just follow these basic steps and you'll soon be able to talk your way through anything!

Discover how you can use the psychology of persuasion to change behaviors and influence anyone to your way of thinking! Get a FREE course that reveals groundbreaking persuasion secrets at http://www.20daypersuasion.com/secrets.htm

50 Prosperity Classics

Effective Goal Setting Activities For Success

There are many effective goal setting activities that can be used in all areas of life to help individuals better their own personal experience. Whether you are striving to lose weight or you want to further yourself in your chosen career, there is no mistaking the power of setting goals for yourself. When a person takes the time to state a goal, and then creates a plan that will help them achieve that goal, they have a much better chance of success.

Making a list of all the things you hope to accomplish within a set period of time is a great idea. You can use goal setting forms to do this if you wish. These are really just carefully plotted charts that allow you to keep track of your goals as well as your progress in attaining those goals. If you are trying to better your health by eating sensibly each day or partaking of a specific form of exercise, a chart can be a great ally. Use it each day to track your progress and you are much more likely to stay focused.

If you prefer to use your computer, theres an option available for that as well. Goal setting software usually is comprised of not only worksheets, but calendars and inspirational readings. If you install one of the available programs on your personal or business computer you can note all the advances you are making each day towards your stated goal. One of the benefits of a software program like this is that you can generally utilize items like free wallpaper that has encouraging messages, as well as daily words of inspiration. Its almost as though you have your own silent cheering section pushing you in a positive direction.

You can also look beyond your computer when you are searching for goal setting activities. Reading motivational books is another great source of inspiration for many individuals. If you are just starting out on a new business venture, reading the autobiography of a magnate who worked their way up from almost nothing can help you attain your own goals by showing you that it really can be done.

For people attempting to make positive physical changes in their lives, talking to someone who has lost weight or stopped smoking can be a great way to help stay focused on goals. Quite often, when we are striving towards a personal goal we wonder if can really be done. Being given the opportunity to speak to someone who has attained their own goal, that is similar to your own, is a tremendous source of hope. Use the positive experiences of others as part of your goal setting process and youll soon be the one aspiring others after youve surpassed your own dreams. From self improvement online guide, http://www.i2lifeselfgrowth.com.

For more goal setting activities, forms and software to further your self improvement, go to http://www.i2lifeselfgrowth.com/goalsetting

Habits To Prevent Losing Things

You Are A Diamond So Scrapbook About Yourself

As a devoted scrapper, you probably gain satisfaction from scrapbooking about others.

Oftentimes, you are the one glaring missing light in your scrapbook albums. Simply because you're so caught up with hiding behind the camera and being a fixated shutterbug. Either that or you're tied up scrapbooking about others that you missed out on scrapbooking about yourself.

Somehow, it's happening too frequently.

Ever thought about why you should take a step back and start scrapbooking about yourself? Ever wonder how scrapbooking about "you" could bring out the shine in you?

Come on, you are special, there's no way to deny it. Rare like a diamond. Just probably covered up in layers and needed some polishing to bring out the natural shine. And scrapbooking is a powerful method to reveal the rareness in you.

There's so many glowing benefits to creating scrapbooks all about you:

1) Leaving Behind an Everlasting Legacy

For the people who will never get the chance of meeting and knowing you, your scrapbooks about yourself will leave behind memories of you as a person. It's a mean of letting them discover and know about you.

I once read of a mother who was seized with terminal stage of cancer. In her final days, instead of resting, she struggled to put together scrapbook albums of herself. Why? Just so that her two very young toddlers will get to know about the mommy whom they'll never see in person again. The scrapbooks will be constant reminders to the kids of their mommy's love for them and her thoughts about them.

It's a heart-wrenching story, but it's a wake up call that you don't have an eternity. You have to take steps now to make time to leave behind a part of who you are. Like they said, "You'll never know"...

2) Showing the World of You as an Individual

Yes, besides being known as the scrapbooker who so lovingly and tenderly put together the family scrapbooks, your children and present or future grandchildren would want to know how you look like. They'll wonder "How did Granny Kate look like when she's a baby? And what did she look like when she's a young woman?"

You're likely to have the same curiosity of your ancestors too. So do showcase your changing faces or appearances throughout the years or decades. Come out from behind your camera, and ask or plead with someone else to take over the role of the photographer.

You are important and you need to be in those pages.

3) Revealing the Real You

By scrapbooking, you'll immortalize a part of yourself in a permanent way. And through reading your journaling, others will get to know you in an intimate sort of way. You are granting them permission to be privy to your inner world of thoughts, which are usually hidden by the superficialities of your daily life. Your journaling will reveal the authentic side of you that many may not have the privilege to know of otherwise.

Do consider leaving those alluring computer fonts aside for a while, and write in your own handwriting. It may not be perfect but it's much more personal. Your handwriting is undeniably a part of you.

4) Passing on Your Beliefs and Values

Worried that your values and beliefs will be lost forever to your future generations? Scrapbooking about them is a great way to ensue that they'll get passed on from one generation to the next. "Great-grandma Emily is a strong believer of filial piety. It's her strongest trait..."

Your scrapbook albums will likely become treasured family keepsakes, where your words will echo and impact on your future generations lives.

5) Pulling You Out from a Crossroad

There's probably times in your life when you feel uncertain and lost about yourself. It's like your identity has gone missing. I've been at such a crossroad before too.

At such disheartening moments, try scrapbooking on themes like "What Makes Me So Unique", "The Many Hats That I wear" and "Top 10 Things that I'm Most Proud". These themes will once again call attention to your own uniqueness. Such meaningful pages will reinforce the value in you as an individual.

If you're daring enough, try "10 Things I Like About You". This is where you'll have to get a couple of your closest kin and friends to each make a list of things they like about you. You'll have to cast away your shyness and get those lists from the people you care about.

Because someday when you feel like you're in the dumps, pull out these precious little lists, read over them and call to your mind that you are wanted and loved by others.

So instead of dwelling on your failures and imperfections, these powerful lists will push you forward and make you look at the positive traits of yourself.

6) Pump You Up with Pride

When you're done with some scrapbooks on yourself, flip through them occasionally.

You'll find yourself looking at you with a renewed sense of respect and pride. Be it as a mother, nurturer, wife, partner, daughter, sister, colleague or dreamer, your scrapbook albums will showcase you in different roles. It'll tell others that you aren't merely just a mom.

The pages will remind you that you have meaningful contributions to make in various roles.

Are you beginning to see the therapeutic wonders of scrapbooking about yourself? Doesn't it reaffirm the goodness within you and unleash the power of you being a diamond?

Aren't the above reasons compelling enough to cajole you into scrapbooking about yourself?

Each delayed moment is a moment lost forever. So take positive steps now to uncover the diamond in you to share with others.

Happy scrapping about yourself!

About the Author:
Fion Lim is the creator of http://www.everything-about-scrapbooking.com. She enjoys scrapbooking as a hobby and finds pleasure in sharing scrapbooking ideas, tips and techniques with beginner scrapbookers through her scrapbooking site.

Religious Thought

As a young boy and even into my early adult hood, I asked almost every one that I knew, what they thought heaven was going to be like. These people painted me the most wonderful and beautiful pictures, with the words coming out of their mouths. One woman told me that heaven was going to be the most wonderful place you could ever imagine. She told me that, I would be able to do anything that I wanted to do at any time of the day or night.

All I can say to this, is why are we afraid to die and why do we put that much effort into staying here, when heaven sounds like the place we all want to be. This becomes very confusing during troubled times. We live our whole life to be the best we can possibly be, and then and only then do we get to enter the kingdom of heaven, the most wonderful place in the universe.

Another man told me that, if I wanted to go to heaven, the more good deeds I did on earth, the better buy chances were of actually entering heaven. He said that some people don't get to go, because they did a couple of bad things or maybe one really, really bad thing, like murder. I often wondered what would be worse, murder or painting demonic symbols on the walls of a church, mosque or synagogue. I hope I'm not confusing you anymore than organized religions.

Well now that I have a pretty good idea, that in order to enter into heaven, I need to do good things... that's what I will do for the rest of my life. Sounds simple doesn't it. Now for the bad news, depending on which religion you choose to follow and don't forget that Christianity is one religion that allows you, something special, right before you die, no matter how bad of a person you were to accept Jesus Christ into your heart and accept him as the Almighty God, and this gets you one free pass into heaven.

Am I confusing you at all, does this make sense? When the man told me, that, the only way I would get to go to heaven was by doing good deeds and then the Bible tells me that, I just need to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and I get to go to the promised land, heaven. All right now were talking, this sounds pretty good now. I won't have to do very many good things and before I die can ask forgiveness for all the bad things I did.

I don't know what's true, but I can say that it gets a little confusing and as you go from religion to religion and place of worship to other places of worship, you will hear different stories, from different religious leaders. I can't make much sense out of some religions, but if you want to believe in heaven, there is someone out there who can paint you, the most wonderful picture of heaven in your mind. Whether we really get to go there or not, depends on what you want to believe in.

I wrote this article to get people thinking about the choices they've made and the religions they choose to follow. Is your religion right and others are wrong? Ask yourself this one question, think back, to when you made a conscious choice to follow the religion you're in right now, if any, most of the time you started believing as a child and never really got to choose because your parents, teachers, friends, family or guardians made a choice for you.

You are free to copy this article to your site as long as you include the following resource information with an active link to my site:

Greg Vanden Berge is a published author, internet marketing expert, motivational inspiration to millions of people all over the world and is sharing some of his wisdom with experts in the fields of writing,marketing, and personal development. Check out one of his recommended books, spiritual books

If you want to read something funny and get your daily laugh in, you need to read this, it's funny Using Religion Responsibility. It's based on overindulgence.

Randy Alcorn

Getting Comfortable With Change: 5 Easy Steps

"Change the way you look at things, and the things you look at change." - Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

When something happens to you that might be labeled as negative, how do you react? The initial reaction for most of us is to run or hide, look for someone to blame, come up with excuses, wonder what we could have done differently, shift into a fear mode or do all of the above.

Whether the situation revolves around health issues, finances, work or relationships, the tendency is to dwell in the past or worry about the future. When we have one foot in the past and one foot in the future, it leaves nothing for the present! We spend our time, fearfully saying "What if .... happens?" And it's this focus on the future that causes feelings of fear and anxiety.

Here's a quote from The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle that applies to this topic: "Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry - all forms of fear - are caused by too much future, and not enough presence. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of nonforgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence."

Fear-based thinking is widespread in our society; fear of failure, of rejection, of poverty, of the unknown and of death. If we were to sum all this up in one word - it would be fear of change. We fear change because it takes away our feeling of security. So how is the best way to handle change, deal with so called negative circumstances and banish fear? There are five things you can do:

1. Practice gratitude. Make a list of all the things for which you are grateful. Doing this practice attracts more positive things into your life. Add to your list everyday.

2. Put both feet in the present! When you catch your mind drifting in to the past or the future, gently bring it back to the present moment. Put your attention on where you are NOW. Get quiet and ask your inner guidance for clarity and direction.

3. Accentuate the positive. Look for the opportunity in the situation. Drop negative words like not and don't. So rather than say, "I don't want to be broke", say "I want to be financially secure" or better still say " I am financially secure" or best ask, "In what ways, am I financially secure?"

4. Create a clear vision of what you want. Imagine it happening and experience the feeling of what it would be like to live your vision.

5. Let go of the outcome. Clinging too tightly to a particular outcome limits other possibilities . Know that following the previous four steps is attracting what you want, so just relax!

Following these five steps takes practice and diligence. It is natural to slip back into old patterns when unexpected events happen - that's okay. Just shift your thinking to these new steps when you catch yourself staddling the past and the future. You'll know when this happens because your body will tell you with various reactions!

Copyright October 2005

As a Life Transition Coach I work with clients to identify what's most important to them and to prioritize around these values. I help my clients identify and remove obstacles in the way and bring clarity and focus to their dreams. What is your dream? Are you undergoing a major transition and not clear where to turn? Call (972-306-4489) or email me, (coach.v.miller@verizon.net), to set up a complimentary, no obligation 30 minute telephone coaching session. Download my FREE e-Book, 12 Fun Ways to Change Your Life, or sign up for my FREE monthly newsletter at http://www.thrivingthroughchange.com

Chris Prentiss

Does God Care About Poor People

It's hard to imagine that God really does care about poor people. When I say poor people, I'm not talking about people that live in the United States of America on welfare or use their unemployment payments to survive. I'm talking about people that live in what we call third world countries, people that are starving to death and dying because they're poor.

I heard somewhere, and it's hard to believe and I don't have any proof, but someone told me that 80% of the people in the world today live on less than $20 a day. I made that statement, but in reality I heard that 80% of the world lives on less than two dollars each day. That's hard to imagine with a caring God or caring God's, the creator of the universe who made us in his image.

I've been asking this question for years to rich, poor, middle class, educated, illiterate, good-looking and ugly people. I have heard so many different answers and beliefs on why God treats poor people badly. Here is a small list of reasons why God treats these people this way.

1. They Must Have Done Something Wrong and God Is Punishing Them for Their Mistakes.

2. They Don't Believe in the Right God.

3. One of Their Ancestors Did Something Bad and Now They're Paying the Penalty.

4. They Were Born into the Wrong Family, Country, Nationality, Race or Religion.

And last but not least my favorite, the more someone suffers on earth the greater the glory they received in heaven. I can't believe someone would actually say this, but this is the one I've heard most often. " The meek shall inherit the earth." Why wouldn't God have said, "That the poor and the starving people will inherit the kingdom of heaven, and only after they have suffered, pain beyond mortal believe shall they get to enter the kingdom of heaven and then live in a world of unbelievable riches, with plenty of food, clothes and of course people that love them."

I think if religious text was a little more specific, it would make more sense to people who are actually suffering.

You are free to copy this article to your site as long as you include the following resource information with an active link to my site:

Greg Vanden Berge is a published author, internet marketing expert, motivational inspiration to millions of people all over the world and is sharing some of his wisdom with experts in the fields of writing,marketing, and personal development. Check out one of his recommended books, You Can Have It All

Greg is currently working on a Christian library filled with great subjects on a wide array of topics, like religion, self help and spiritual changes in the world. His views on religious freedom are slowly changing the way people think about institutional religion.

David Hume