Forwarded Messages

The world's first temperature-controlled city, Mall of the World, located along Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai. Occupying a total area of 48 million sq. ft., the project will comprise the largest indoor theme park in the world, which will be covered by a glass dome that will be open during the winter months.  The project will also house the largest shopping mall in the world with an area of 8 million sq. ft., which will take the form of an extended retail street network, different to the typical shopping mall concept currently available in Dubai. Additional districts within the project will include a wellness dedicated zone catering to medical tourists, a cultural celebration district as well as a wide range of hospitality options comprising 20,000 hotel rooms catering to all types of tourists. Once completed, the City is projected to become a year-round destination, welcoming around 180 million visitors annually.  -- Dubai Holdings 

How should Christians think about work, success and wealth?  The Parable of the Talents in MATTHEW 25:14:30 provides a helpful framework for this question.  1. First, this parable teaches us that success is a product of our work.   In the book of Genesis we see that God placed Adam in the garden to work it and take care of it. We were made to work. As Christians we have a mission that our Lord expects us to accomplish in the here and now. Far too many evangelical Christians today see their salvation as simply a “bus ticket to heaven.” They believe it doesn’t matter what they do while they “wait for the bus.” The Parable of the Talents teaches us what we are supposed to do while we await the return of our King. We are to work, using our talents to glorify God, serve the common good, and further God’s kingdom. Biblical success is working diligently in the here and now using all the talents God has given us to produce the return expected...

If you've been working long enough and you don’t have any savings in your bank account, you might wonder why your money seems to be disappearing into thin air. There are a lot of reasons and excuses that people have to explain why they are not saving enough. They’re the breadwinner in the family and they have a lot of dependents to support; their salary is barely enough to meet day-to-day expenses and monthly bills; or the rising cost of living makes it impossible to save. But, I think consumers are to blame, more than anything else.

Today, I had a terrible day. Everyone was against me. Some days, I get so frustrated with people. Sometimes I wish I didn't have to deal with people at all. They can be so unreasonable. Today was one of those days. Today was "trash day." I took out our trash the night before, but when I pulled out of our driveway, I noticed that our grouchy neighbor had thrown a piece of his trash in our yard, close to our trash can! (But he didn't. The wind blew it over). After dropping the children off at school, I needed to make a left-hand turn into a long line of traffic. I saw one of my friends in line and thought she would let me out in front of her. She saw me, but wouldn't let me out. Some friend she is! (But she didn't see you. She was miles away in her own thoughts).

  Have you heard of the Winchester Mystery House? The sprawling house in  San Jose, California, is famous for its huge size and irregular layout.  It was under constant construction for 38 years, eventually coming to  have almost 160 rooms. Despite its great size, the house can be considered unfinished in many  ways. There are dozens of doors that open on blank walls, others with  knobs on only one side and inside doors with screens on them. There are  stairways that reach no destination, chimneys with no stoves, and  floors that you can see through. The construction shows a fascination with the number 13. All the  stairways are constructed in series of 13 steps. The chandeliers all  have 13 lights. Every wall has 13 panels. Each glass door has 13  pieces. Who would build such a house?

Our world loves " bigness ."  Large , economy-sized boxes of detergent. Supersized meals. Big screen TVs. Vehicles with extra leg room, extra head room and vast storage space. The bigger -is-better phenomenon affects the workpalce too. Associates vie for the biggest office, the heftiest raise, the longest service record. About the only thing we want small is our lap top computers - but even then, we want them to have large memory capacity and multitude of special features. Our God is certainly capable of big feats . He partted the Red Sea. He created the universe in less than a week. But it's better not to measure our business success by how much money we earn. God isn't interested in the size of your salary. He's interested in your life and the small but faithful steps you take toward Him. Remember, a little obedience and faithfulness makes a big difference to God. In the end, it's not the size of your paycheck that matters - it's the ...

I have learned along the way that failure is riddled full of success, if you open your eyes to it. Even though most people would count our venture as failure, it was the start of our 'adventure' to get a grip, and swing it all back around. Objectively speaking, it is our finest moment. To come back from this type of overwhelming adversity in the present economic climate is utterly amazing. So many things that could have sunk our battleship along the way have not presented themselves. We dealt with situations that came up. But, we always seemed to come up on top. We have been blessed time and time again. The Fight is Engaged: If you find yourself at the bottom of the stack and you are retching because you feel that you have been kicked in the gut from all directions -- that is where we were. We decided to 'fight'! But we decided to fight in a different way . *** FOCUS  We decided what we wanted -- our 'target' at the end of the tunnel we could focus ...

A married lady was expecting a birthday gift from her husband. For many months she had admired a beautiful diamond ring in a showroom, and knowing her husband could afford it, she told him that was all she wanted. As her birthday approached, this lady awaited signs that her husband had purchased the diamond ring. Finally, on the morning of her birthday, her husband called her into his study. Her husband told her how proud he was to have such a good wife, and told her how much he loved her. He handed her a beautiful wrapped gift box.

A woman came out of her house and saw 3 old men with long white beards sitting in her front yard. She did not recognize them. She said, 'I don't think I know you, but you must be hungry. Please come in and have something to eat.' 'Is the man of the house home?' they asked. 'No' , she replied. 'He's out. ' 'Then we cannot come in' , they replied. In the evening when her husband came home, she told him what had happened. 'Go tell them I am home and invite them in! ' The woman went out and invited the men in. 'We do not go into a House together, ' they replied...  'Why is that? ' she asked.  One of the old men explained: 'His name is Wealth, ' he said pointing to one of his friends, and said pointing to another one, 'He is Success , and I am Love .' Then he added, 'Now go in and discuss with your husband which one of us you want in your home .' The woman went in and tol...