We are forced to be subjected to the sex lives of others in tabloids and TV, our children are forced to stand in a check out line and listen to the potty mouth in front of us describe the wild party she was at last night. We are forced to wait at the light and hear our air ways being polluted with the disgusting explicit sex lyrics from someone's car radio. Then we come home to the gory details of the child murder being plastered across our TV. Here on Facebook we can publish the color of the bra we are wearing. BUT WHEN IT COMES TO GOD, shhhhh-quiet we can't discuss it cause it's a PRIVATE matter. YOU ARE KIDDING ME RIGHT? Hello?? Have you not noticed that our world is falling apart all around us? Go ahead and ask yourself "WHY?" Why are things so messed up in our world? It's because we are desensitized to the darkness, and even fight for it's favor. God is offensive to us. Well, not when it's blaring from the car radio with "damn" at the end of it. Not then. Only when we talk about relationship with Him. He created the universe, He sustains our lives and WE CANT TALK ABOUT HIM. Because He has become a naughty word. Forget what the Holy Scriptures say about trusting Him, putting Him first. Letting Him guide our lives. Cause He belongs to our world every now and then. Like when we get cancer or when we need help with our backward, messed up lives. But as soon as the God genie performs His magic He has to go back in His bottle and be stored under the bed, He's hidden with all those other things we do in private. If someone loves God and wants to tell the world about how He saved their life, they are perceived as being "off balance". WHAT? If you think I am off balance now you should have checked me out before, the difference is that stuff nearly KILLED ME! About the only thing good worth being off balance for in our dark world is God. We humans have gotten what we wanted and we have got what we deserve. We choose to live our lives backwards. Everyone knows what "live" spelled backwards is? It spells EVIL. You know who you hang with when you have lived backwards don't you? L-I-V-E-D = D-E-V-I-L. We have "free will" and we get to reap what that "free will" thing sows for us. Sorry for my political incorrectness in discussing such a private matter. Written by Cyndi West Pentiuk Cyndi West more >>

Let's say that you knew some people that were really sick. So you found some medicine to heal them and gave it to your son to take to the sick people. But instead of taking the medicine the people got angry and beat and killed your son. Then without apology they became best of friends with your loved ones. Ouch! In my mind that is an act of treason from my loved ones. When we become Christians we are to be set aside or consecrated for God; For our reference lets take a closer look at the meaning of that word consecrated: 1. To declare or set apart as sacred: consecrate a church. 2. Christianity a. To produce the ritual transformation of (the elements of the Eucharist) into the body and blood of Jesus. b. To sanctify (bread and wine) for use in Communion. c. To initiate (a priest) into the order of bishops. 3. To dedicate solemnly to a service or goal. 4. To make venerable; hallow: a tradition consecrated by time. adj. Dedicated to a sacred purpose; sanctified. Don't know if you notice that or not but Christianity is actually a definition of consecrated. Hebrews 13:12 (AMP) 12 Therefore Jesus also suffered and died outside the [city’s] gate in order that He might purify and consecrate the people through [the shedding of] His own blood and set them apart as holy [for God]. Did you get that? When you accept God's only Son, Jesus as your personal Savior you are to profess allegiance to Him and therefore be consecrated or set apart from the world. Check this out: Romans 12:2 (AMP) 2 Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you]. What does "Do not be conformed to this world (this age) mean?" I will let William MacDonald answer from his Bible Commentary: Well the world (literal age) as used here means society or system that man has built in order to make himself happy without God. It is a kingdom that is antagonistic to God. The god and prince of this world is Satan, all unconverted people are his subjects. He seeks to attract and hold people through the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. The world has its own politics, art, music, religion, amusements, thought-patterns, and lifestyles, and it seeks to get everyone to conform to its culture and customs. It hates non-conformists-like Christ and his followers. Christ died to deliver us from this world. The world is crucified to us, and we are crucified to the world. IT would be absolute disloyalty to the Lord for believers to love the world. Anyone who loves the world is an enemy to God. There you have it! We know why He considers us an enemy when we are friends with the world. Because the world rejected His Medicine and Killed His Son. We are traitors to God when we fraternize with the world. Period! Here comes MacDonald again to explain further: We are sent into this world as believers for one purpose to testify that it's works are evil and to make it known that salvation is available to all who put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We should not only be separated from this world; we should be transformed by the renewing of our mind, which means that we should think the way God thinks, as revealed in the Bible. Then we can experience the direct guidance from God in our lives. And we will find that, instead of being distasteful and hard, His will is good and acceptable and perfect. We might as well face it we humans can be disloyal. But our God would never be disloyal to us. Also consider the sting that betrayal has had when it has happened to you. I don't know about you but I love God and I would never want Him to experience that kind of pain because of something I did. I will not become close friends with an enemy of God. I don't care what it is or who it is. You would never become friends or form close relationships with your son's un-repented killers. Do not be close to the things that God considers an enemy. Pray for His guidance to show you areas of your life that are immersed into the things of this world, pray for His assistance to help you avoid the people or things that you should steer clear of. Study His Word daily to renew your mind so that you will be transformed from worldly and fleshly thinking. Written by: Cyndi West Pentiuk © 2009 more >>

Perception=the act or faculty of apprehending by means of the senses or of the mind; cognition; understanding. Everyone has a different perception of how they see things. It has been said that human perception is as unique to each individual as the DNA from which he or she is made. For instance: the three people who witnessed the fender bender on the corner have three different perspectives' of what happened. The plaintiff and the defendant are in court to dispute their perceptions, each one believing that theirs is the correct one. The husband just slammed the door on his wife because she had the wrong perception of what happened at the party last night. It is amazing to me that two people can be involved in the very same situation and have two totally different perceptions. I am a bottom-line type of person so all I want to know is: whose perception is the correct one? As individuals we believe that our own perception is reality and therefore correct. However, in truth our perception of our situations and our perception of people are often distorted. When two people disagree both sides perceptions are incorrect and usually incomplete. Their argument perpetuates the misunderstanding further, causing animosity. This animosity serves to reinforce more wrong perceptions and confusions forcing more hard feelings. Let's take a closer look at perception with this example of my husband's position on church seating: He always expects to sit in the same spot at church thus we usually choose a position in the "right wing" section of the church. Typically after reaching into our own pockets to purchase our drinks, we file "conservatively" into a large auditorium. We do not ask for or require an usher to assist us in the process of locating a seat, but instead we seek out a peaceful place that provides a comfortable distance from the "man in the spotlight". On the other hand, the people on the other side of the auditorium in the "left wing" section, they do things very differently. Amazingly most of them are unable to find a seat without the governing body reaching out to them to assist them in locating one. They like lots of choices when it comes to their beverages and fully expect them to be both "liberal" and "complimentary". As far as positions within the auditorium, they like to be close to "man in the spotlight", so that when he speaks about something they disagree with they can hop out of their seats and protest immediately. Since I perceive myself as a good wife my position on church seating is where it should be -humbly next to my husband. Our church is large and it uses two projection screens one on each side of the stage and one behind the "man in the spotlight". From my "far right" seating perspective I see the "man in the spotlight's" physical position as being way off center and to the "far left" of the projection screen behind him. Now I realize that those people on the other side the "left wings", as I call them have an entirely different perception of the "man in the spotlight's" position. They perceive him as being more to the "right" of the projection screen. Remember I asked "whose perception was correct?". The answer is "neither". The clue which directs us to our answer is as follows: As I look at "man in the spotlight's" image on the right and left projection screens, I notice that it confirms his position as being exactly in the center of the projection screen behind him. (I know-I know this sounds like part of the Warren Commission's Assassination Investigation of JFK). Anyway, there is one important detail that has been overlooked. Directly in the center of the stage mounted on the ceiling is a camera. Let's call this camera "The Eye in the Sky". The "Eye in the Sky" is watching and filming everything that the "man in the spotlight" is doing. Because of their limited perspective neither the "right wing" or the "left wing" perception is the correct one. The correct perception is that of "The Eye in the Sky", the position that He holds presents the best view of all that happens in this auditorium. You have heard the saying that "there is one person's side to a story, there is another person's side of the story then there is the truth." That is very true. Lets look at how disputed controversies stem from misconceptions in perceptions and address how we can move on to the resolution of our differences. As much as we believe that our perception is reality the same can be said of another person. They stand there opposing you with the belief that their perception is in fact reality. For them it is the only reality they know. But as the illustration above proves our perceptual process is faulty, which further proves that both sides are wrong. We need to humble ourselves to the realization of our faulty perceptions and open up to the prospect of our improving them. To do this let's realize that we do make mistakes and that we do have flaws. No one is perfect. Let's decide to be honest and move past denial. Let's be accountable for our flaws and own them. The real perception is that people don't want to own up to their flaws because it puts us in the uncomfortable position of having to fix them. We don't want to fix them, because that would be too much work. It is so much easier to pass the buck, than to admit that we have something wrong inside of us. A person's pride can make it quite hard for them to take a good look in the mirror, and that is the big reason we humans fight and argue. Our arguments can be attributed to one word- pride. Pride makes us unable to humble ourselves enough to admit that we are wrong. Pride wants to be right, it wants to be all knowing it wants to be the "ONE" with the accurate perception. But the all- knowing perfect, honest, non-flawed, correct, accurate perception belongs only- to the "Eye in the Sky". The next time your involved in a heated argument shouting your perceptions to your unreasonably blind adversary before you rip his left wing head off, why not remember the lesson we learned in church? And instead- try a different angle, one that requires us to move to the center and rise above, one that requires us to go in prayer to the Almighty God to gain perspective that is closer to His accurate perception as the "Eye in the Sky". There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death. Proverbs 16:25 Written by: Cyndi West Pentiuk © 2009 more >>

How the GRINCH PRINCE Stole Christmas! All the Humans in Humanity liked Christmas a lot. But the prince, who lived just south of Humanity, did not! He hated Christmas, and we know the reason. Humanity worshiped the birth of their King, Christmas season. They loved their King, cause he'd opened their eyes to the light, and helped get their screwed up heads on just right. But the thing the King did that was best for all men, was to cleanse their black hearts which were covered with sin. The prince stood there on Christmas Eve, hating Humanity, wishing to find a way to stop-all this Christmas insanity. Staring up from his fire pit deep in the ground, at their warm, loving hearts all a glow- all around. For he knew all those Humans who lived up above, planned to celebrate a Birthday with worship and love. Each year at Christmas they'd sing and pray and pay homage to their King, and celebrate His day. He snarled, and said "Their hanging their Christmas wreath, I’m sick of all this brimstone and gnashing of teeth.” The prince growled and complained "It's hot down here! I've had enough of their King! I've had enough of their cheer! And worst of all I’ve had enough of this Christmas Birthday that comes every year?” HE thought of a solution to stop it from coming. The problem seemed big, it seemed almost mind numbing, "If I could distract them enough - I could steal it away." "I wonder if I could get them to worship me Christmas day." THEN that crafty Prince got an IDEA, an AWFUL IDEA a HORRIBLE ROTTEN AWFUL IDEA! "WAIT just a minute" he laughed, "I am the prince of all LIES "I'll switch around some letters and make a disguise!" So he put on a red suit and he put on a white beard, he blew smoke rings out of his pipe, which was weird. “Where are my little friends?” He asked himself, “I'll change their names too, we’ll all call them "elf". "All I need is some presents” the prince looked around but since kindness was scarce there were none to be found. Did that stop the prince? Nope- the prince simply said "If I don't have the presents, I'll make Humans buy them instead." “My plan is genius, its great! - You can bet. I’ll keep them busy buying then watch em sweat. They'll give ME the credit- while they get the debt.” He slithered and slunk launching a scheme most unpleasant around the whole world, never buying one present! Video games! Bikes! Bionic Eyeclops! Webkins! Tinker toys! IPods! Laptops! He had a nasty habit of sliding down to a fire, so his plan was injected with a Chimney, the ole liar! The trick worked perfectly and propelled him to fame. They loved the disguise with the misspelled name. They changed “Christmas” to “Holiday” and the prince is their model. They got his face everywhere from your tie to your bottle. The Humans in Humanity the tall and the small, shout "Who needs a King when you've got the mall!" But a Human named cyndi lou, with a small letter "c" thought of a place he could stuff - his 'Holiday Tree". She sits puzzling and puzzling, on earth below, wondering and thinking "where did it go?" "It comes without, crosses! It comes with prayer! It comes without our Kings name being said anywhere! It comes without church! Without Holy Words being read! What kind of trick has been played on our head?" The prince's scheme had been caught by the King’s loving daughter, who had puzzled so long that she needed a cup of cold water. She asked Her King "Why, Why- did he take your Birthday from you? Why?" Her eyes filled with tears when she heard His reply. "You know that ole Prince is so crafty and quick, he thought up a huge lie and he made it stick. As long as they think happiness comes from a store, they won't look to me like they did once before. But, they want to call out to me at Christmas- I know they do, their mouths have hung open, to do it- one time or two, Some of them even crying, I heard them -Boo-hoo. Their calling out to me is a sound”, said the King “that, I simply love to hear, not just at Christmas, but all through the year.” And He paused, and looked down at the hole in His Hand, Then He heard a small sound rising up through the land. The Humans in Humanity weren't stupid and slow. They wanted their King again and they wanted to grow. They stood hand and hand with Church bells ringing, embracing each other instead of mud-slinging. All Humanity the tall and the small, were coming together with the best “Present” of all. Christmas, is about Our Kings Birthday. He suffered to make our black hearts go away. For us, Christmas Day should always be, a day we fall on bended knee. Welcome Christmas, for a King! Not a prince, and certainly not for this store bought-en chintz. The true meaning of Christmas will inspire and lift, when you open a “Present” that's more than a gift. Merry Christmas Humanity! Happy Birthday to Our King! Merry Christmas from WestWind Ministries, God Bless you and your Families! Written by: Cyndi Lou West Pentiuk © Christmas 2009 more >>

Okay, there was this friend of mine that had a problem with this, and -I wait I mean - SHE, had a situation blow up in- my - whoops I mean - her - face. Here is how it went down. I was having an issue, I mean, the friend was having an issue. Okay, Okay, I will just tell you - the friend is me, SURPRISE! I was having a problem with judging people. So I wrote this passage on my bathroom mirror: Matthew 7:1-2 (AMP) 1 DO NOT judge and criticize and condemn others, so that you may not be judged and criticized and condemned yourselves. 2 For just as you judge and criticize and condemn others, you will be judged and criticized and condemned, and in accordance with the measure you [use to] deal out to others, it will be dealt out again to you. I said it out loud each morning. I thought that by doing this I would get the message but as it turns out I wasn't getting the message cause this is what happened: I found myself involved with a situation that started on a Thursday when a fellow Christian, randomly handed me an article and said that I should read it. A friend was with me and thought she would like a copy of the article so she made one for herself. Unfortunately NEITHER of us read the article. She tucked hers in her desk and I put mine on the night stand next to my bed, each promising that we would get to it and read it later. Big mistake and lesson number one: When a fellow Christian gives you an article -READ it right away - do not delay. The next day I innocently contacted a distant acquaintance to make a request to return an important item that was in her possession. This request caused the out-break of World War Three and got me into a very big pickle. The lesson I learned from this situation was pricele$$. Anyway back to the story... The acquaintance accused me of something that wasn't true and by doing so I became very angry- raging mad, I found myself saying things that betrayed even my own self-righteousness. I, myself couldn't believe the words that I was hearing coming out of my mouth. The sad part is I can't even recall the most of the angry words that were spewing out of me. I only know that I was judging this other person left and right and the things I was saying were not very nice. Before I knew it I was looking worse than her (remember she had originally accused me of something that wasn't true). The situation seemed to be snow-balling out of control and before I knew it others were involved. Each one saying things that were not very nice, one of the people was yelling at me, and another one suggesting that I wasn't a very nice Christian. OUCH! Oh boy! I kept saying "but wait it isn't what it seems- I am innocent" but no one listened. The more I tried to defend myself the worse the situation got. Now I am not stupid, I knew that I had a reactionary response and had stepped over the line with my words. But I felt as if it was a situation that spiraled out of control and I wanted to know exactly what I could do in the future to assure myself that this type of thing would never happen again. What seemed like an innocent request had now escalated into a full blown war. My head was spinning as I kept talking to God, trying to figure out what had happened. The situation made no sense. And I wasn't getting any answers. My husband was out of town and I spent a great deal of time, that weekend with the same friend that copied the article. She could see that I had been rattled by the whole mess and that I seemed to be confused and was searching for answers. I could tell she was concerned and wanted to help (little did she know that God would use her to bring me the answers I was looking for). Fast forward to Monday, my concerned friend contacted me via email suggesting that I read the article that we had copied on Thursday, she thought that the article was descriptive of the very situation I had encountered. I took her advice and finally read that article. She was exactly right cause when I read it I could not believe my eyes. My lesson came in three parts the following article from a book by R.T. Kendall called "Grace", describes parts two and three of my lesson. I share this with you because I learned the lesson the hard way, and if you read this article prepared by me, a fellow Christian, you will have part one of this lesson down and thus you will avoid the painful parts of the lesson (parts two and three). The article explained our need to trust God to avenge us. God hates injustice, when someone accuses you of something that you are innocent of "He will avenge you". When you step in and take matters into your own hands He steps out. This is what I had done at first when the situation started. I tried to vindicate myself by making further contact with this person and that is when things went south for me. This is the second part of my lesson. Part three was the most important part it had to do with two things I'd seen in my mirror everyday, "me" and Matthew 7:1 the passage I had written on my mirror. The article went on to say: If you judge, you are going to be judged. And so, when He says that if you are angry you are subject to judgment, meaning that your anger is an open invitation to God to step in at any moment and judge you. All hell breaks loose once I begin to judge another. It means then and there I have lost control and have broken the sixth commandment (Thou shall not kill). So the next time you begin to lose your temper, remember, in that moment you should be saying, "God, I am right now being subject to judgment; come and judge me". The next time you gossip, or you verbally rejoice at another person's downfall, you are subject to His judgment; you are inviting God right then to come in. The next time you discredit a person, say something that will hurt their reputation, be careful. For if you are angry, you are open to judgment. James 3:6 is a scary description of how not controlling the tongue gives the devil a chance to get in. Our losing control of the tongue gives the devil a right to come straight in, and before you know it, you have said everything under the sun and you think What have I done? What have I said? The devil got in. The judgment of God in this case was giving Satan permission to get into the act. BINGO! This was exactly what had happened to me. I was relieved that I had this answer but mad at myself for many reasons. The main reason was, that I hadn't read the article promptly when it was given to me. If I had read it, I may have avoided the whole mess. On the other hand, there was a chance that the lesson may not have resonated so deeply if things had worked out the way they did. I immediately called the past acquaintance and apologized to her. I am certain that when she hung up the phone she was more confused than ever especially since I thanked her for the lesson that I had learned. None the less, I had my answer and I know the true meaning of Matthew 7:1. I couldn't have been more grateful. This is a lesson, I hope I will not have to have to go through ever again. Judging people, is not our job as Christians. Let us not get confused here, God gives us the gift of discernment, when we become His children. We are to use this gift to help us make wise choices, and to avoid situations and people that have the potential to harm us. It is important to use this gift to avoid getting closely involved with people, we, as Christians shouldn't be involved with. It is important for us not to confuse the proper use of the gift of discernment with this issue of judging others. This valuable lesson was about getting angry and judging people. In the future I will try to avoid both, individually, and certainly do my best, with the help of the Holy Spirit to never combine the two and repeat this very big, bad mistake. Hope you will be helped by this as well. God Bless! Written by Cyndi West-Pentiuk © 2009 more >>

Proverbs 18:21 (New International Version) 21 The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit. Did you catch that? The power of life and death are in the tongue. Words are powerful. We know that they have creative power because God used words to speak our world into existence. Before I was a Christian I had no idea how powerful words were. I never stopped to think about it. The Bible says that our mouths are not to be used for gossip, tale bearing, to slander, to criticize, condemn, to brag, to speak perverse or foul things nor in judgment of others. When we open our mouths to say such things we essentially use our words to speak death. Without a doubt before I became a Christian my reckless words made me a serial killer. My mouth was a powerful weapon of mass destruction, I was speaking death and killing people left and right, they were dropping like flies every where I went. Once I became enlightened to this I understood what words I shouldn't be saying but found it difficult to prevent myself from saying them. Ever heard that expression "if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all"? Ok, well that is really good advice. So I decided to tried it. It didn't last long. One look at my husband, jumping for joy professing things like "finally an answer to prayer", then muttering something about "this being a true miracle right up there with immaculate conception", brought my verbally expressive nature back with vengeance. It is clear that we have to learn to tame our tongues. This is very challenging for me, but when I consider this verse: Matthew 12:36 (AMP) 36 But I tell you, on the day of judgment men will have to give account for every idle (inoperative, nonworking) word they speak. I realize that this is a serious matter to God and therefore we have to make a serious matter to us. Therefore, it is imperative that we pay close attention to the words that are coming out of our mouths. Every articulate person uses thousands of words a day, enough in the course of a lifetime to fill a college library. The bible says that we are accountable for every idle word. Scary! I suppose we should look at it this way. When a person is arrested, he is warned that anything he says will be used against him- if he is smart, he will be quiet and if he chooses to speak he'd better be careful and chose his words wisely. This is a good example to use with regard to this subject we must remember that one day we will go before our Judge and He is going to hold us accountable for every word that comes out of our mouth. This brings us to the true purpose of our mouth. We are to use our mouths to glorify God. Glorify means to make glorious by bestowing honor, praise, or admiration. It is also a good idea for us to use our mouths to edify people as well. Edify means to instruct especially so as to encourage intellectual, moral, or spiritual improvement. You may not have needed those definitions, but I did it helps me to clarify things in my mind. This means that it is important to keep our words positive, consider this; The Bible says in Matthew 15:11 (AMP): 11 It is not what goes into the mouth of a man that makes him unclean and defiled, but what comes out of the mouth; this makes a man unclean and defiles [him]. I might add that it is not what goes into your mouth that defiles you it is what goes into your brain. Because thoughts come out of the mouth. Positive words come from positive thoughts. Look at this one: Matthew 15:18 (AMP) 18 But whatever comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this is what makes a man unclean and defiles [him]. Obviously, this reference is not of the heart, being an organ that pumps blood but the corrupt source of human motives and desires. This part of man's moral nature manifests itself by impure thoughts then by depraved words, then ultimately by evil acts. We have to remember to keep our thoughts aligned with this verse: Philippians 4:8 (AMP) 8 For the rest, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things [fix your minds on them]. God has given us a wonderful gift,the gift of speech. To paraphrase John Phillips commentary: "His (man's) words can give shape to a sonnet or a sermon. Words can send armies to war and they can give shape and substance to just laws. Words can inflame passions, invoke laughter, or reduce an audience to tears. No wonder God holds us responsible for the words we utter." Our choice of words is serious to God, we need to pray daily for His help to tame our tongues. It is important to remember that as long as we are on this planet with other people we are going to need to communicate and that means that we will slip up and say the wrong things now and again. We should not become discouraged, when this happens but instead take the matter before God with repentance, and continue to pray for His help and support with this. Our awareness of the power contained in the words we speak, is just the beginning, learning to consider every word that flows from our lips will be a lifelong process. But it is certain to be worth it. Speak life -God Bless! Written by Cyndi West-Pentiuk © 2009 more >>

Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.- Paul Boese. Hope you don't mind us re-visiting the subject of forgiveness again. Why? Because forgiveness is very important subject both in God's eyes and in our lives. From a spiritual standpoint forgiveness is number one. I mean if God didn't provide a way for us to be forgiven we would all be perishing. As I said before forgiveness was very important to God so important that he paid a very hefty price for us to have it. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 His Son, Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of forgiveness. In fact, it was the subject of His mission as our Messiah. Consider this: God loves us, He wants fellowship and relationship with us BUT He wants us to address the resentment and bitterness we have toward others first. Look at what Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:24: Leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. As for humans, we need to realize that although forgiveness is beyond our capacities, it is extremely important for us to give it and to receive it. Check this out: Matthew 6:15 (AMP) 15 But if you do not forgive others their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses. Jesus instructs us as to how we should pray in His example of the Lords Prayer: Our Father, who art in heaven hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. He says to pray for our daily bread (all of the physical, human and spiritual gifts we need to live) basically we are to ask "give us this day what we need", then He talks about forgiveness. This petition in the Lord's Prayer is a demanding one. God wants us to come to Him for His forgiveness of us for our trespasses against Him daily. He also wants us to forgive others for trespassing against us. God's forgiveness of us is linked with our forgiveness of others. Receiving forgiveness is not difficult, on the other hand handing it out - now that's hard. No matter what you think, I am here to tell you that you cannot do this (forgive people) by yourself, you need God's help. PERIOD. We must pray for the grace to forgive those that have hurt us. Please note that I used the word "must" because if we don't forgive others, we ourselves cannot receive God's mercy. God's mercy is very important remember, it was the reason that Jesus died on the cross. I said it before I will say it again "FORGIVENESS is vital". Using the example of the Lords prayer, we need to pray for forgiveness every day and ask God to help us forgive others who have hurt us. Let me point out that we should go to those who we have hurt and ask them for their forgiveness. Sin has to be forgiven at the point of guilt. If a man sins against his wife, he must put it right with his wife; if he sins against his neighbor, he must put it right with his neighbor. It is no use a man asking his wife to forgive him for something if he did wrong to someone at work. Above all, sin has to be confessed to God since all sin is also against Him. Forgiveness is for us. Jesus died so that "we" could be forgiven, forgiving others is especially for us. Failure to forgive causes us to harbor resentment, and bitterness, these things tend to fester inside of us and make us mean. Worst of all, they prevent us from close fellowship with our Creator. Daily forgiveness is important, it's right up there with daily bread, if you ask me. Seek forgiveness from God, seek forgiveness from others and seek God to help you forgive others, daily. You will love the way it feels, forgiveness is for us and it is a healthy way to approach our lives. Best of all it provides us with freedom from negative emotions as well as a clear path for close fellowship with our Father. God Bless! Written by Cyndi West-Pentiuk © 2009 more >>

In our daily lives, we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but the gratefulness that makes us happy. --Albert Clarke Happiness is a choice. You make a choice to be happy. By the same token you make a choice to be unhappy. I have noticed, at least in my life that there was a distinct difference in the way I looked at things when I was miserable, than the way I look at things now. I remember being mean and unhappy most the time. My thoughts were about what I didn't have or how people didn't measure up to my standards. I spent a lot of time thinking about me. I spent a lot of time thinking about what was wrong in my life. Funny how circumstances can change attitudes. When I became sick I felt as if I was fighting for my life. It changed everything - let me tell you that it doesn't matter whether you are rich or poor if you don't have good health you don't have anything. How quickly we run, seek after and call upon a Higher power when we are involved with something that is out of our control. Which is exactly what I did. I ran, sought and called as if my life depended on it. I felt as if I was in a fight to save my life. The good news is I lost the battle. Yep you read right - I said "good news". I am pleased to say that I lost my life. That's right I said "lost my life". It is said that in order to gain your life you have to lose it. Which is what happened to me. I am pleased to announce I have gained a new life. Ephesians 4:20-24 20 That, however, is not the way of life you learned 21 when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. In hindsight I have to say that I am not exactly sure as to why I fought so hard to keep that old miserable life. Survival instinct -I suppose. My new life is so much better than the old one. What is weird is that my circumstances have remained unchanged. That is to say that the surroundings I used to be so miserable with, are the same. The things I used to hate and complain about have not changed. The only thing that has changed is my attitude and because my attitude changed - I've changed. I am happy now, not just because God got a hold of me but also because my focus is on the good things in life and not the bad things. Funny when my attitude changed, those people, you know the ones that never measured up before? Well, they changed. They are delightful, wonderful, loving people. I am grateful to experience them and feel unworthy to be blessed with their presents in my life. I might add that I am also grateful that they tolerated me back in my old life, when I was so miserable. I hate to think about where I would be if they had not. My new life is full of gratitude. I can't begin to express the inner joy that comes with being close to God. Or how wonderful it is to have His help with changing the old person (many years of strongholds) into a new one. Each day I am grateful to be healthy and alive. If someone asked me the key to happiness I would say one word "Gratitude". The attitude of gratitude changes your life. God is the source of inner happiness, contentment, joy and peace. He has a way of bringing gratitude into our lives. Contentment is the experience of satisfaction and being at ease in one's situation. This doesn't mean that we shouldn't have goals. And having goals doesn't mean that you are discontented with where you are at. Goals are important. I have bunches of them; get up earlier, lose weight, improve the website, be a better person, write a book, continue to pursue higher education. The list goes on and on. When gratitude moves in discontentment moves out. When dissatisfaction is removed from our lives we find contentment and with that comes peace. I love this new life that I have been blessed with, I thank God for my life every day. Our lives are a gift, the air we breathe is a gift. Health, food, loved ones & shelter they are all gifts to be thankful for every day. Putting that in perspective makes some of the things we like to complain about seem small in comparison. Gratitude is the attitude. We at WestWind wish each and every one of you a truly thankful- Thanksgiving. God Bless. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (AMP) 18 Thank [God] in everything [no matter what the circumstances may be, be thankful and give thanks], for this is the will of God for you [who are] in Christ Jesus [the Revealer and Mediator of that will]. more >>

In the book Data Smog, journalist David Shenk states that the average American encountered 560 daily advertising messages in 1971. By 1997 that number had increased to over 3,000 per day. The distractions of this world are amazing -think about it. We are bombarded with information daily. The overstimulation of constant information overload is OVERWHELMING! We are flooded with news updates, voice messages, distracting phone calls, text messages and faxes containing more information for us to absorb. We listen to talk shows and constant radios, blaring constant music in every restaurant and every store, everywhere we go. I just want to scream "OH THE NOISE, NOISE, NOISE, NOISE!". Makes me a bit grumpy, how about you? It also makes me want to go live by myself in a cave on Mt. Crumpet with my dog as my lone companion. Think about all this stuff happening in our world - I can relate with the famous superstars , what with the media constantly in my face, I mean we got television, radios & magazines. Take the grocery check out line for instance. Don't know about you but I find my star status tends to fade the instant that cashier tosses those un-purchased tomatoes at me, to announce "it's show time" put the magazine down and unload the cart. Ahh- fame is fleeting. Our brains aren't computers, our random access memory isn't enough to comprehend the constant flow of information flying our way daily. It is sabotaging our concentration and undermining our immune systems. But here's a NEWS FLASH: We do not have to take it all in. We can "filter-feed" the thoughts that we allow in our brain. It requires the practice of deliberate cultivation of positive thinking. Not easy I admit- cause our brains like to take our thoughts and run amuck with them. Agree? Which is why I have incorporated some help from the United States Customs office. Ok, not really them, my solution comes in my pretending to be Border Control Agent with regard to my thought process. Here is how it works: My brain is my country and each thought must be sequestered and approved before it gains entry. Watch out! Here it comes, we have an alien thought rapidly approaching. Stop: it is trying to gain access to my head. Wait! This thought must first pass the stringent Philippians 4:8 test which goes like this: For the rest, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things [fix your minds on them]. Philippians 4:8 (AMP) I know it sounds crazy, but I realize the importance of keeping this in focus daily so I put it on my bathroom mirror. Laugh if you like but I take Homeland Security very seriously and you should too! I realize that this will take practice. And trust me I am practicing. I admit that certain people tend to trigger an elevated threat advisory in me- I suppose this is inevitable since I dwell among teenagers. None-the-less, if my thought process is going to be hijacked - I am going to have a say over who the hijacker is and in my case I want it to be -God, thank-you. Check this out: And he [the Lord] said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind and earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. -- I Kings 19: 11-12 (KJV) Did you get that? God isn't in all of the noise, noise, noise, noise. In our world we need all the help we can get, I don't know about you but I want the resources that God offers and that means the ability to tap into our Creators Divine Power. The "superiority complex" within us as individuals tends to try to convince us that we are "all that" but the reality is, whether we like it our not, our human capabilities are subject to limitations. We are humans not computers and we are certainly not gods. And we are living in a world consumed with information. God reassures us that He will garrison our hearts and thoughts in Christ Jesus. We, however, have a responsibility in this as He will not garrison the thought-process of individuals that do not wish for Him to do so. Remember my mention of escaping to a cave earlier? Did it remind you of anyone? NO- not the Grinch, it was the great prophet, Elijah, he happened to be standing at the entrance of a cave when he heard the "still, small voice" of God. We should try this. NO- not the cave on the mountain but we should try removing ourselves from the noisy surroundings, come away from it, shut it off, find a quiet data free place away from the noise pollution and listen. Shhhhhh- do you hear it? It's there, if you care to listen. There in your quiet solitude, you will come to know the greatest sound that you will ever hear. The noise of this world is loud. But the still, small voice of the Creator of this world is not. Experience it! I dare you. Written by Cyndi West-Pentiuk © 2009 more >>

Organized religion is about man-made rules, ceremonies and rituals. It comes to us in several forms. These practices are an effort for us to feel as if we are working to obtain our salvation. They keep us focused on the practices themselves instead of focusing on God. Amazing, we allow practices to distract us from the very nature of our pursuit-which is GOD. It is my belief that religion has kept more people from God than anything in history. Think about how messed up our lives become when we allow our personal relationships to become mindless rituals. Or how polluted these relationships would become if we allowed uninvolved individuals to infiltrate them and set the rules by which our relationships should follow in order to remain in existence. With regard to religion, I need to clarify that I am speaking of the denominational religions that have formulated common name, structures and doctrines within Christianity. Such as Catholics, Protestants, Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists, etc. anything that is divided into separate churches and traditions. It is my belief that denominational differences are where the confusion in Christianity begins. There is nothing wrong with these denominations, do not get me wrong, I am referring to the problems that are caused when they get off track and become more focused on rules, rituals and ceremonies rather than God. I feel sometimes that "religion" is killing people. In 2 Corinthians 3:6, Paul said, "The code [of the Law] kills, but the [Holy] Spirit makes alive." There are so many precious people who seek a relationship with God, and the religious community continues to tell them they need to "do" something else in order to be acceptable to Him. The Everyday Life Bible. 2 Timothy 3:5 (AMP) 5 For [although] they hold a form of piety (true religion), they deny and reject and are strangers to the power of it [their conduct belies the genuineness of their profession]. Avoid [all] such people [turn away from them]. Religious People BEWARE-Carefully consider what you are doing when you impose strict rules in Christianity. I am not so sure God would respond positively to those who are not satisfied with the Savior's work at the cross, because they are trying to improve on it by adding their own efforts at law keeping. Law brings a curse on all who break it. It never brings peace to a single soul. You must wear this, sing this, dress like this, read this, you can't go here, stay away from there, oh and be sure to say this memorized prayer... For crying out loud no wonder those religious people are so unhappy. It's like they are miserable and want everyone else miserable with them. They are in prison and wish to put us there with them. No THANK YOU. We humans like our freedom and somehow, for me at least, rules and unreasonable laws tend to make me feel trapped and unhappy. I don't know about you but I need freedom. If you believe that God exist and that the Bible is His Word then you need to ask yourself- what am I going to do about it? If you think religion is your answer -then you will need to understand that God didn't create religion. Jesus didn't die to give us religion - He died to give us a relationship. The Bible expresses that the only way to obtain true salvation - involves one step- JESUS. He offers salvation by grace through faith entirely apart from law-keeping. By believing in Him, receiving Him and repenting from our sins, we experience a rebirth and new beginning. It is at this time that we become Christians or Christ followers. This experience is incredible because when we accept Jesus we receive the power of Holy Spirit of God, the Comforter or Counselor. He lives within us. It is under the guidance of the Holy Spirit we learn to live the Christian life. The existence of the Holy Spirit within us is the Powerful Source that allows us to be capable of doing the things that no human acting independent of God is capable of doing. Such as ending addictions and breaking strongholds in our behavior patterns or even receiving the benefit of physical healing, the list goes on and on. It is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we embrace Christianity and formulate an intimate relationship with God the Father. Jesus died to give us freedom. Freedom from guilt, and sin and the bondage of addictions and unhappiness. John 8:32 (AMP) 32 And you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free. It is only when we set aside the man-made rules and seek a relationship with God independent from the rituals, that tend to distract us, that we experience God in His truest form. We must realize that we cannot share the glory as co-savior by law-keeping. It is then and only then (through His Son, Jesus) that He can transform our lives, from pain, suffering and brokenness to fixed forever. Our relationships should be pure and simple not confused and polluted. Once we get our vertical relationships squared away our horizontal ones tend to follow. Consider establishing or re-establishing your relationship with our Creator today, go to: http://www.westwindministries.org/about_god Written by Cyndi West-Pentiuk © 2009 more >>