SAVE THE DATE::: Saturday, March 10, 2012

Pennsylvania Convention Center

Philadelphia, PA

1:00pm-10:00pm

Following the all day Conference will be a Finale Concert featuring: Marvin Sapp, Israel Houghton, Earnest Pugh, William McDowell, James Fortune, Jessica Reedy, JJ Hairston & Youthful Praise and much much more

(Concert is Free to the first 1,000 Conference tickets purchased)

BUY NOW!

WORKSHOPS TO LOOK FORWARD TO::

All You Need to Know About the Music Business

Description: Kerry Douglass, Fred Hammond, Tye Tribbett, Marvin Sapp, and Regina Belle. will educate attendees on how they got into the music industry as well as how to build and grow their own brands; whether it’s book publishing, music, managing their own business, or just to build their own self worth.

Description: Kirk Franklin will speak 1 on 1 with attendees of this workshop. They will learn how Kirk Franklin advanced his career as a musical artist AND CAN ask questions that they have always wanted to know.

Luckily, I have the economically-safe, simplistic, no fuss way to give someone the best gift, EVER! Make their gift from scratch. Create something they need with your bare hands and trust me, most people will be thankful you thought so much of them to actually take time out of your life to make them something. Take it back to pre-K, when you made your mom that card or sign out of macaroni. Christmas should be about how much you care; not how much you spend.

Make Your Bathroom Festive This Christmas

The first thing you have to do is find out what you’re good at creating. If you’re a great cook, find out what type of foods the person you are focusing on likes. Make a large amount of cookies in the shape of a Christmas tree. Make sure you know about any allegories the person may have. You don’t want to put someone in the hospital Christmas day.

Investigate about clothing or artsy items you can make. If someone, like myself, loves scarves, knit them one as a gift. Yarn and needles are pretty cheap ranging from 5-10 dollars to make one heck of a scarf, sweater, or pair of socks. Lionbrand.com has step-by-step instructions to help you become an expert knitter.

10 Christmas Gifts For Your Best Friend For Under $50

So tap into that inner artist in you and give something different this year. Making your gifts not only saves you money, but it can also teach you a trade that can make you money later on in life. Also, a lot of creative endeavors lower stress levels and are very therapeutic. The holidays are about thoughtfulness and nothing is more thoughtful than creating someone’s Christmas gift.

Don’t get caught not giving this year (you don’t want to be a scrooge do you?). Most importantly, don’t give the same old cliched gifts. Here’s a list of some thoughtful and creative ideas for gifts for your employees:

1. Money
Like it or not, money is the ultimate gift for anyone to receive. Most companies give out holiday bonuses to their employees in December as a “thank you” and to give employees a little extra spending cash for holiday shopping. To make this gift extra thoughtful give your employees personalized checks (not gift cards or add-ons to paychecks).

2. Wining & Dining
Hosting a company dinner is not only a great way to say “thank you” for a year of hard work from your employees but also a wonderful way to get the team together for some morale boosting bonding time.

3. Gift Certificates
Find out what your employee’s favorite places to shop are and give them a gift certificate there. Maybe a gift certificate to a massage? Discounted Broadway tickets? Get creative! This shows a true personal touch.

4. A Paid Day Off Of Work
Wouldn’t you kill for that too?

5. Gift Baskets
Wine, Fruit, Chocolates and other yummy treats are never turned down by anyone. Creating thoughtful gift baskets can be a great end of year “thank you.”

No matter what your company chooses it’s important to let your employees know they are appreciated for their hard work and get them revved up for the up coming year. Choose wisely and give your employees a wonderful holiday!

Get more holiday tips here!

While you’re here take a look at our 20 Secret Santa gifts for under $20!

We claim all these things in the name of the Divine take a moment a give yourself a huge stretch, and wake up. The first thing you want to do is say thank you for this day. Be thankful for the people in your life and that you woke up. We have so much to be thankful for, we don’t even realize it because of the daily grindstone. Anyway, when you get ready in the bathroom, do the same thing as the night before, look at yourself in the mirror and say “I am going to have a great day, and nothing is going to get me down” I can do anything, with a smile!!

Prayer for a Good Day

Dear Lord,as I arise
And bend my knee to pray
I ask please place your guiding hand
Upon this busy day

All my yesterdays are said and done
Tomorrow may never be
But I give you full reign over this day
To make the best of me

May each little word I speak
Be filtered through your love
May all my thoughts be connected
To the heavenly courts above

And use my feet to take me
To where you want me to be
Guard my eyes that they would only
See what you want me to see

Give me a heart that longs to show
Others the way back home
And with these two hands help me
Fashion glory for your throne

From the great expanse of eternity
One day is all I can borrow
So help me Lord to take care of today
And we’ll talk again tomorrow Amen

May this day be great for you!

The Purpose of Time Alone with God

By Brent Barnett
This week’s topic: Time Alone With God

The ultimate purpose of spending time with God is to commune with God. Man is made for relationship with God (Ecclesiastes 3:11), and thus, in order to have fullness of joy and to be what God wants him to be, he needs to cultivate that relationship. How this is done will make all the difference for making our devotional time a meaningful, edifying, and truly purposeful time.

James 4:8 says, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” The reason we must have time with God is because God asks us to. He puts the responsibility on us to make the first move to reach to Him in drawing near. He wants us to want Him, and so He waits for us with open arms hoping that we will run to Him. The promise for us is sure that if we draw near to Him we can be sure that He will be there for us. He won’t run, He won’t hurt us, He won’t ignore us, He won’t abandon us, and He will listen. He is the perfect friend and Father, and He always has all the time we could ever need. In addition, He has the power to effect change, move mountains, and truly impact our lives immediately and directly. It is such a privilege to be a child of God Who can approach the Sovereign of the entire world to move to meet our needs.

When we come to realize that life is about relationship with God, we will get the most out of our devotion time. If we start to think that life is merely about doing things for God rather than enjoying God Who does His work in and through us, we will lose our joy and our first love (Revelation 2:4). Life to the full is knowing God (John 17:3). Eternal life and the abundant life (John 10:10) are found in cultivating a personal relationship with a personal God through Jesus Christ. This is what our heart longs for, and if we start replacing God with activities for God or any other idol, we will lose our joy and wonder why God feels so distant. The beauty of an intimate walk with God is that we can know His will (1 Corinthians 2:16), we can have our joy made full (John 15:11), and we can expect our prayers to be answered (John 15:7). There is rest, security, and certainty when we are near to the heart of God. But we must take the time to spend time with God to listen to Him, learn from Him, and love Him.

A productive quiet time is one in which we encounter God’s heart for us through His Word. We read it, study it, and meditate upon it such that the Spirit is able to give us enlightenment concerning its meaning and His desired application for our lives. The Scripture is not meant to be mere data and information, but it is language expressing God’s love and intents to us and for us. It is thus more than letters on a page, being God’s handwritten note to us about His love and purposes for us. It is very much alive (Hebrews 4:12). When we read God’s Word to see what God’s heart is and how He wants our hearts (James 1:25), then devotions are meaningful and purposeful.

Devotions should also involve time in prayer. We should listen to God through His Word, and then we should speak to God through prayer. It is essential that we open our hearts fully before God, especially since He sees them for what they are anyway. It is silly to not express our full longings when God knows what they are anyway. We should cast our worries and cares upon Christ (1 Peter 5:7), we should pour out our needs to Him, and we should pray for the things which He has told us to pray for, such as for His kingdom to come and will to be done in various areas in our sphere of influence and in the world. We want to see His name lifted up in spirit and in truth. Once our hearts are enraptured with God, it is only natural to pray for others to know the same thing.

Psalm 16:11 says, “You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.”

We were made for God, so let us spend time alone with God to hear from Him, to know Him, to enjoy Him, to learn from Him, and to listen to Him. He alone can give us strength and meet our deepest needs, so let us draw near to Him regularly, starting today.

Scripture Of The Day: “You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” – Psalm 16:11 (ESV)

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By Sharon Frame
This week’s topic: Resurrection

I was about nine-years-old when I first saw a dead person up-close. Some school kids heard an old woman in the neighborhood had just died. Morbid curiosity got the best of us. Before I knew it, we were making nervous tracks through a country dirt road and into the woman’s house.

The quick glimpse of death on her face scared me so fear followed me all the way home that day. My childish imagination ran wild. I couldn’t shake the dead woman’s face. And for days, I’d check under every bed for any sign of death lurking in my house.

It’s not just kids who get scared of death. Many adults can’t handle it either. You may be a faithful Christian who believes in the resurrection. But death is still a curious thing. It’s beyond man’s reach or control. Perhaps that’s what troubles us most. We can’t bear not being in control.

Spiritually, that may explain why so many Christians have such a hard time dying. For dying means relinquishing control of self. It signifies killing the flesh. And who really wants to do that? But die we must, if we really want to live.

In Matthew 16:25 Jesus said to his disciples: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”

Jesus Christ lived to die. That was his mission on earth. Now we must die to live. That’s our mission. To resurrect means to bring to life again. Since Christ raised us from the dead, we are now charged with resurrecting a dead world still trapped in sin. We do that by living a life dying to self.

John 12:24-25 reminds us of our need to die in order to help others live.“Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”

How many seeds are still waiting on you to die so they can germinate? How many sinners are waiting on you to resurrect them? Like my nine-year-old self, we usually run from death. But spiritual death is worth embracing, since it can offer life to so many.

The apostle Paul urged us to “mortify (kill) the deeds of the flesh.” That’s how we relinquish our will. Jesus agonized about it in the garden. He finally said, (Father) “not my will, but yours be done.” Dying demands sacrifice. Here’s evidence:

D- Disciplined prayer life. Rise early every morning. Make prayer the first order of business. Talk to God. Allow Him proper space and time to talk to you.

I – Include Holy Spirit. Be led by the comforter, guide and instructor. He teaches how to die to self and live unto God. Take on the fruit of His Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Goodness, Kindness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)

E- Exhibit Christ. Follow Jesus’ perfect example. Walk in His footsteps. Publically display His love. That’s what draws sinners to God. They’re hungry for a taste of true love. It’s patient, kind. It doesn’t envy or boast. It’s not proud. It’s not rude. It’s not self-seeking. It’s not easily angered or offended. It keeps no record of wrongs. It doesn’t delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth. (1 Corinthians 13: 4-6)

Such love means death of self.

As a nine-year-old child, mortal death scared the life out of me. Now I willingly die to live. How about you? It’s the only way some “dead man walking” in sin can glimpse Christ, the image and essence of true life.

Scripture Of The Day: “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” – Matthew 16:25 (NKJV)

That is similar to what Gallup has measured over the last two decades, but down from the 1970s and 1980s.

A 49% plurality of Americans say the Bible is the inspired word of God but that it should not be taken literally, consistently the most common view in Gallup’s nearly 40-year history of this question. Another 17% consider the Bible an ancient book of stories recorded by man.

These results are based on a May 5-8 Gallup poll. The high point in the percentage of Americans favoring a literal interpretation of the Bible was 40%, recorded in 1980 and 1984. The low point was 27% in 2001.

Read More At www.Gallup.com

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The Harlot Babylon is preparing the nations to receive the Antichrist. The Harlot Babylon will be a religion of affirmation, toleration, no absolutes, a counterfeit justice movement. They will feed the poor, have humanitarian projects, inspire acts of compassion for all the wrong reasons. They won’t know it, beloved they will be sincere, many of them, but their sincerity will not in any way lessen the impact of their deception. The fact that they are sincere does not make their deception less damaging. I believe that one of the main pastors, as a forerunner to the Harlot movement, it’s not the Harlot movement yet, is Oprah. She is winsome, she is kind, she is reasonable, she is utterly deceived, utterly deceived. A classy woman, a cool woman, a charming woman, but has a spirit of deception and she is one of the clear pastors, forerunners to the Harlot movement.”

Reading this isnt enough, you really have to see the video first. Check that out below

So what do you thin? Could Oprah be the Antichrist? or is Mike Bickle a little crazy?

spotted @ EurWeb

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Source

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The Washington Post calculated the amount to be about 1,700 calories.

The uproar follows similar controversy last month over President Obama’s sausage-featured photo-op with British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Neil Barnard, M.D. president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, wrote on The Huffington Post: “The First Lady’s signature anti-obesity campaign — Let’s Move — is no match for the administration’s ongoing purchases of sausage, cheese, burgers and other fatty foods that are sent to schools everyday. And the U.S. Department of Agriculture continues to bow to the interests of meat lobbyists and heavily subsidize the production of meat and other unhealthful foods.”

However, “Good Morning America” pointed out that last year Michelle Obama told ABC News: “I love burgers and fries, you know? And I love ice cream and cake. So do most kids. We’re not talking about a lifestyle that excludes all that. That’s the fun of being a kid. That’s the fun of being a human.” [Watch below.]

Source

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