PERSISTENCE AND PERSEVERANCE and The Rock Almighty Voices with Disciple

 

by Creflo Dollar 

Part of being human is wanting to experience success and accomplish the goals we set for ourselves.

Sometimes this is easier said than done, especially when we face adversity that threatens to set us back. Often the difference between success and failure isn’t intelligence or book learning, but our willingness to keep going. When we feel discouraged and think we can’t go another step, knowing what God says about persisting and persevering gives us strength to keep moving forward.

Persistence and perseverance are good, as long as they aren’t misdirected. We can spend months or even years spinning our wheels trying to move in a direction God doesn’t want us to go. This is the wrong kind of persistence that yields no results. When we step out of the way and let God set our course, things begin to get very clear and everything we need to do clicks into place. “A man's heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps” (Proverbs 16:9).

We live in a culture of “me-ism” that encourages us to put ourselves first and foremost, in the center of the circle. This can block our progress. Our blind spot can cause us to struggle to reach the goals we set for ourselves, instead of the goals God wants us to reach. We greatly increase our chances of success when we listen to God’s voice instead of to the voice of our own human reasoning. “And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left” (Isaiah 30:21).  

Persevering in the things God tells us to do instead of the things the world tells us to do puts us in the supernatural realm. Following His prompting is guaranteed to generate resistance in a world that doesn’t know God. When we feel that external pressure applied to us, we endure because we know we’re going in the right direction. “You need the strength of endurance to reveal the poetry of God’s will and then you receive the promise in full” (Hebrews 10:36, TPT). Correctly dividing the Word in this area gives us the discernment to know the difference between God’s perfect plan for our lives and what we have decided to do for ourselves.

Perseverance involves patience, which is a godly trait. Abraham was a good example of someone who patiently walked in faith regardless of the odds. He no doubt faced numerous opportunities and temptations to pull his faith off the field, but he didn’t. “And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise” (Hebrews 6:15). Patience is defined as constantly, consistently remaining the same regardless of what happens; God rewards this kind of unwavering belief in Him.

Christians living in the world without being part of it face many spiritual traps the devil has laid out. People determined to choose their own path in life are the ones most likely to fall into these pits. They stubbornly persevere in their efforts to deliver themselves but make no progress. However, the picture is different for believers who patiently persist. “Stand firm with patient endurance and you will find your souls’ deliverance” (Luke 21:19, TPT).

There’s nothing wrong with resolutely persisting, as long as we set ourselves on the right thing. It’s impossible to see every situation brewing that can derail our carefully-laid plans and stall our progress. Persevering in what God tells us to do spares us from train wrecks up ahead. Letting Him call the shots gives us success.

THINKING LIKE CHRIST

Creflo Dollar 

We live in a fallen world caught up in perverse, twisted values. The prevailing “anything goes” mindset around us has no concept of right and wrong. The message we get is that it’s okay to think whatever we want. In this kind of environment, the difference between the world’s way of thinking and God’s way of thinking is like night and day.

It’s critical to understand how important our thought lives are. What we expose ourselves to influences how we think, and how we think determines how we feel. This can explain the anger and strife we see everywhere around us, and the confusion as to where all this negativity comes from. We’re in a spiritual battle; thinking like the world blinds us to the fact that a war is even being fought, but thinking like God opens our spiritual eyes and gives us a fighting chance. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12, NIV).

Most people put more faith in what the world says than what their Bible says; it’s no coincidence that these people struggle through life and wonder why they’re so unhappy. We’re living in the age where self-made “experts” tell us that what we once considered wrong is now right, and what was right is now wrong. The truth is that the morals that God outlined in His Word from the beginning will never change. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8, NKJV). Jesus is God’s Word in human form; therefore, to get a handle on what’s happening around us and rise above it, we need to learn to think like Christ.

God loves us very much and wants the best for us. However, He holds us accountable for our actions. The world has chosen to reject Him, at its own peril.

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him! Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel (Isaiah 5:20-24).

We’re seeing this prophecy coming to pass right now.

The things that worldly philosophies accept as true is plain nonsense to God. To think like Christ, we must begin to renew our minds according to His Word. “Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ” (Colossians 2:8, NLT). Bringing our belief system into alignment with God’s is a lifetime process, but it gives us victory in a defeated world.

We must never get tricked into wrong-thinking; the stakes are too high. Using God’s Word as our guide helps us avoid the pitfalls others have fallen into. We stay on safe ground when we compare everything we hear and see in the world to what He says.

Feed the Cats: Sprints-Based Lacrosse and The US High School Sports Show

by Tony Holler

Description

“SPRINT BASED LACROSSE” is the ninth course of an ambitious “Feed the Cats certification program created by Tony Holler.

Feed the Cats is a revolutionary way of training, coaching, and teaching that values specificity, essentialism, performance, and love. After gaining a world-wide following in Track & Field, FTC has now gained a strong foothold in American football. Book this course.....

This presentation rocked the lacrosse world at the IMLCA National Clinic held in December of 2020. Tony Holler is the first presenter at IMLCA to never hold a lacrosse stick… yet the presentation got rave reviews. 

“Sprint Based Lacrosse” takes an overview of the traditional approach to sport training (lift weights and get tired every day), and turns it upside down. Feed the Cats is the name of the new model and speed is the priority. The foundation of that speed is rest, recovery, and sleep. 

More courses are on the way!

Follow Tony Holler on Twitter… @pntrack

The Coach

Tony Holler

Head track coach at Plainfield North High School. 40 years experience coaching football, basketball, and track. Member of Illinois Track & Field Hall of Fame and Co-director of Track Football Consortium with Chris Korfist

• Head Boy's Track & Field at Plainfield North High School (IL)
• Retired Chemistry Teacher
• Public Speaker
• Writer for FreelapUSA, SimpliFaster, & ITCCCA
• Creator and Owner of "Feed the Cats"
• Co-Owner of Track Football Consortium
• Certified Teacher of Reflexive Performance Reset
• Book this course today!

Seven Tips For A Long And Healthy Life and the StrengthCast PowerShow

 

• Author Rabin Shah

As good as modern medical technology is, it will never be able to save you from a problem caused by an unhealthy lifestyle.

Instead of getting modern medical improvements for each problem, it is much better to live in such a way that you will not fall ill.

One ounce of prevention is certainly better than one pound of healing. Here are seven tips on how to live a long and healthy life. In addition, the same lifestyle that helps you avoid disease also helps you lose weight.

1. Get Enough Physical Activity

People had to use their physical bodies as part of their everyday labor in the past. Today, though, someone may get up, drive to work, sit down, drive home, and then sit down for the rest of the day. There is no physical labor in such a life. Physical inactivity is one of the leading causes of a variety of illnesses. If our typical work does not demand us to strain ourselves physically, we must incorporate sports, running, walking, and other activities into our lives. I

2. Go to sleep when you feel sleepy

This might sound simple, but many people stay up even when their bodies tell them that it's time to sleep. Yoga and Doctor Ayurvedic also say that it's better to sleep at night and active during the day. However, people like students will drink coffee and stimulants to learn until late at night. The other develops the habit of staying active at night and sleeps during the day. While we can do this, finally taking victims of health. Alternative health doctors say that unnatural life like this is one of the factors that contribute to the causes of cancer and other diseases

3. Eat only when you're hungry.

This is likewise a simple concept, but we frequently ignore the body's messages. You will not digest your food effectively if you eat out of habit or due to social pressure at a given time of day, even though you have no true appetite. Acidity and indigestion set in, increasing the likelihood of other, more complex disorders developing. Having an appetite is a sign of excellent health, but if you don't have one, you should wait a while before eating. (If you still don't have an appetite after waiting a reasonable amount of time, see a doctor because something is wrong.)

4. Quickly regularly, systematically

If you are going to ask people to work 365 days per year without rest, they will complain and say that they must have a break or they will break down. But we never bothered asking or thinking about our digestive organs we forced to work day after day without rest. They cannot protest the way someone will go to his boss, but they give us a signal that they cannot work without stopping. When we ignore the signals and still force them to work, the organs broke down. That is why fasting is needed. Don't eat for one complete day. It gives a break on your digestive organs and also helps in removing waste from your body. Regular fasting allows someone to get extra time for intellectual or spiritual pursuit. Fasting is not for ascetic in the cave, but is a reasonable practice that can be practiced anyone.

5. Wash with cold water before going to bed

As mentioned above, the right sleep is very important for health care. If you wash your important motor and sensory organs (hands, arms, eyes, legs, mouth, genitals) before going to bed using cold water, this will calm you down and prepare you to sleep well.

6. Perform regular meditation

Your body is linked to your mind. Many of these era diseases are psychosomatic. Stress and anxiety took their victims on our physical health. Meditation is a mental exercise that, among others, allows you to escape life's worries. Learn simple techniques and do it regularly.

7. Get up at the same time every day.

"Early to bed, early to wake" is an old adage that "makes a person healthy, wealthy, and wise." I'm not sure if it will make you wealthy, but it will undoubtedly keep you healthy. Your body requires just the right amount of sleep, not too much or too little.

Seven Tips For A Long And Healthy Life. It is necessary for us to maintain our diet and physical fitness. In our daily life we use various kind of work to maintain our body healthy.

Weight Loss Vs Fat Loss - Yes There is a Difference!

 

• Author Anthony Washington

In order to lose weight, your body must burn more calories than it takes in, but keep in mind that your body needs calories for energy and when you exercise your body needs even more calories. Before I talk about energy, the first thing you must understand is that losing weight and losing fat is not the same thing. Just because you lose weight, does not mean you lose fat, and just because you lose fat, does not mean you lose weight. When people talk about losing weight, what the really want to do is lose the excess fat on their body and obtain an attractive figure.

Everyone has a different approach to training and nutrition, here's a few things I've found helpful over the years.

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When you eat, the body uses most of the calories for energy. If you eat more calories than the body uses, it will get stored as fat. If you do not consume enough calories per day you will lose weight, but you will also lose energy. When you do not consume enough energy (calories) for your body, it will start using up your energy stores to make up for the energy deficiency. Unfortunately, the energy stores used is not your stored fat, but instead it's protein and carbohydrates (carbs) that will supply most of the energy (stored fat makes up a very small percentage). Your body will take the protein and carbohydrates from your muscle cells; causing your muscle mass to reduce (say goodbye to that toned attractive look) which forces your metabolism to decrease (a low metabolism = slow or no fat burning). When this happens your body requires less energy to maintain its new lower body weight (remember the body weight is lower because you loss muscle), which is why your body conserves energy by slowing down the metabolism. In other words, the body has adapted to the new lower energy (calorie) intake which means that you will no longer continue to lose weight.

Keep in mind that the weight you had lost in the first place was mostly water weight and you will eventually gain it back in the form of fat, not muscle (in order to get your muscle mass back to the way it was before, you have to work on rebuilding it). When carbohydrates and protein that are already in your body are used as the energy source, your body will lose water weight because both carbohydrates and protein hold water in the cells. In essence, you are dehydrating yourself to lose weight. So yes the scale will go down, but approximately 75% (if not more) of it is water instead of fat. And just so you know, exercising while consuming a small calorie intake just makes the situation worse. This is because when you exercise, you start burning off more energy and the more you workout, the more energy your body needs. I already told you above where the energy comes from, and if you do not give your body the energy it needs, it will just feed on your muscles even quicker now that you are exercising. So eat more food! In addition to this, when you cut down too much on your calorie intake, your body will start storing calories because it doesn't know when you will eat again. The calories that are stored will be stored as fat. So in other words, when your body is storing energy, it's basically storing more fat.

To summarize my point: Not eating enough calories results in muscle loss, dehydration, slower fat burning, and your body will always adapt to a lower calorie intake.

Bottom Line: if you can't maintain that lower calorie intake for the rest of your life, you will gain your weight back when you get tired of starving yourself!

To lose weight properly (burning fat) you must increase your metabolism (weight training) and your need for oxygen (aerobics) while eating enough calories each day (nutritious diet) to give you energy and maintain the protein in your muscles because protein helps build muscles, which indirectly burns fat. This brings up another good point: When you build muscle your weight will increase because your muscles are made up of mostly water, but your body fat percentage will decrease because building muscles increase your metabolism (in other words, muscles way more than fat, but take up less space than fat). So keep in mind that losing body fat can't be measured by a scale; use a measuring tape and also look at yourself in the mirror, and then you will see the true results. One of the best ways to know if you are losing more body fat than water is by using a body fat analyzer.

Make sure that you focus on fat loss not weight loss. Your goal should be to lose weight by burning fat, not losing water from your muscles. Remember this when you choose your weight loss program.

Concealed Carry Aftermath – Surviving a Home Invasion , Now What?

 

by Matthew Maruster 

The home invader is dead—the coroner loads into a van the lifeless human body of the attacker you killed. The responding Police have asked their questions, documented the scene, and left your house. You stopped the immediate threat, but now a whole new set of emotions come over you. What do you do now?

A recent late-night home invasion in Michigan isn't much different than the numerous others we've talked about on the Concealed Carry Podcast Justified Saves episodes. However, something the homeowner said led me to write this post.

I'm a religious man, so it’s still tough, [appearing to tear up] scared to death. Who knows when we’ll be done with that, I guess. Hard to go back in your own home after this happens in it.

When we decide to use deadly defensive force, all that matters is surviving the moment, and our brain helps us stay focused on that task. However, once we survive the violent attack, we have to deal with the lingering complications of a traumatic incident.

Byron Township, Michigan Home Invasion Shooting —

The incident in Michigan went down like this.

A homeowner and his wife awoke shortly after midnight when they heard noises outside their home. The noises were the sound of a man smashing out the truck's windows belonging to the homeowner. The homeowner, called Alan Lenhart, Standing at the front door, yelled for the man to leave. But, instead of going, the suspect advanced toward Lenhart. Linhart said he could see the man holding a handgun.

Linhart locked the door, grabbed his “deer hunting gun” from the safe, and loaded it. The suspect went to the back of the house, yelling for Linhart to give him the keys [to the vehicle]. The suspect climbed the back steps and began pushing on the back door to gain entry. Linhart yelled:....Read the full article.....

SAVED BY GOD’S GRACE and The Rock Almighty Voices with Petra

 

by Creflo Dollar | 

We live in a world that values self-effort. It has a “Pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps” mentality that actually causes us to struggle. As a result, we try to solve our own problems through our own methods but see no success.

The good news is that God is waiting for us to turn to Him so that He can save us from all our fruitless, exhausting efforts. (Continued below...)

All around us we see people carrying burdens God never meant for them to handle. Some of those burdens are bad attitudes, negative emotions, addictions, and other things that hold them back from succeeding in life. This is painful and can lead to bitterness and discouragement; however, God is asking us to give Him those issues we can’t handle. He wants an opportunity to become deeply involved in our lives and show us favor. “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly” (Matthew 11:28-30, MSG).

Trying to force things to work is never the solution. If we end up feeling frustrated, it’s because we’re taking the wrong approach to the issue. We were actually created to be in union with God so that we would succeed in everything we put our hand to. “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5). Abiding in Him means not only accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior but also allowing Him to walk us through the situations we need help with.

Society tells us that any good thing we want in life must come by our own doing. However, apart from God’s intervention our efforts won’t amount to anything. We may see some temporary results, but they come at a high price and don’t last. No matter how well-intentioned, our works without God’s grace are empty and meaningless. “And since it is by God’s grace, it can’t be a matter of their good works; otherwise, it wouldn’t be a gift of grace, but earned by human effort” (Romans 11:6, TPT).

Working for the sake of working doesn’t work; all it does is make us feel like we’re on a never-ending treadmill without ever reaching what we’re striving for. Under the Law of Moses, the people were required to constantly perform, but their works were empty of faith. Now that grace has replaced the law, we need to have faith in God’s grace. “Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent” (John 6:28, 29). This was true during Jesus’ ministry, and it’s still true today.

Jesus is grace in human form. Accepting Him means accepting the offer of help God extended to mankind when He sent us His Son. “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9). Christ moves us from simply existing to a life of abundance, joy, and success.