Separating From God

If you quit going to church or your place of worship, would you feel like you are separating your self from the congregation, the people that go to church with you, or do you feel like you would actually be separating from God somehow. I believe some people think that God is actually in the church and if they were to quit going to church, they would actually lose a direct link to God. Most people believe what they are told and follow their leaders.

If you're a Christian, can you answer me this, What Church Did Jesus Belonged to? Was he a Catholic, Protestant, evangelical or some other form of Christianity, maybe, just maybe he believed in a different religion altogether. I often wonder if Jesus was a Buddhist or he learned something magical from the Egyptians. It's said that Jesus traveled to other countries, do you think it's possible that he learned some sort of ancient wisdom from a man or woman, instead of being born God.

Is this how he was able to perform the miracles written about after his death?

Jesus supposedly studied the Torah and was considered to be Jewish, but was he really. While Jesus was studying the Torah, did he gain knowledge and wisdom, or was he actually born knowing everything. How can we actually prove that Jesus knew everything?

Does it say anywhere in the New Testament about going to church on Sunday, when Sabbath is actually Friday evening or Friday at sunset to Saturday at sunset. Have you ever thought about why they switched days. The God from the Old Testament seem to get pretty mad if anyone did anything on the Sabbath, which was Saturday. One person decided that it would be better to go to church on Sunday and now we call it the Lord's Day. What really happened to the Sabbath?

It often gets a little more confusing, the more conscious effort you put into educating yourself about your religion and others throughout the world.

People often assume that I have separated from God somehow and could be going to hell, because I write some of these articles. I'm hoping that you will do a little more research about your religion and find your true North, your true direction in life, what it is you are actually here to do. Don't follow the faithful blindly, follow the intelligence willfully.

Life of Jesus

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.

Creating Your Electricity

Creating your own electricity and generating your own power has always been one of my dreams. Having a self sufficient home, not only a house that takes care of itself by generating its own electricity through windmills or solar panels but the satisfaction knowing that no matter what happens to the electrical companies you will always have electricity at your home.

What a wonderful feeling it would be to get a check back from the utility company instead of paying them every single month. I don't know about you but my utility bills are ridiculous and seemed to be going up in price constantly. I can't believe all the fees they have been charging for years to all of their customers. If you add all the fees for every person in the city or county this comes to a large, a very large number and it's getting worse not better.

Generating your own electricity with solar or wind power is definitely green thinking. This is going to be the wave of the future as fuel used to create electricity continues to rise in price. I really can't imagine what the price of electricity is going to be like in 10 years as the mass consumption continues to rise in developing countries.

We have got to start taking care of our own needs through solar or wind power. We have got to start creating our own electricity to become self reliant. The more self reliant we become as a nation the less dependent we will be on major corporations, especially large power conglomerates.

Creating our own electricity can also be used for electrical cars that can be purchased in the future. Think of the money you will say in fuel costs as the price of gasoline continues to increase as well as less pollution into our environment.

This is definitely the wave of the future and common sense tells us this. I suggest you read this article again if you haven't figured out some of the problems coming our way in the future.

Think green and together we can start saving the planet.

While searching for new alternatives and trying to get some advice on creating your own electricity I came across a book you can purchase in digital format. This book seems to have quite a bit of information on creating your own electricity for a totally self sufficient home.

This book has been created in digital format to reduce the consumption of trees and the waste involved in creating a regular book. What a wonderful idea for helping our environment in quite a few ways.

While searching for new alternatives and trying to get some advice on creating your own electricity I came across a book you can purchase in digital format. This book seems to have quite a bit of information on creating your own electricity for a totally self sufficient home.

This book has been created in digital format to reduce the consumption of trees and the waste involved in creating a regular book. What a wonderful idea for helping our environment in quite a few ways.

For more information visit http://www.gregvan.com and look for Get Earth4Energy Here Create your own electricity! Save 1000's with Earth4Energy

Effects Of False Prophets

Attract More Love & Romance By Altering Your Perceptual Position

If you want to learn more about how to attract the attention of others and to attract more love into your life, it can help to alter and vary the position of your perception of your self and others.

How do you view your self? I want to run an idea past you about how you perceive the world around you and your self. Your perception of any experience depends on the position from which you perceive it. I am going to mention three positions here that are useful to you with developing attraction and enhancing the love in your life.

They are known quite simply as the first, second and third positions.

- In the first position you are in your own body, looking out through your own eyes, seeing things from your own point of view.

- Being in the second position means stepping into someone elses shoes, imagining what it is like to be them, looking at the world through their eyes.

- The third position is taking the stance of a third person that is viewing events in which you are involved, a bit like being a fly on the wall (how many times have I wanted to do that?).

You see, taking different perceptual positions enables you to step out of what you are currently experiencing and experience your self in a fresh, new light. It can spice up your perception of your self and make it easier to understand what others perceive in you and how to make you easier to lavish lots of love upon. It allows you to see yourself from a different perspective and gather different kinds of information about your self.

You can also keep a keen eye on how your own behaviour might be affecting other people, and then of course how they might feel about you. Taking different positions enables you to access information that your unconscious mind already has that you may have been overlooking. You can be aware of things that you may not have had a conscious awareness of previously.

So, how about in addition to having your ongoing experience of life solely seeing from inside your own eyes in the first position; you wonder what it is like to be someone else in the same situation, from the second position? Look at your self and see what it is that you can love about your self and you will no doubt find it much easier to ensure you get lots of love without waiting for Valentines day to come around.

Imagine how other people might see you; this is especially useful if that person was someone you know to have a good level of self-esteem and love in their life too.

Thirdly then, see yourself and others as if from an outside perspective, looking at the larger picture as in the third position. Then you can think of using this idea of taking different perceptual positions when you encounter any kind of conflict or when planning a project or evaluating a situation or if you ever feel stuck on something or you are ever in need of a bit more love and want to find more things to enjoy about your self and your life.

Loving your self is like growing and developing self-esteem and confidence in your self and helps with so many things that you and your personal development will benefit from.

When you truly appreciate how others perceive you and update your behaviours accordingly, you can discover how easy it is for others love you more. Enjoy experiencing life from a new perceptual position.

Adam is a best selling author, consultant and speaker please visit his website for a vast range of personal development resources and to receive your free, instantly downloadable hypnosis session and amazing ebook: http://www.adam-eason.com Thanks.

Planning Your Bathroom Remodel Budget - Home Improvement Ideas

As a bathroom remodeling contractor, I get calls from people, that have no idea what they want or how much anything is going to cost. Here's some simple tips that can be very helpful when planning a bathroom remodel budget.

Bathroom Remodeling Investment

In 2008, the average mid-range bathroom cost around $16,000 and you could recoup around $12,000 of your original investment upon the sale of your home. According to a popular remodeling magazine, larger bathrooms using expensive fixtures, tile, bathtubs, woodworking, toilets and showers had an average of $52,000. Upon the sale of a home, you could recoup around $36,000 of your original investment.

Finding out How Much Things Cost

My first suggestion, would be to visit your local home improvement center, lumber yard or plumbing supply warehouse. Larger stores like Home Depot and Lowe's, seemed to provide you with value pricing but don't have a large selection. While doing some research on the Internet I noticed that some of their pricing is outrageously, outrageous. Some plumbing supply warehouses can provide value but beware others won't.

Create a List of Bathroom Remodeling Parts

You can get a good idea of your bathroom remodel costs for your budget by making a list of bathroom parts with pricing and then adding them up for a grand total. If you're a total bathroom remodel budget is $15,000 and you have a $6,000 bathtub with $4000 worth of tile, you could have a budget problem.

Figuring out the Labor

You will have to contact a contractor to get an actual cost for the labor. Sometimes you can double the cost of your bathroom remodeling parts to get a rough idea. If you have a list or a couple of lists and a few pictures of some sample bathrooms, this will make the contractor's job easier and often they can give you a labor price within a few days.

Give Yourself a Cushion

I would suggest leaving yourself a small financial cushion for any additional remodeling items. For example, you could see a different toilet, or instead of painting the walls, you now choose to wallpaper, you could incur additional expenses that you haven't planned for. If you know exactly what you want and stick to the original bathroom remodeling plan, you shouldn't need the cushion.

Financial problems often transfer into construction problems, so spend some time figuring out, how much money you want to spend on the bathroom remodel and try not to go overboard on the budget. I hate to see homeowners struggling with home improvement loan payments. Try to create a bathroom remodeling budget that is realistic and will not create a financial burden upon you or your family.

Greg Vanden Berge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books to help professional building contractors as well as the weekend warriors. He has just finished a home buyers guide to take some of the frustration out of home shopping.

If your looking for some more bathroom remodeling or home building ideas.

Are Your Prayers Being Answered

Personal Goal Setting Year-Plan

So how will you break down your personal goal setting year plan? Believe it or not, it might be easier for some people to think about what they'll be doing in ten years than it is for them to think about what they'll be doing in one year! A personal goal setting year plan forces you to get into that thought process necessary to organize your goals and objectives for the entire year. You will be able to determine what major milestones you have to achieve and how you will get to that point.

As you tackle your personal goal setting year plan, it is advisable that you start planning either the year before or at the very beginning of the year you are planning for.

As we have done on previous pages, here are a few questions to ask yourself. What exactly is your vision for the year? Without getting too specific think about how you see the year playing out. Imagine yourself in 12 months time, looking back on the year. What does that reflection look like? What does success look like for you in a year's time?

Once you have answered these questions you can use your answers to help formulate your goals for the year. If your year plan involves a trip to the Swiss alps, start visualizing yourself there, this will give you the inspiration you need to start setting goals and feasible plans for that trip.

Here's another question to ask yourself. What is your your mission or duty for the year? Who do you plan on helping? What solutions can you provide? What new skills or qualifications will you develop? These questions help you to think about the action steps toward achieving your goals. Begin to think about the specific strategies or tasks that will help you reach your targets and don't forget to set time lines.

As you continue to map out your personal goal setting year plan, consider setting five key goals. Write them down and as always they must be specific. Your aim should be to have a balanced life, so if you can, try to have goal from all aspects of your life i.e. career goals, business goals and relationship goals.

Once you have your goals for the year set, how often will you review these goals? Write down whether you will review them monthly, weekly or better yet daily. As you review your goals think about how you will measure whether you have been successful in achieving these goals? Write down the milestones or your criteria for determining your definition of success.

Another important part of your personal goal setting year plan is figuring out how you will celebrate after achieving all your goals for the year. Planning, prioritizing and evaluating your yearly goals will ensure that your next 12 months will be truly successful.

FOR MORE GREAT CONTENT CLICK HERE - http://www.settinggoals101.com/personalgoalsetting.html

Inerrancy of the Bible - Are There Mistakes in the Bible

What does the word inerrancy main? Inerrancy would refer to text that is accurate and totally free of any errors or without any mistakes. Does this sound like any book that you have ever read or have knowledge of. Maybe there is a one sentence book that could fall into this category.

Most books however and even this article has mistakes. If I made a decision to base my life, my entire life and that of my children and grandchildren, I would want to make sure that it was accurate as possible.

Is the Bible, 100%, 90%, or even 50% accurate. Are these stories that were written by people many years ago and the lessons have been helpful but now need to be rewritten.

Does the Bible actually contain the will of God? Some scholars believe that certain sections of the Bible meet this criteria while others do not. How can these people judge if they are not God and how can we believe in this stuff is not true.

If the Bible was inspired by God but written by men, this could actually mean that God had complete control over writing the Bible or does this mean that the man wrote the Bible with gods inspiration. I'm inspired by God daily and often write about it, but don't seem to have enough followers to make it into the biblical Hall of Fame. I'm writing with inspired beliefs right now.

If there are errors in the Bible, how extensive or how many errors are there actually. There are actual stories that can be documented as historical facts. This doesn't mean the rest of the Bible is factual, nor does it mean it is historically inaccurate.

The Bible has some errors in it and some facts that we can prove but leaves us with the question, is this a book from the Creator of the universe or a book written by men, to make us believe, it was written by God and if so why are we still believe being in it. Why do some people read this book and other religious text daily? What motivates them to read holy Scripture regularly but doesn't seem to allow them enough time to find out if they are reading accurate information.

The biggest problem I have with the inerrancy of the Bible is the fact that most people tend to ignore certain truths and cling to their childhood beliefs about religion. If this is not the way or the truth, I would want to start looking for it, instead of following someone else's dreams or religious doctrine.

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 video library filled with great movies 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. Religious Education And Fear

Questions To Ask Your Pastor

Use Motivation Or Inspiration

Are you attempting to use Motivation when Inspiration would be more effective? Many people think that these two words are interchangeable.In fact and application, they are quite different.

Motivation is based on Fear.It is the fear that says, "if I don't do this thing I don't really want to do, then I won't have this other thing I want (money, love, a job)."In a carrot and stick scenario, it's the stick.

It's also the stick used on us by other people to get us to do what they want us to do - parents, bosses and spouses come to mind.Often they invite us or teach us to then take up the stick ourselves, and use it on ourselves in an attempt to reach an outcome.It is one way children are trained and civilized into society. It is the Make Your Quota or Loose Your Job many face each month.

The problem with motivation is that is ONLY works short term.And since we become accustomed and then eventually immune to repeated motivation techniques, it becomes necessary to apply a stronger motivation to achieve the same goal the next time.This can create an 'addiction to motivation' - as the number of books on self help shelves testify. People are continually looking for the next thing to get them to results.It also creates increasingly negative self talk as results become seemingly harder to achieve and failures become more common.

Statistics show people gain and lose the same 10 pounds over and over and over never reaching or at least never maintaining their goal weight, and actually gaining weight overall. This is also why the old-school "Rah-Rah" training will produce a short flurry of change, quickly overwhelmed by the old comfortable status quo.

What should we do instead?Use Inspiration along with or instead of motivation.Most especially use it on Yourself!

Inspiration is a more subtle, yet infinitely stronger, emotion for creating change.Inspiration draws us forward.Motivation drives us forward with the stick of fear.We are literally looking for ways to escape motivation.Inspiration IS fun in action. Inspired Action is light; it flows forward; it carries excitement and surety with it. Our old friend, Motivation pushes action forward, creating in effect its own bow wave of resistance and requiring more effort to achieve an equal or lesser effect.

Properly used, Inspiration is something we want more and more of in our lives.So a taste of it can be positively exhilarating and lead to more and better and easier and long lasting results.

Inspiration does not mean you can take No Action.While some enlightened masters might be able to sit in a cave and call in all they desire, that is not how it works for most of us; nor does that really sound like much fun - caves are hard, damp and full of crawly things.

The odd thing is that the very same action taken with Inspiration flows easily and achieves more than that action taken in the fear of the consequences we call Motivation.

There is an element of Timing inherent in Inspired Action that is totally lacking in action forced by Motivation.It's not logical or rational or sometimes even sensible, but when you are suddenly inspired to pick up the phone and make a call, or write a letter, or send an email, or go to a networking event - the results flow back to you effortlessly.You all know when this has worked for you.Remember when you just 'suddenly decided' to do something on a flash of inspiration and the benefits were tremendous?

Tchaikowsky said, "Inspiration is a guest who does not like to visit lazy people."And this is true.You must be in motion for things to flow your way.But mindless motion generated by fear of the consequences often produces little but mindless motion.

So a little motivation may be necessary to prime the pump, but inspiration will un-dam the river and create a more lasting flow of results in your business and your life.Use it with yourself, your employees and your customers to see increased results in all areas of your life.

To use this article in your newsletter or Ezine, please include the entire text and the following author information:

Beth Lane, CTACC Peaceful Sales Coach, harnessed her expertise from 30+ year's business experience as top sales producer, sales trainer and business owner to create Peaceful Selling. This is a program that teaches you to enjoy selling, increase your productivity and expand your income. To find out more about her Sales Secrets and receive a FREE e-report visit http://www.peacefulselling.com

Nailing Or Screwing Drywall

Nails versus screws who will become the winner. When drywall first came out the installers used everything from regular steel nails to galvanized roofing nails. After a short amount of time they started to develop major problems from nails popping out of the finished drywall.

Nail popping results when the nail is driven into moist lumber and as the lumber shrinks the house settles and nail can actually pop out to the walls. Hard to imagine the nail could actually pop out of the drywall as the wood was drying out.

How far the nail would actually pop out was determined by how far it was driven in to the framing studs or ceiling joists. Well pretty soon drywall installers started to use ring shank nails to eliminate this problem. This worked great but these nails were hard to drive in and would often break.

As time went on the nails improved and were made out of galvanized metal with cupped shaped heads and came in a few different sizes. The size of the nail used was determined by the thickness of the drywall. These new nails worked great and had good holding power and eliminated a lot of nail popping.

Using nails means driving them in with a hammer. If you miss the nail you damage the drywall. This seemed to be a big problem and was virtually eliminated with the screws.

Well pretty soon people started using screws which had greater holding power and pretty much nail popping. Another advantage to using screws over nails is the simple fact you need less screws than you do nails to attach the drywall to the metal or wood framing.

This means less labor installing and finishing the drywall.

There is one problem with the screws and that is they have to be set perfectly. They can not break the paper surface on the drywall but have to be set enough into the drywall so that it can be finished properly. Most screw guns have an adjustable setting used to get just the right depth for the screws installed in the drywall. But this also was a problem when screwing into a hard piece of wood you can actually snapped the screw head off, strip the screw head or break the screw.

Nails on the other hand can bend while driving them into a hard surface.

Who wins the nails versus screws while installing drywall? I have got to give it to the screws. That doesn't mean the nails just got screwed or the screws just got nailed.

I couldn't resist. I actually preferred the screws over the nails except for when nailing the drywall corner bead on. Some drywall professionals use nails to hang the drywall and go back with a screw gun and some screws to finish the job. The nails sometimes seem handier than the screws when installing the drywall.

Greg Vanden Berge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books to help professional building contractors as well as the weekend warriors. He is currently working on more Building and Remodeling Library and adding useful content to help solve problems created by the lack of construction knowledge in the building industry.

Visit us and get more information on building and remodeling your homes and Carlsbad Home Improvement

Does God Make Mistakes

A New Day For Less Stress

We are in amazing times! Do you believe that in this new day the human body can handle so much stress and excitement? From the economy to the environment the body is bombarded daily by stress inducing factors. Stress is like a fast flowing avalanche of water; stress is the flood and plague of our times.

Although we live in such amazing times with stress levels of immense proportions many ways exist to expunge the body and mind of stress with lightning speed and faster. To clarify one's brain after a stressful day requires some self-initiative and a mindful awareness...hardly a facile task when you're tired and overwhelmed. But when you learn right now the steps to relieve stress in a most powerful way you'll absolutely know in the moments of overwhelm what to do to mitigate the damage and reverse the aging effects that stress induces. And to make sure the mind/body is expunged fully of most stress before we lay down to sleep (an imperative step for wellness) we will focus on an ancient art of body awareness.

This awareness will bring you to a place that is nearly stress free. These crucial exercises important as they are and as powerful are but a warm-up for the one time that can reduce stress levels to undetectable levels. This process we will now discuss is an ancient process old as life itself. Without it we will die in minutes and without a daily period of conscious breathing we absolutely cannot live stress free. Breathing rhythmically and as deeply and fully as feasible before bedtime is like a key that unlocks the deepest secret of stress release. The secret is oxygenated and unencumbered sleep.

It is something that everyone must do yet so few know how to unlock the full potential for stress reduction and healing that can take place nightly. Fortunately you are reading this and will be empowered and perhaps compelled to tell your family and friends of these stress relief techniques. Once you experience the amazing leaps of growth and expansion in your life and the downright astonishing moments of luck and "coincidence" you will be compelled to share your light and truth with the world.

The ancient art of pranayama meaning to lengthen breath and life will change the body from the inside out and allow the body to slip into the deepest level of sleep imaginable. After doing these exercises stress levels will plummet to levels that you may have only experienced when you were a newborn. Many of us have been since birth exposed to stress. Even if the first years were in a peaceful (and smoke free) home nearly all of us and almost everyone reading this is exposed to one of the most prolific inducers of stress of our time...electromagnetic frequencies. Daily stress factors are many but the following combination of powerful breathing exercises and a deep restful sleep is enough to renew the body, mind and spirit. And you'll sleep like a baby.

Before beginning be sure to sit down and keep both feet on the ground (Do not attempt while driving or flying a helicopter, operating a hover craft...get the picture).

The first exercise involves bringing the right hand to the face and covering your right nostril with your right thumb while the index and middle fingers touch the center of your forehead. Now exhale fully out the left nostril then inhale fully...now cover the left nostril with the ring finger and exhale out the right nostril. Inhale through the right nostril then cover it with the thumb. Exhale out the left nostril followed by an inhale...cover it then out the right.

Left, right, left, right, left, right... Do this exercise for two minutes or for ten cycles.

Now the next exercise: sitting tall drop your chin to your chest and tighten your abdominal muscles and buttocks. ("Locking" the chin down and locking the abs and butt will isolate the breath to the upper chest). Take a deep breath and start to inhale and exhale rapidly while the lowest ribs expand and contract powerfully. Do this for 30-50 exhales.

Next: Sit tall and "lock" your chest and shoulders tight; lock the buttocks and inhale deeply into the lower abdomen and belly. Quickly inhale/exhale and deliberately expand and contract the stomach 30-50 times. The stomach muscles should be tightened as much as possible on the exhalation and expanded equally on the inhalation.

And lastly stand up with feet about shoulder width apart or wider. Inhale deeply and thrust the hips up and forward while tightening the muscles of the reproductive organs. Exhale and stick the butt out and squat down slightly while tightening the center of the buttocks. Breathe up and in, then down and out 8-10 times.

The simple and profoundly effective series of breathing exercises we just learned can be done every night before bed. The breath has the effect of massaging the organs, calming the mind and releasing any blocks in energy within the tissues of the body. These benefits have the effect of stimulating the various systems of the body to operate more efficiently and in harmony within the whole system. When this energy is allowed to flow the effect on our sleep is profound.

The brain waves will harmonize into their natural frequency with deeper and longer and even waves. Releasing stress with the breathing exercises allows the mind to detach from the thoughts. The electrical system of the body harmonizes with the breath. All systems are allowed to align with a vibration of peace and well-being. The benefits continue all night long and the amount of surplus energy you gain will propel you to new levels of understanding of yourself and the world. We are in amazing times. Maximize the tools you possess to thrive in these times.

HypnoFreedom is currently offering a free teleseminar series "Clearing Your Path for Abundance: The Best of the Best for Boundless Well-Being". Please learn more and sign up here: http://www.alternativedesignsolutions.com/HypnoFreedom/bestofthebest.html

Shawn Duyette is a martial artist of ten years. He has been trained in several energy healing modalites including reiki, quantum touch, and Native American energy healing. Shawn is also a Certified Hypnotherapist and massage therapist. He has been trained in herbology and Chinese medicine (acupuncture, shiatsu, tui-na bodywork) and is currently on sabbatical from medical school.

Shawn is a life long meditator who began meditating at a very young age sitting for hours in the woods of his suburban childhood home in the northeastern United States.

Shawn enjoys writing poetry and has been published as a poet with some of his works found at http://www.Poetry.com

Currently he is blogging for hypno-freedom and he is working on his first book which is aimed at sharing metaphysical principles with children.

Need Help Remodeling In Carlsbad

What you are thinking about remodeling your house and you live in Carlsbad. Let me give you some advice about some local contractors and some of the people involved. I used a company called Service Magic to find a local heating and air conditioning contractor. All I had to do was go on the internet , type in some information about my self and what I wanted to have done to my home. This didn't seem that bad of a idea at the time. But look what I found out.

I went to their web site, filled in my information and with in minutes I had received the names of at least 4 contractors. Wow this is neat. I didn't even get to start calling any of them when my phone rang. It was one of the contractors secretaries. She introduced herself and asked what would be a good time for someone to come out to look at the work I wanted done.

I was surprised at the speed things were taking place but in a way glad that I had a reputable contractor from one of the largest construction referral services on the internet. I told her 10:00 would be fine. I got a call shortly after that from one of the other companies. He wanted to meet me that mourning at 8:00 if it was Ok with me. I told him of course, let's do this. Then the next one called and I thought great you can come at 1:00. Well you guessed it the next one was coming over at 2:30.

The first contractor showed up as scheduled at 8:00. We talked about what I wanted done and he whips out his note book and starts figuring out a price. This took place around 15 minutes into the meeting. This guys good I thought. Being a General Contractor in Carlsbad myself, for a job like this I would go back to my office and figure out a price and then double check my figures for a accurate estimate. It took this guy less than 5 minutes to create a proposal of around 10,700 dollars for every thing.

Well I was thinking to myself, the job should be around 7,000 dollars but what do I know about construction. I informed him that I would think about it and that I was going to meet with a couple of other contractors that day. He ask me who the other contractors were. I proceeded to tell him that I probably shouldn't tell him who they were. Well your not going to believe this. He put on his physic hat and told me who was coming over. The only thing he didn't know was what time they where coming over.

Oh I forgot to mention before he left he told me he would knock ten percent off the job if I signed the contract right now. I pretended like I was excited just to see his reaction. He looked at me like he had won the gold metal in sales. I told him thanks but I bet your new offer with the ten percent discount will be good for the next few day. Right I asked. He wasn't looking that excited any more as he replied with a Yes it will be good for a while. I thanked him and he went on his way.

My 10:00 never showed but his secretary gave me the old, " He had to go do a emergency job and could he reschedule tomorrow at the same time. I said that would be fine. As a contractor myself I have always put the work I had to do first and foremost.

About 12:30 I get a call from my next heating and air conditioning contractor. He is running late but will be there at 1:30. I appreciate the call and I will see you then. The only problem now is that I have another contractor coming at 2:30. That give the next contractor less than one hour before the next guy shows up. I never liked going over to someone's house and running into another remodeling contractor.

The next contractor was very informative and knew his stuff. I listened and learned. He told me he was going to have to go back to his office and would have a price back in the mourning. Great I told him as I hurried him out the door.

The last contractor of the day shows up and wants to know whose been over to the house, was it these guys or those guys. I told him I wasn't going to tell him who was over. Now this guy was a salesman. He did a little more probing before he let me in on the fact that his company doesn't do complete home installations. He made up some story that his company only replaces the forced air units. I could tell he didn't want to do the job once he found out I knew what I was talking about. So I said my good byes to Mr. Salesman.

The bad part about him was latter on that week his company sent us some mailers. The kind that doesn't have your name on it and everyone in the neighborhood get's one. I couldn't believe my eyes when I started to read this letter. It said we would be glad to give you an estimate on all your heating and air conditioning needs or services. " We Do Complete Installs". I told my wife we could have used this a few weeks ago. Then I recognized the name of the company and now knew that the salesman had lied to me for sure.

That night I started to think about what was going on here it seemed like I was being set up. Everyone knew what was going on but me. It seemed clear to me that these people knew each other.

Well as time went on we ended up hiring the first guy that came over. He seemed to have the best product at the most reasonable price. His company also did a great job. Keep one thing in mind here out of five contractors that I gave the opportunity to bid the job. Only three showed up and from them I only got two bids. Why didn't I get more bids? Quite frankly I was to busy working at the time and of course the other two guys were always going to show up and that kind of strung me along. My mistake.

Here's the kicker to all of this. Service Magic calls me up one day to tell me they would like to start sending me construction leads as a General Contractor.

I listened to what they had to say and was almost ready to sign up with them again. That's right, I was signed up with them when they first started until they changed the rules on me. The salesman that originally contacted me said if I paid them the 100 dollar sign up fee they would let me pick what jobs I wanted to do. That lasted about 5 months before I noticed that they were not sending me siding referrals to pick from. I called them up only to talk to someone who didn't understand the State Of California Contractors Licensing Board.

Well I wasn't about to reinvent the wheel. I simply told them that I should a least get my money back, right. They said they would look into it further as I never heard from them again about my 100 dollars. Well things have changed at Service Magic since I was with them when they started.
As a home owner you don't think you are paying Service Magic because all you do is fill out a simple form giving some information about yourself.

I found out that Service Magic sent all four of these contractors my original information. Each contractor then had to pay 55 dollars each to Service Magic for a total of 220 dollars. All I have to say is how are they getting away with charging this much money for sending a out a simple referral to these contractors.

The contractor unfortunately passes this expense on to his customers. You as the home owners end up paying these fees as a cost of doing business with them. Some contractors think this is a great way of doing business but you might think differently in the future if you start paying over 100 dollars for a simple construction referral.

Greg Vanden Berge has been in the home building and remodeling business for over 30 years. With this knowledge he has created a few websites that provide useful information for home owners as well as contractors. His main goal is to educate professionals in the home related businesses, dealing with problems that can easily be avoided with just a little bit of information.

His website http://gregvan.com provides all kinds of answers to remodeling and new house building issues that could create major damage as well as possible damage to your pocket book.

Visit us now for Home Improvement Tips

Will All Men Ever Hate Jesus

Where is Heaven

Many people live their lives with the assumption that Heaven is out there somewhere and is completely separate from life on earth. Many are taught that Heaven is a mystical place only accessed through death of the physical body. But in actuality, the spiritual planes of reality and the physical earth plane interpenetrate one another in the same point in space. Each plane has its own unique energetic structure that vibrates at its own frequency. The physical world is the lowest vibration of energy and actually lies within higher vibrational planes.

We can routinely access some of the higher, less dense planes through sleep, meditation or prayer. Whenever we are in an altered state of consciousness, we align with higher vibrational planes of reality and may come to have an expanded awareness that we dont experience in a waking state.

In the case of meditation , as we connect with our higher self, our creativity may be awakened or we may experience a light bulb moment that gives us a better understanding of who we are or of a situation going on in our lives.

As we dream, we are whisked off to a land of symbolismthe secret language of Spirit. Dreams can offer clues that can help us to resolve matters in our current waking lives. Through our dreams, we may also come in contact with deceased friends or family members or even catch a glimpse of an event that hasnt happened yet. Dream interpretation is a very useful tool that can bring the workings of Heaven into our awareness.

In prayer to the God of our understanding, we place ourselves in a position to be humbly conscious of the limitless possibilities that Heaven offers us. By recognizing the opportunities open to us, we can act on them and bring them into manifest.

Heaven is not a place, it is a system a system of subtle energies that are constantly stirring about and creating new effects that help shape and transform our daily lives. The earth plane is not separate from this system; it is merely the physical component of it. The system that sustains us in life is the same system that sustains us in death.

Karin Nemri is a Spiritual Counselor, Aiijii Healer and inter-nationally known Lecturer/Presenter. She has a private practice in Connecticut. You may wish to visit her website, http://www.SoulutionsofLight.com to learn how Spirit works through her to help others.

Removing Interior Walls

Here's a word of advice for any contractor, Carpenter, handyman or homeowner that is planning to remove an interior wall from your home or someone else's. Beware of removing interior walls, to eliminate your fears of the house collapsing. Some of the interior walls inside of the house are important structural components of the building.

Some of these walls hold up floors, roofs and other loadbearing sections that could create safety problems within the structure of the house itself. This is an area where an expert with framing skills should be consulted. What is the definition of someone with excellent framing skills? Some one with at least 10 years as a master framing carpenter.

My home building experience consists of three decades for over 30 years of assembling some of the most difficult sections of a home. During these years I have seen damage done to houses from removing structural interior walls. Most of this damage could be repaired with a little structural engineering. Some of the damage could not be repaired and caused other damage to different sections of the house. The damage caused in some cases to the floor and the roof framing had to be completely rebuilt.

I'm not telling you about every single thing I have ran into but you would be surprised if I started to make a list of all the homeowners and professionals in the building industry or home selling and buying business that contacted me to remove a structural component of a building. There have even been a few of these people that told me everything was going to be okay just go ahead and remove the structural building component.

Needless to say I would leave these people very irritated but I'm sure they found someone to do the job. The bad news is I was normally the person they would hire to go back and repair the damaged building after these people were gone and out of business. There have been cases where people have removed an interior walls against my better judgment and over the years of driving by in these homes I personally got to witness the structural damage that was occurring on the outside of the house.

I have no idea what the inside of the house looked like but could only imagine. My advice again when removing interior walls is to hire an experienced contractor or at least get some advice from an experienced framing carpenter. This does not include your basic know it all that has basic construction experience like your father in law, parents, friends, golfing associates or people you work with that tell you not to worry about it, just do it, everything will work out just fine.

Greg Vanden Berge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books to help professional building contractors as well as the weekend warriors. He is currently working on more Building and Remodeling Library and adding useful content to help solve problems created by the lack of construction knowledge in the building industry.

Visit us and get more information on building and remodeling your homes and What Does A Shear Wall Do

When Do We Get To Meet God

Why Smart Goals Don't Work

Each year, I receive at least half a dozen identical articles touting the benefits of SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound. SMART goals are increasingly seen as the secret to personal and business success. Unfortunately, it's a pretty safe bet that most of these goals will go the way of the proverbial New Year's resolution. Why? Because none of these articles actually tell you how to make SMART goals work. In fact, most people who try the SMART approach for any but small and relatively easy goals frequently find themselves frustrated and disillusioned.

Well-constructed goals are extremely powerful tools for getting things done, increasing concentration and motivation. Successfully completing a well-constructed goal builds self-confidence. Unfortunately, creating a well-constructed SMART goal is not quite so simple as the average article makes it out to be.

To begin with, a specific goal is only useful if it's something you can control. Although this may seem obvious, the fact is that far too many people set goals that appear to be under their control, but really are not. For example, consider the athlete who sets the goal of winning an upcoming tournament: it's specific, it's measurable, it has a time of completion associated with it. Is it achievable and realistic? Depending on the athlete's level of skill, very possibly. However, the athlete has no control over the difficulty of the competition. He may simply be outplayed by a more skilled opponent.

Furthermore, although the goal is measurable, in that the athlete will know whether or not he accomplishes it, the measurement is not particularly useful. At no time will he know how close he is to accomplishing the goal, where he needs to focus his energies, or what else needs to be accomplished. The athlete is far better served by setting the goal of exercising certain key skills in the competition, skills that have a high probability of leading to a victory. Not only will he gain the self-confidence boost of accomplishing his goal, he may just win the tournament.

Another problem is that a goal is simply too big. If a goal takes years to accomplish, it can be extremely difficult to maintain motivation. Big, ambitious goals are wonderful, but they need to be carefully structured. It is vital to break them down into subgoals that can be accomplished in a much shorter period of time. The perception of progress is critical to maintaining motivation, whether for an individual or a team.

Having too many goals is another common problem. Well constructed goals are great, but if you have too many of them at once, they become a distraction. Many people can focus on three to five unrelated goals without a problem, but not ten or twenty. Keeping in mind that each goal might generate numerous subgoals along the way, it's easy to see how having more than a few key goals can easily balloon out of control.

Is the goal something you really care about? Many people have goals that they don't really care about. Perhaps they've been told it's something they ought to do or they believe they should do, but they don't really care about the outcome. If you don't care whether or not you accomplish a goal, it's hard to find the motivation to do it.

Used properly, SMART goals can be a very powerful and effective tool. Well-constructed goals can increase motivation, improve focus, and build self-confidence. Used improperly, they can decrease motivation, and destroy self-confidence. If you're using SMART goals, here are some questions to ask yourself:

Do I control the outcome?

Can I measure progress in a meaningful way?

Is my goal too big? Can I break it up?

Do I have too many goals? Is there enough time in the day/week/month to work on each one?

Do I really care about my goal? Is this something I genuinely want to accomplish?

Good luck!

Stephen Balzac is the president of 7 Steps Ahead (http://www.7stepsahead.com), a consulting firm based in Stow, MA. He can be contacted at 978-298-5189 or steve@7stepsahead.com

Cost Effective Stair Building

What is the most cost effective way of building stairs? Why do the tract homes use on site methods of construction? When you think of a factory assembling a product on a assembly line you think why not a home. Why do they still build homes on lots or residential home sites?

If homes could be built in a factory cheaper than on site that is exactly what every home builder would be doing. They just haven't quite figured it out yet. When dealing with the large amounts of materials required to build a house and of course the expense of shipping. It is not cost effective to build a conventional home in a factory and ship it over long distances.

This is the biggest problem with cost effective stair construction. Most prefabricated stairs you will notice are spiral stairs. These stairs are smaller than most stairs that are used for multi level construction.

Spiral stairs are hard for your average carpenter to build. These stairs can be purchased from a factory easily and quite inexpensive.

The stairs in your average two story house are going to weigh about 3 times the amount of a spiral set of stairs that could be shipped in a cost effective way. Spiral stairs are not going to be the main stairway in a home and normally go up to a loft or an attic. Most spiral stairs don't meet the minimum building requirements for the main stairway in your home.

When building tract homes the lumber is shipped in bulk directly to the house site where it will be assembled. The lumber and other building materials will be shipped once. If it went to a factory and then assembled it would also have to be sent to the site on which the house was to be built. This added expense in shipping the materials twice is the problem for such a large and heavy item such as a set of stairs.

There are other prefabricated types of stairs that are built locally and the shipping usually is not a major expense. If you are building a stairway that is not to difficult to build for the average carpenter it will normally be cost effective to build the stairs on site. This would require having the carpenter build the stairs as part of the rough framing and then after drywall have the finish carpenter build the stair handrail system.

Visit us now for easy Home Constuction Help

Greg Vanden Berge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books to help professional building contractors as well as the weekend warriors. He is currently working on more building stairs books and adding useful content to help solve problems created by the lack of construction knowledge in the building industry.

Effects Of False Prophets

King Solomon's Problems - Is Heaven's Door Open

The old testament mentions King Solomon as the wealthiest person that ever lived on the earth at that time and there would be no one wealthier than him in the future. Does this qualify him as a rich person?

There is also the story of the talons. This story mentions a master who rewards one of his servants for using the money his master left him to make more money, by investing it. The slave that chose to bury his talons in the ground, to hide and protect them was considered to be slothful and wicked.

Does this mean that all men and women that invest their money and seek profits are good people? Why would these people be considered good and a rich man will have a hard time entering the kingdom of heaven?

Is there a difference between King Solomon's wealth and the rich person in the Bible verse, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

Now maybe these are just stories created by man and has nothing to do with what the Jewish and Christian God really thinks. But if there is a difference between King Solomon and the rich person, what's the difference? Does King Solomon really get to enter the kingdom of heaven?, or as Jesus mentioned, will it simply be harder for him to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Didn't King Solomon build God's temple and create a beautiful world for most Jewish people to live in? If you're not confused yet, you will be if you continue to read more of my biblical verses that just don't make sense.

If you're what I would consider one of God's ultimate believers in your religion but have no proof that it's true, but choose to answer with the simple statement," You'd Need to Believe or Have Faith." I would suggest you read other books about other religions or spiritual living .

This is just one example of what I would consider a story in the Bible. If you truly view the Bible as the ultimate guide for good living, do you get confused with certain statements or Bible verses. This really doesn't answer the question, whether or not someone like King Solomon actually gets to enter the kingdom of heaven. I used him as an example but there are many others that could have a life of riches on earth, but difficulties going to heaven if the statement Jesus made was correct about the rich man in the eye of the needle.

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 latest articles, How Did You Choose Your Religion

Slow Market Home Pricing Advice

Homes are going to be sold in good markets and bad. When times are good, people often forget that bad times will be coming eventually. During good times, people often get caught up in the hype of the real estate boom. During tough times, houses will be sold eventually, or taken off the market and sold later. If you need to sell the home as soon as possible, for financial or other reasons, you will have to adjust your price with the current market and don't get greedy.

This is the hardest thing for most people to do, lower the price of their home in order to sell it in a slow real estate market. Don't get caught up in the value of your home, six months or even a year ago. Last year's prices are not going to be this year's prices and you need to get that through your thick skull. If the average homes in your neighborhood are selling for $250,000 and you have a swimming pool or done some upgrades, maybe a room addition. Your home is going to be worth more than the average selling price.

Most real estate professionals will price your home according to the length of time you have to sell it. If you're in a hurry to sell, they don't have time to test the market. The price of your home would need to be competitive or lower than homes selling in the area. Whether homes are selling fast in a good market for selling slow in a bad market, if you have time, you can ask a little bit more for your home. If the market hasn't reached the bottom, waiting could actually hurt you, because the prices of the homes in the area would still be dropping.

Listen to your real estate professionals advice when pricing your home. That's what you're hiring them for, they are in the real estate business. Your neighbors, relatives, friends and people you work with, will probably be guessing if you asked for their opinion on pricing your house.

Your house is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Finding that person is the key to selling your home, finding that person as soon as possible could give you the illusion that you sold your home to cheap. Don't worry about it, your final objective is to sell the house.

Greg Vanden Berge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books to help professional building contractors as well as the weekend warriors. He has just finished a home buyers guide to take some of the frustration out of home shopping.

If you really think your home is safe, check out these pictures about home water damage.

Personal Development

Make Someone's Day!

When someone compliments me, it can make my day! I bet it's that way for you, too. Think back to a time when someone gave you a genuine compliment. Can you feel those warm fuzzies? But wait. Maybe you can't remember the last time you actually received a compliment. I've found there are people all around us who seem to have forgotten how to give compliments. Then again, maybe they never knew how in the first place. Sad, isn't it.

Knowing how good a compliment makes me feel makes me eager to do the same for others. It's my goal to give a compliment to every person I meet, and in fact, I work very hard at this. I'm not telling you this to brag on myself, and I don't want you to think I'm some brown-noser who uses compliments to manipulate people into doing whatever I want. No way! Tat is not what giving a compliment is about. Compliments must be given sincerely, in a spirit of thoughtfulness and caring, from a true desire to make a positive difference in the lives of others. This doesn't come naturally, but with a little effort you can learn how. Start by observing others closely, waiting to catch them doing somethingor being someoneyou sincerely admire. Then, be willing to "expose" your observations to that person.

The best way to give a compliment is to be sure you always back it up with evidence. Here's an example: "You are so great with kids!" (Now most people would stop there, but you need to give some evidence.) "They are so well behaved whenever you are in charge. I think it's because they can tell how much you care about themand I loved the game you taught them to help them wait patiently in line. You are so creative and fun. no wonder kids love you.

You'll be amazed at the results, when you make giving compliments a part of your daily life. So go aheadmake someone's day! Oh, and by the way, the best way to receive a compliment it to simply say, "Thank You!

2003 Professional Development Systems All Rights Reserved

Robert Prentice of Professional Developments Systems has spent the last twenty years bringing inspiration and motivation to business owners as well as their employees. For more information visit his website at http://www.mrattitudespeaks.com

New Home Buyers Beware

Ican't believe how many homebuyers purchase a house, with very little information and a Lotta hope. I'm a general contractor and often work on these homes, after they have been purchased and a homeowner has their money, the real estate professional is no longer involved in the transaction and the new homeowner is starting to experience the pitfalls from buying the home, that they sincerely believe was in good condition.

It's usually somebody like me that gets involved with the new homeowners after everyone else is out of the picture and chooses not to return their phone calls or explains to them quite simply, it's not our responsibility, you're the new homeowner and we really feel sorry for you, please call us again if we can help you with anything.

You couldn't even help me with that, why would I want to call you again if I had a problem. I never could understand this thinking but have ran into it often. It sounds like an oxymoron when someone refuses to help you but offers you help in the future. What ever!!!.

If homebuyers had something else to rely on besides their real estate salesperson, home inspection service, mortgage or insurance professional, I believe they can eliminate some of these problems. Where do you start and how do you get the information. You can gather information from reputable people, books, the Internet and so on.

The problem is how do you know these people are reputable and the books on the Internet have good information. This brings us to another problem, but I've got the solution that will help eliminate some of the grief. I'm not going to remove all of the grief from your life but have a suggestion for you that will eliminate some of the pain when buying a home.

Arm yourself with a good home inspection checklist. You can search the Internet and they have quite a few good home inspection checklist to work with. These checklist can provide you with things you might not have thought of, and this is where you can eliminate some of the problems.

If you took one of these checklists with you while you were shopping for a home, you would be aware of some of the problems with the home. You might not find all of the problems but these checklist will help you with some of the problems.

Greg Vanden Berge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books to help professional building contractors as well as the weekend warriors. He has just finished a Home Buyers Guide to take some of the frustration out of home shopping.

If your looking for some more home inspection or home building ideas.

Effects Of False Prophets

The Trap of the Common Sense

Many people are not satisfied with their lives and want to achieve more. However, only few actually make their dreams come true. Why does this happen?

It seems to be logical that if you are not satisfied with life you are negative about your current situation; you have negative thoughts and constantly complain. For many people it is also logical to blame others for things that didn't work out in their lives. This kind of logic actually keeps people where they are today.

Many things that seem to be a "common sense" and "intuitive" in reality just ways everybody does things. It is our collective thinking that makes them common sense and intuitive. If you look at lives that people live you will see how these "common sense" habits, perceptions and beliefs make their lives miserable. They keep people at their current jobs, stiff all their creativity, promote fear of taking risks, keep them glued to their comfort zones. This results in deep inner dissatisfaction and is a direct way to depressions and different self-destroying addictions.

"Think outside the box" is not just a common self-improvement textbook phrase. It has a deep meaning of questioning all the "common sense" things in order to see the way out which is usually just in front of you. You can't see it because it is not part of your belief system, it doesn't go along with how you perceive the world.

Let's go back to a "negative" situation you find yourself in. The non-intuitive and only way out of it is to be positive. Do you want to have good things in life? Be positive about what you already have, be deeply grateful for every single thing, no matter how little, that you have in your life right now. Do you want to have more control over your life? Never blame anybody for anything that happened to YOU. Take full responsibility for attracting people and events into your life. How you can attract anything good if you are always negative?

It seems to be hard to be positive and grateful when everything is wrong however it is just a matter of forcing yourself to repeat positive phrases in your head even if you don't agree with them or they don't sound to be true. With time you will start actually feeling the truth in your statements.

As your perception of the world changes, slowly the physical world around you will change to reflect better who you are.

Do you need help to make your dreams come true? Visit http://www.pathstopower.net for a free book and more details.

Are you interested in natural health, weight loss, energy secrets? Visit http://www.nutrifitpower.com/ezine.html for free reports and more details.

Lynn Alex is a Life-Skills Coach, Yoga Teacher and an American Board Certified Holistic Health Practitioner.

The Bible's Power Over One Child

I mentioned Sean in another one of my articles, the story of a young foster boy that we were taking care of. Sean's father was my ex-wife's uncle, and they were going through some tough times for a while and their three children ended up as wards of the state. We eventually ended up taking the oldest child because he was the hardest one to place and another home. His brother and sister ended up with a family that wanted to adopt them and eventually Sean went to live with them and I believe all three of them were adopted by this family. I don't know this for a fact though.

Sean was a emotionally damaged child. His parents would punish him with some strange and bizarre punishments. They weren't really physical punishments but seemed to leave the emotional scars on him and I often think about where he is and what he is doing.

We watched him for about a year and I learned quite a bit from this young man. He was in the third grade but was still at the first grade level for reading and math. I would spend a couple of hours each night during the week helping him with his schoolwork, I seem to have created some sort of allusion that I would be able to bring him up to the third grade level within a short period of time. Wrong. He must've had learning disabilities and of course I don't think I was that good teacher.

Sean was easy going, polite and extremely obedient. He would do anything to avoid getting in trouble and often blamed others for his mistakes. His punishments must have been more than he could bear before he arrived at our home. I think you're getting the picture about what kind of a child Sean was.

One day I found myself in a dilemma with Sean, I couldn't get him to tell me the truth, even though I knew he was lying. I forget what the problem was but I remember a hollow look in his face. It was almost like he wasn't really there. It was almost like he was just doing time, sitting on the bed, listening to me asking the same question over and over again, "Sean are you lying", but he wasn't even paying attention.

I normally would not punish my children for accidents, and never tolerated lying. I was trying to explain to him that he wasn't going to get in trouble, I just wanted to know the truth. He wasn't budging at all and stuck to his story. I remembered that his mother and father were Catholics and feared the church, almost as much as they loved it.

That's what I came up with my evil plan. I don't know where I come up with these ideas, but every once in a while one pops up in my head and I run with it.

I told Sean that I was going to bring the Holy Bible in, and if he could swear on the Bible that he was telling the truth, I would accept that and this would be the end of our conversation. I couldn't believe my eyes, as he started crying and screaming, frantically and excitedly as a yelled out, I did it, I did it, don't bring the Bible in, I won't do it again.

I couldn't believe that was all it took to get information from him. I have always been a pretty good interrogator and found myself gathering information from those people easily, but this was amazing. His fear of the Holy Bible got me thinking about how powerful this book actually is to some people. I remember when I looked upon this book, pretty much the same as Sean did.

It's just a book, like any other book. It's not made at a holy factory or a secret monastery in the Swiss Alps somewhere, it's made from paper and ink and can be damaged and destroyed like other books. I would be surprised if I threw the Bible into the fire, that it wouldn't burn. I would be even more surprised, if I seen three men standing in the fire, wait a minute that's another story in the Bible.

Is it possible for this book to actually control the lives of people. It seemed to control Sean, I wonder if I, could have actually been driving a nail home that his parents started. Could I have added to his belief, that the Bible is a book from God the creator of everything.

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 video library filled with great movies 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. Simple Words Create Powerful Beliefs.

Meditating On Religious Scriptur

Possibilities - Are You Open?

The majority of people believe they are open-minded and open to learning more, until a suggestion is made to do something different. Without asking a question, the rationalizations pour forth at rapid speed.

"I don't have time...," "That wouldn't work for me." "I don't know how." "That would take too much time." "I have too much to do, I couldn't add another thing." And the list goes on.

The dilemma is how does one acquire a truly open-mind? One can learn to have an open-mind by allowing ones imagination to roam and consider paths that you previously turned away from. If you want to broaden your goals or push out of your comfort zone, today is the perfect day to do such a thing. Why today? You might ask. The answer is there is no perfect time to begin something. Simply pick a moment and do it. Just do it. When you just do it, your spontaneous and free spirit will kick into high gear, without your being able to squelch it. By jumping into every situation with a strong sense of optimism and confidence in yourself, you will be creating limitless opportunities to create positive experiences in your life.

Being open-minded and having an optimistic outlook, you will believe in the possibilities for creating a more meaningful and enriched life. An open-mind is beneficial in every situation, whether you are interacting with others or working to create your dreams. When you consider what is possible, you stretch your limits and strive to create more meaningful experiences. Simultaneously, you learn to let go of your preconceived ideas and adopt a mind-set of optimism in all circumstances, which helps you attract more opportunities for growth and create a deeper level of meaning in your life and those closest to you.

By opening your mind to consider the new and unusual at each moment, you can welcome in new realms of possibilities for growth and everlasting fulfillment.

Dorothy M. Neddermeyer, PhD, Life Coach, Hypnotherapist, Author, "101 Great Ways To Improve Your Life." Dr. Dorothy has the unique gift of connecting people with a broad range of profound principles that resonate in the deepest part of their being. She brings awareness to concepts not typically obvious to one's daily thoughts and feelings. http://www.drdorothy.net

Removing Interior Walls

Here's a word of advice for any contractor, Carpenter, handyman or homeowner that is planning to remove an interior wall from your home or someone else's. Beware of removing interior walls, to eliminate your fears of the house collapsing. Some of the interior walls inside of the house are important structural components of the building.

Some of these walls hold up floors, roofs and other loadbearing sections that could create safety problems within the structure of the house itself. This is an area where an expert with framing skills should be consulted. What is the definition of someone with excellent framing skills? Some one with at least 10 years as a master framing carpenter.

My home building experience consists of three decades for over 30 years of assembling some of the most difficult sections of a home. During these years I have seen damage done to houses from removing structural interior walls. Most of this damage could be repaired with a little structural engineering. Some of the damage could not be repaired and caused other damage to different sections of the house. The damage caused in some cases to the floor and the roof framing had to be completely rebuilt.

I'm not telling you about every single thing I have ran into but you would be surprised if I started to make a list of all the homeowners and professionals in the building industry or home selling and buying business that contacted me to remove a structural component of a building. There have even been a few of these people that told me everything was going to be okay just go ahead and remove the structural building component.

Needless to say I would leave these people very irritated but I'm sure they found someone to do the job. The bad news is I was normally the person they would hire to go back and repair the damaged building after these people were gone and out of business. There have been cases where people have removed an interior walls against my better judgment and over the years of driving by in these homes I personally got to witness the structural damage that was occurring on the outside of the house.

I have no idea what the inside of the house looked like but could only imagine. My advice again when removing interior walls is to hire an experienced contractor or at least get some advice from an experienced framing carpenter. This does not include your basic know it all that has basic construction experience like your father in law, parents, friends, golfing associates or people you work with that tell you not to worry about it, just do it, everything will work out just fine.

Greg Vanden Berge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books to help professional building contractors as well as the weekend warriors. He is currently working on more Building and Remodeling Library and adding useful content to help solve problems created by the lack of construction knowledge in the building industry.

Visit us and get more information on building and remodeling your homes and What Does A Shear Wall Do

Will All Men Ever Hate Jesus

5 Steps to Successful Transitions

Point A to Point B - life generally moves along as it should. The sticky parts are the transitions, the moments of instability when things change from what is to what is about to be. Life makes so much more sense when we finally realize that everything between birth and death is a transition! The sooner we make this universal truth real for students, the better they will handle the minefield of transitions they face every day.

Positive or negative, planned or unexpected, transitions force us to leave behind the familiar and adjust to new ways of living. The boss I just figured out gets transferred. I finally accept gas costing over $1.00 a gallon and, well, you know how that one ends! Change is everywhere, but it doesn't have to be exhausting. Here are five ways to make transitions exciting and creative rather than frightful and paralyzing.

1. Things are going to change. Day changes to night, your job, neighborhood, family and vacation plans change. Get over it.

2. Look at a bigger picture. What really is changing? What will this change cause to change? Often a transition is much broader than it first appears. Dorothy thought she was only had a tornado to deal with.

3. Gather your resources. Now is the time to take care of yourself and your business. A transition is not an event, but a process that always takes longer and costs more than you anticipated.

4. Use this Force, this is the only time you will have it. We are never totally without control. A transition means that something is moving so, rather than struggle, take advantage of the momentum to catapult you in the direction YOU want to go. For a great example of this strategy, listen to politicians. Whatever unwanted question they are asked, they structure the response to get across the information they want to give. The power is in the opportunity!

5. Anticipate. Few things in life are really a surprise. Look at people with lives and jobs similar to yours and see what might be coming for you. It's much easier to step into a transition with a controlled slide rather than to get dropped into one when it hits you from behind. New comers watch young executives with a few years under their belts. Parents watch others raising children slightly older than their own to see what to expect. Be ready.

Pat yourself on the back. If you're reading this article, you've already survived many transitions and come to recognize them as the difference between the leaders out in front and those who struggle with every step. Stepping into the transitions we can anticipate and bouncing back quickly from the surprises will position you ahead of the crowd every time!

Marcey J. Walsh is a national speaker and transition trainer. She is a team member of Russell J. White International and can be reached at http://www.thinkbigguy.com or at 877-275-9468

DIY Bathroom Remodeling Or Hiring a Contractor

The first question you need to ask yourself when remodeling a bathroom is can you actually do the work yourself or do you have someone that can help you with the remodeling. If you don't know anyone and can't do the work yourself, I would suggest hiring a contractor with experience remodeling bathrooms.

If you can do the work yourself or think you could do the work yourself, why not give it a shot. Any experience you have in construction or home remodeling, is going to be beneficial to your bathroom remodeling project. There is plenty of information on the internet or in your local libraries on bathroom remodeling and these often prove to be great resources for do it yourselfers.

As an experienced contractor I have gathered a great deal of information through books, at work and watching local home improvement shows. The biggest problem with the show's and quite a few of these books, is they don't provide enough information. Most of the time they provide you with the basics of bathroom remodeling and you could soon find yourself in trouble or seeking the advice from a home improvement professional.

The largest benefit for doing the bathroom remodeling project yourself, could be the money you save, along with the satisfaction of completing the project. It makes homeowners feel good when they've completed a large home remodeling project, like a bathroom remodel.

If you don't have the time, lack the experience or a combination of both, I would suggest hiring a contractor to relieve you from the stress and frustration of your bath remodeling project. The more complex your bathroom remodeling project is, the greater the degree of difficulty, the longer it will take to complete the project. Some of these projects can take up a lot of your time.

If you're working on galvanized water supply pipes or old cast iron waste pipes, you could find yourself hiring a plumber to install your bathtub and fixtures. These old pipes create problems for most do it yourselfers and I would suggest hiring a professional, whenever you run into a problem you don't feel comfortable with.

Choosing to tackle some of these difficult problems yourself, could lead to water leaks and more damage to the home eventually costing you even more money than the original cost of hiring an experienced plumber in the first place. When it comes to water, structural framing and electricity, think twice, especially if you're not experienced in these areas.

My advice to do it yourselfers is to hire a professional if you're not comfortable or seek the advice from a contractor or someone with considerable experience bathroom remodeling.

Greg Vanden Berge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books to help professional building contractors as well as the weekend warriors. He has just finished a Home Buyers Guide to take some of the frustration out of home shopping.

If your looking for some more House Remodeling Pictures or home building ideas.

Are Christians Really Interested

Self-Esteem

We've all heard the word self esteem before but do we really know what it means. I looked up the word self esteem in the dictionary and here's what it said.

1. a realistic respect for or favorable impression of oneself; self-respect.
2. an inordinately or exaggeratedly favorable impression of oneself.

Believing you can accomplish certain things in life, whether alone or with the help from others, often develops self esteem and character in most people. With help from the wrong people, you could actually fall into category number two and developed an exaggerated feeling of yourself. I would consider this someone whose conceded, and we all know at least one person like this.

These people normally have low self esteem and need constant compliments on a daily basis. Some of these people can actually be controlled, by complementing them or telling them what they truly desire to hear. People with low self esteem are often very reactive to problems in their daily lives. These people often blame others for their mistakes, while spending some of their time belittling or ridiculing others to make themselves feel respected.

Believing you can accomplish anything is one of the keys to a successful life. The more things you accomplish, the faster you can build a healthy self esteem. If you've never been good at something or someone in your life, makes you feel bad or tells you, you can't do something, try to avoid these people at all costs until they change to a positive attitude towards others.

If this is a direct family member, like your mother or father, who often makes you feel worthless or stupid, you should try to ignore them and their thinking. Avoiding these people and their conversation, over time will send a signal to them, that you no longer wish to be involved in their negativity.

If you feel like you can't accomplish anything, start with something small, make a list of things you have already accomplished, add to that list things you want to accomplish and set some goals for the future. The key to believing in yourself, is to develop a positive self image.

Using visualization techniques can lead you to an alternative path and self-development. If you're really interested in change, visualization can increase your self-esteem if used with affirmations.

Belief and Achieve.

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. Spiritual and self-development books can help you with the change your desiring in your life, You Can Have It All

Dog Creates Remodeling Nightmare

How many homeowners normally leave their dog in the backyard or they have full time access to the backyard through a doggie door. You're probably wondering how can a little dog create a remodeling nightmare for any contractor.

This wasn't the case this dog was a large Labrador retriever and tore up everything in the backyard constantly. The house remodel we were working on was a two story room addition over a single story house. This job lasted around six months and the dog was a daily reminder of how much attention a large dog actually needs.

Let's start with the first item of value the dog actually destroyed. It was my favorite tool bags of course that I have taken care of for over five years and deeply appreciated the fact that they were broke in just the way I wanted them to be. Kind of like a baseball mitt that doesn't quite fit right because of how stiff it is until you break it in.

While the homeowner of course apologized and never even offered to replace them. Oh but after that he did mention never to leave anything lying around in the backyard. Lesson learned of course and never forgotten. Well to make a long story short this large dog could chew up tools, lumber, plumbing pipes, electrical wire and was even able to destroyed the plywood fencing we would use to keep him away.

I'm going to stop right there with the remodeling nightmare created from this dog in hopes that other contractors can learn from my valuable lesson. As a contractor you should never assume that a homeowner will replace any damaged or broken tools and materials.

As a homeowner with a dog reading this article, think about having a place to enclose the dog if necessary while remodeling work is done on your home.

I love being around dogs and other animals but sometimes a problem like this can make life extremely miserable for both parties.

Greg Vanden Berge has been building and remodeling for over 30 years and his information has proven valuable to most contractors and homeowners all over the world. He usually tries to write at least two articles a day on home improvement or remodeling problems.

Greg is in the process right now of working on a home inspection website that will revolutionize the home inspection business. He is also working on a book to help homeowners and contractors as well as other home related professions in dealing with the home inspection process.

You can visit the home inspection website currently under construction at Home Inspection Help

Something You Don

Artistic Holidays in Musical Dublin

Dublin is the capital of the Republic of Ireland. Initially, it was founded as a Viking settlement and has been the country's primary city for the major part of the island's history. One will find good hotels in Dublin for a comfortable and pleasant stay. Dublin has become an economic and cultural centre for the island. The tourists will find a sense of calmness in the city of Dublin which is also well known for its world famous literary history. Dublin has produced three winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature which is the maximum for any city in the world.

The list of literary greats produced by Dublin is virtually a list of "Who's Who". The most celebrated work of James Joyce, Ulysses, is also set in Dublin and contains topographical details. The city centre is the place where the tourists will find the maximum number of theatres situated which has given birth to many world-famous actors. The Dublin theatrical scene is a lovely mix of musical and operatic productions. The tourists will love the variety of live music, dancing and films the city offers. Dublin plays host to many literary tourists who come here to quench their thirst of knowing more about the magnificent theatre scene of the city.

The Dublin hotels cater to all types of visitors and the city also offers accommodation for the budget travelers in the form of cheap hotels in Dublin. A stay in cheap hotels Dublin is an excellent option for the student tourists and budget travelers as otherwise they would have been left out of the fun to be in Dublin. All hotels Dublin provides the best in terms of personalized services and their hospitality has always been appreciated by a cross range of tourists from across the world. The hotel facilities can be utilized to the maximum in order to understand more about the artistic scene of Ireland as Dublin is the centre point of majority of the Irish Art scene.

A visit to 'Trinity College' is very much on the cards of most visitors as it is here that one gets an opportunity to view the world famous manuscript 'The Book of Kells' which was produced by Celtic Monks in A.D. 800. One can also spare some time to visit 'The Chester Beatty Library' where there is a collection of famous manuscripts and miniature paintings dating from 2700 B.C.

Nancy Eben is an associate editor of http://www.stayresuk.com
The website offers exclusive information of uk and dublin hotels. We also provide online hotel reservation of cheap hotels in dublin. We appreciate your feedback and queries at info@stayresuk.com

Wet Insulation Paper
Rotted Wood Joint Repair

Strategies to Become a Motivation Speaker

If you are an interesting speaker and have many memorable experiences in life to motivate others, then you can become a motivation speaker. Motivation speaking is nothing but public speaking to convey a special message that could help the audience in lifting their morale. A successful motivation speaker must have something special to deliver and must be able to carve a niche out for himself. In many ways, motivational speaking is a commodity that must be sold.

Why Should People Pay To Listen To A Motivation Speaker?

Problems are a part of parcel of our life. At times, it takes a toll on our confidence and the zeal in our life vanishes. In bad times we all look forward for some motivation and this is where a motivation speaker is needed. The speaker should be articulate in narrating his own experiences in life to inspire others.

Strategies For Motivational Speaking

Charity begins at home and the saying goes well for everyone who is trying to make a career out of motivation speaking. The best thing is to start around you own neighborhood or locale for free to make your name. Slowly others will start contacting you after hearing about the interesting experiences you have to share. Also start informing others about your availability. You should also start contacting non-profit organizations and other professional bodies. You can also register with any speaker's bureau, but they will charge you for acting as your agent. It is the desire which will carry forward the speaker and no special education or training is needed for one to succeed.

Developing The Special Message

The speaker has to put in a lot of hard work to write the special message. First and foremost he should start with what he (or she) has to say and how will it help others. The message should be special and the audience should connect to it. It should have some real life experience with dollops of humor to keep it lively.

Warnings For A Motivation Speaker

The speaker should be spontaneous with his speech and he should avoid using fillers like aa, uh and eh. If you get nervous and forget your speech then you should take a deep breath and start speaking from your mind.

The speaker should also avoid taking an awkward pause because it breaks the flow of the speech. Even if he forgets the speech, he should be able to cover for it by speaking from the heart. Before facing the audience, the speaker should rehearse well to get the confidence.
The best way to overcome nervousness is by focusing on the audience and not what they are going to think about your speech. Try to speak cleverly and repeat the message at least thrice.

The need of motivation speakers is increasing every day. Throughout history, they have inspired generations and have helped others to achieve their goals. Some of the top motivational speakers are legendary cyclist Lance Armstrong, Olympic swimming champion Amanda Beard and Dr. Deepak Chopra.

In schools throughout North America, motivation speakers are in great demand to inspire students to say no to drugs and crime and lead a healthy life. Besides, motivation speakers also help people to heal their relationships, lead a healthy life and prosper in business to have fun in life.

Top Motivational Speaker Gives You His $47 Champion Ebook FREE! Get your copy today at: http://www.EverydayIsSaturday.com

Reginald E Allen

Tips in Remodeling a Small Bathroom

Being among the top players world-wide in the financial, commercial, entertainment and cultural industries, New York City has become the most densely populated city in the country. With such reputation, the cost of housing soars leaving smaller living spaces a more popular option. Making a home out of these amply-spaced to smaller units is a challenge to many. This includes making important features of the home seem much cozier such as remodeling a small bathroom.

When remodeling a small bathroom, a complete focus on space fused with the right amount of creativity is key to the success of the project. Another important thing to ponder on is that quality does not come cheap. But it does not mean that you would have to always stick with the most expensive service or product, it only means that you should take careful considerations before letting go of your hard-earned cash to be able to give the most value to the money that you spend.

There are various ways to make less space appear much bigger. Enlisted are helpful tips in remodeling a small bathroom:

First off, unless you have significant skills and experience in plumbing, carpentry and electrical works, or the project is not a major one; you should seek the expertise of a competent NYC contractor to help you. Following this first tip in remodeling a small bathroom would save you a whole of time and money in the long run.

Instead of having a tub, maximize the space by having a shower instead. Rather than the traditional shower pan construction, a simple one-piece pan would serve as a much sleeker option as well as a leakproof solution. But if you still prefer a tub over a spacious shower, then go for the soaking bathtubs that are smaller but deeper designs.

In remodeling a small bathroom, choose a lighter and cooler hue for the walls and delicate patters for wallpapers or tiles. Light colors have an airy feel to them creating an illusion of more space. To create a better impact out of these designs, install fixtures offering heavy lighting. Another way to better illuminate the small bathroom is through skylight features. A bay window is a good choice as its alcove may also offer additional storage space.

Two elements have long since been known to give an illusion of more space. Reflection
and vertical objects and designs such as unframed mirrors and tall bathroom products that have shiny surfaces can be used in remodeling a small bathroom. You can have two mirrors installed opposite each other or facing the window. And when shopping, choose a tall but compact model of toilet and either a wall-mounted or sleek sink.

Important considerations when remodeling a small bathroom are the storage of toiletries and room for decorative items. Choose to have spaces cut out into the walls to serves as additional storage or display area rather than having free-standing cabinets or shelves installed into the walls. Lesser things protruding from the walls would help make the space seem larger.

Eugene Makeev has been in the home improvement industry for a while. His skills and expertise, which have been polished through time, are now used to help New York home owners avoid the common pitfalls in home improvements by matching their needs with the right, prescreened NYC contractor. To know more about remodeling a small bathroom, visit Contractors New York

Door Framing Between Garage And