Having a faith in God, a Supreme and Divine Being, a Creator, it may seem a confusing task, so greater is the need for divine relevation and direction from above. Check these figures out below:
Judaism 14 million
Bahá’í and Babi Faiths 7 million
Jainism 4.2 million
Shinto 4 million
Here is what I’ve found….
God is your Father in Heaven (Matthew 6:9). We call God Heavenly Father because He is the Father of our spirits and we are created in His image ( Genesis 1:27).
From the beginning, Heavenly Father has called prophets? to testify, record His word, and provide His plan for His children on the earth. The teachings of prophets are found in sacred? books called scriptures? (Amos 3:7).
In the scriptures God’s plan is called the plan of salvation, the plan of redemption, the plan of happiness. The plan is centered on the Lord Jesus Christ and His Atonement. Throughout time, people have often pondered questions such as “Where did I come from?” “What is my purpose in life?” and “Where will I go after this life?” God has a plan for the happiness of His children: the plan of salvation, which is centered on the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
America’s richest man – Billionaire Warren Buffett said of Network Marketing…
the best investment I ever made
Randy Schroeder asks
Why Network Marketing?
Q. Can Network Marketing be done successfully part-time? A. Absolutely….it’s very common in fact. You can start your Network Marketing business on a part-time basis without giving up your current source of income until your Network Marketing business is generating the income you require. And the best part is that you can continue to operate indefinitely on a part-time basis. What would you do if you were financially independent and most of your time was free to do with as you pleased? This is why so many people are flocking to Network Marketing. And that’s why we say that Network Marketing puts the freedom back in free enterprise!
Q. Do I have to sell products door-to-door or hold parties or meetings? A. No. One of the greatest features of Network Marketing is that success can be achieved using a wide variety of methods. You choose the methods that YOU are comfortable with. Within Agel we use amazing internet technologies so that truly this is a global yet home based business. No delivering products, no collecting money, no party plan meetings! Ahh!
Q. Isn’t Network Marketing one of those pyramid schemes? A. Definitely not. Though Network Marketing and pyramid schemes do share some similarities, there’s a very important difference that makes the latter illegal.
You see, in pyramid schemes, income is generated solely on the process of recruiting others into the pyramid. Sometimes a product or service of questionable value is involved (that is never retailed to the general public by the way), but generally what you’re buying is the right to recruit others into the scheme. This is illegal. Also, in pyramid schemes, those who get in first and who are at the top win, while everybody else loses. In a legitimate Network Marketing company, on the other hand, distributors are paid only on product movement; not on recruiting. Both at wholesale and retail. There’s also compensation based on the training and managing of your marketing team. And unlike illegal pyramids, in Network Marketing, no matter where you’re positioned or when you join, you can advance to the very highest income levels and even make more money than those above you in the network.
Q. I’m not a salesperson, so this probably isn’t for me. A. Actually, studies have shown that people with no sales experience do great in Network Marketing. In fact, the studies show that they often do better than those with previous sales experience. This is because Network Marketing isn’t about selling; at least not in the way most people think of selling. There’s no place for arm-twisting or high-pressure techniques in Network Marketing. Rather, Network Marketing is simply about sharing the concepts and products of your Network Marketing company that you use and you’re excited about.
Q. How much money can I make? A. The bottom line is you’ll get out of it what you put into it. It works…if you do. But that’s the beauty of it, too; you are in control; it’s up to you how far you take it. And don’t forget, the income you create in Network Marketing is residual. This basically means that for the work you do just today, you have the potential to earn money not only for today but for years to come.
Q. Do I have to sponsor a lot of people to be successful? A. No, if you can sponsor just one person every month or two, you can do great in Network Marketing. Bruno Grilo from Portugal after 4 months had sponsored just 16 people into AGEL(with no prior experience), Those 16 family members and friends (including Bruno) were paid out by AGEL $365,000 USD November’07, just 4 months after Bruno had joined AGEL. This is exceptional, but demonstrates what is possible in this industry. See Bruno’s story below:
Q. What’s so important about sponsoring in this business anyway? A. It’s like this… it doesn’t matter how intelligent, rich, energetic, or dynamic you are; we are all limited to the same 24 hours a day. By sponsoring, however, you can overcome this limitation. By sponsoring, you can virtually clone yourself and have dozens, hundreds, even thousands of people all working indirectly on your behalf on their time and receive a cut of everything they do. Sponsoring also builds your security in this business. Why? In most traditional businesses, what happens if you become ill or disabled and are unable to service your customers? Or perhaps you just want to take a nice long vacation? Whatever the case, you could lose most if not all of your income overnight because it relies on you being there. That’s not owning your own life and that’s certainly not financial freedom.
Through the process of sponsoring and building a downline in Network Marketing, however, you can create total financial freedom for yourself. With a downline of independent business people working for you, you no longer have all your eggs in one basket. On the contrary, because each person in your downline has a vested interest in continuing and building their own businesses, you create an income that is non-dependent upon you – an income that can continue, even grow, indefinitely with or WITHOUT you.
Q. Do I have to stock and deliver products? A. Most Network Marketing companies today allow its distributors (and often even retail customers) to order direct from the company. The company simultaneously tracks your commissions, credits your account, and automatically sends you a check for the total amount due.
Q. Isn’t Network Marketing just another “get-rich-quick” scheme? A. No, “get-rich-quick” is a fairy tale. It just doesn’t happen in the real world. Sure, there are a few exceptions, but they’re extremely rare. In fact, if overnight riches is your dream, your odds are probably better playing your state lottery than doing it in business – any business.
Q. I couldn’t get involved in Network Marketing. It’s not a “real” business. A. It’s very real. Network Marketing is now a multi-billion dollar industry involving millions of independent business people and major U.S. corporations like Colgate-Palmolive, Gillette, Sprint, and MCI, just to name a few. And it’s a rapidly-growing international force, too, with thousands of Network Marketing companies already in operation in Canada, Mexico, Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Basin.
Q. If Network Marketing is so great, why aren’t more people involved? A. That can be summed up in one word: misconceptions. The general public just doesn’t understand what Network Marketing is or its potential. But that’s finally starting to change. Right now it’s estimated that only about 2% of the U.S. population is involved in Network Marketing. But industry experts predict that that number could climb to 10% by the end of this decade. You can position yourself to take advantage of this trend by getting started in Network Marketing now. The timing is great for getting involved!
Q. What are the costs involved in starting and operating this kind of business? A. Virtually all Network Marketing companies require you to first purchase some kind of “Starter Kit.” This is a one-time cost, and is usually less than $100. In addition, of course, you’ll have monthly expenses for office supplies, postage, advertising, etc. A total of $50-$150 dollars per month is probably a realistic expenditure to expect. Anyone can afford this amount of money without jeopardising their current lifestyle while they’re trying to build a better one. And here’s some more good news — most, if not all of that, is tax deductible.
Q. What if I can’t afford to buy extra products. A. You’re not supposed to. Network Marketing companies just want you to replace those products you now buy elsewhere with the equivalent-but-higher-quality products your Network Marketing company manufactures. By doing so, you’ll likely save money since you now get to buy at wholesale. Plus, it only makes sense to buy from yourself — to buy from “your own store.”
Q. I’ve tried Network Marketing before and it didn’t work for me. A. Let’s say you’ve just moved into a new city and you decided to go out to eat that evening. Unfortunately, the food at the restaurant you picked turned out to be horrible. But just because of this one bad experience, you surely wouldn’t swear off eating at all the other restaurants in the city, would you? Of course not! Network Marketing is no different. There are fair NNetwork Marketing companies, great Network Marketing companies, and, yes, even some bad Network Marketing companies. But Network Marketing works! You just need to link up with the right company and the right opportunity at the right time. See MLM RockStars.
Q. I don’t have the cash right now to get involved in Network Marketing. A. Get it! If a brand new $60,000 Mercedes were offered to you for $1000, would you find the money somehow to buy it? Go and get the money because your own Network Marketing business could be worth a lot more than that Mercedes.
Q. I can see how others have become successful, but I don’t think I could do it. A. People of every age, every background, from every walk of life are making it in Network Marketing today. If you have the desire, you can succeed in Network Marketing.
Q. If I would happen to be sponsored by someone half way across the country, how do I get questions answered? And what about training?
A. Free consultation and assistance from your sponsor, other upline associates (and often the corporate staff of your Network Marketing company) is a phone call away. Faxes, E-Mail, Voice Mail, and other new technologies also provide fast and efficient communications between upline and downline…no matter where they’re located. As for long-distance training, this is easily handled through video training CD’s, audio taped seminars, books, online computer and telephone conferences, etc.
Q. I just don’t have the time to start a Network Marketing business. I’ve got too many irons in the fire already.
A. That’s precisely why you should consider Network Marketing. Besides creating financial freedom, Network Marketing is specifically designed to create personal freedom for you so that you can do all the things in life you really want to do that you don’t have the time for now.
Q. Don’t you have to get in at the beginning to make any real money? Doesn’t saturation eventually occur? A. That’s another big misconception that’s been perpetuated by the media for years. The fact is, there has never been any evidence produced that “saturation” occurs in Network Marketing. This very topic was debated in U.S. courts at one time and that was the conclusion by the courts.
Secondly, realise that because Network Marketing is still a very young industry, there are hundreds of millions of prospects worldwide who have never even heard of Network Marketing. It will take years to even make a dent in that.
But here’s the main reason why “saturation” is a myth: Timing. In the U.S. alone, there are tens of thousands of brand new prospects “hatched” every year.
Part of that figure is young adults who have only just reached the stage in their lives where they’d consider (and could afford) to start a business. Then there are the thousands who have just experienced a major shift in the direction of their lives because of changes at work, at home, etc. These same people, who just months before could in no way, shape, or form be considered prospects for Network Marketing, NOW are suddenly very open to the proposition. And this is happening constantly. Bottom line: The market is wide open and the potential is enormous.
This picture was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. A wonderful scripture comes to mind…
And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose; and by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten. (Moses 1:33)
This image above when it first came through from the Hubble telescope and their newly installed Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) way back in April 2002 quickly became known as ‘The Hand of God’ because of it’s finger like nature, before I continue on Life’s 3 Big questions and how when you look at such an image our own purpose on this earth comes into our minds, more on what this is, the scientific part if you’re interested…
This is the Eagle Nebula, also know by the designation M-16, it’s part of an enormous interstellar cloud of dark, cool gas and dust in the Constellation Serpens, some 7,000 light-years from Earth. These magnificent pillars reveal the birth of dozens of stars. The pillars are made of gas and dust, and sculpted by intense radiation from very hot, bright nearby stars. Protruding from these pillars are small “fingers.” Buried within the tips of many of the fingers are stars that are still forming. As the gas and dust evaporate, the stars are unveiled. Radiation evaporates the gas and dust, and that radiation creates these surreal looking shapes. The largest of these pillars is about one light-year in length.
To give this some perspective, one light year is the distance that a beam of light would travel in one year, going at the speed of light, which is approximately 186,000 miles per second! 186,000 miles would be the equivalent of circling the Earth about seven and a half times. Now, imagine that distance spread out in a straight line. That’s how far light travels in one second! Now, imagine how far the light could travel in 31,536,000 seconds (one year) – almost 5 quintillion, 866 quadrillion miles! That’s 5,866,000,000,000 miles!! It’s a distance so vast that it’s hard to fathom! That’s the height of the large pillar in this photo! That would equal 60,000 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun! To travel one light year in the fastest space ship we have today (25,000 mph), it would take us a mere 17,000 years! Keep in mind, the Eagle Nebula itself is 7,000 light years away from us!
I love looking at such images, another example is the Cone Nebula below, are these truly not just beautiful?
So where does this leave us in the grand scheme of things?
The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator. (Alma 30:44)
Another favourite scripture I enjoy is again from Moses:
And were it possible that man could number the particles of the earth, yea, millions of earths like this, it would not be a beginning to the number of thy creations. (Moses 7:30)
Life’s 3 big questions?
When we face the difficulty of loosing someone close to us, many will wonder is there more? I’m grateful for the peace and knowldge that I have in my life.
In developing the theory of relativity, Einstein realised that the equations led to the conclusion that the universe had a beginning. He didn’t like the idea of a beginning, because he thought one would have to conclude that the universe was created by God.
Einstein spoke of the laws of nature pointing to an Infinite Mind that to him represented the true nature of God.
“Every one who is seriously engaged in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that the laws of nature manifest the existence of a spirit vastly superior to that of men, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble…”
Einstein continued
“My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details that we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble minds. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.”
I always think if someone as smart as Einstein who constantly discovered things about the Universe concluded that there had to be a God, we ought to wake up and consider the possibility he was right!
Several scriptures suggest that the way we perceive time on earth may not be the way time really is throughout the universe. Alma 40:8 suggests that only men measure time and that to God all time is as one day. Other scriptures suggest that all things are present before the Lord (see D&C 38:2; Moses 1:6). Verses 4–7 in section 130 suggest a similar concept, namely that past, present, and future are continually before the Lord and that time is relative to the planet on which one resides.
Einstein postulated that what men had assumed were absolutes in the physical world – space, gravity, speed, motion, time – were not absolutes at all but were interrelated with each other. That is why the theory was called the theory of relativity. Physicists now agree that a person’s time reference will vary depending on his relative position in space.
According to Einstein’s theory, if a body moves at very fast speeds (those approaching the speed of light, which is 186,000 miles per second), that body’s time slows down in relation to the time of a body that is on earth; and for the body in motion, space contracts or shrinks. In other words, time and space are not two separate things but are interrelated. Physicists refer to this as the space-time continuum. If an astronaut were to journey out into space at speeds approaching the speed of light, though to himself all would seem perfectly normal, to someone on earth it would appear as though his clock were ticking slower, his heart were beating slower, his metabolism operating slower, and so on. He would actually age more slowly than would a person who remained on the earth. Though the finite mind tends to reject such concepts, Einstein’s theory suggests that reality to us is a product of our relative position in the space-time continuum.
According to this theory, if a being achieved the speed of light, to that being all space would contract to the point that it would be “here” for him, and all time would slow down until it became “now” for him. The theory of relativity thus may suggest how, for a being of light and glory like God, all space and all time could be present. As difficult as such a concept is to understand, increasingly sophisticated experiments continue to substantiate Einstein’s theoretical description of the realities of the universe.
Lael Woodbury, dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communications at Brigham Young University, talked about man’s perception of time and God’s perception of time in an address sponsored by the Church Educational System:
“The evidence suggests that God . . . perceives time as we perceive space. That’s why ‘all things are before him, and all things are round about him; and he is above all things, and in all things, and is through all things, and is round about all things’ [D&C 88:41]. Time, like space, is ‘continually before the Lord.’ . . .
“. . . Right now we perceive music in time as a blind man perceives form in space—sequentially. He explores with his fingers, noting form, texture, contours, rhythms. He holds each perception in his mind, one by one, carefully adding one to the other, until he synthesizes his concept of what that space object must be like. You and I don’t do that. We perceive a space object immediately. We simply look at it, and to a certain degree we ‘know it. We do [not] go through a one-by-one, sequential, additive process. We perceive that it is, and we are able to distinguish it from any other object.
“I’m suggesting that God perceives time as instantaneously as we perceive space. For us, time is difficult. Lacking higher facility, we are as blind about time as a sightless man is about space. We perceive time in the same way that we perceive music—sequentially. We explore rhythm, pitch, amplitude, texture, theme, harmonies, parallels, and contrasts. And from our perceptions we synthesize our concept of the object or event—the musical artwork—that existed in its entirety before we began our examination of it.
“Equally complete now is each of our lives before the Lord. We explore them sequentially because we are time-blind. But the Lord, perceiving time as space, sees us as we are, not as we are becoming. We are, for him, beings without time. We are continually before him—the totality of our psyches, personalities, bodies, choices, and behaviors.” (Continually before the Lord, Commissioner’s Lecture Series [Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1974], pp. 5–6.)
Einstein’s theory is only a theory, although it is being substantiated again and again as a valid representation of reality. How God operates through the vastness of space and the eternity of time has not been revealed in specific detail, but what information man has been given can be harmonised with what physicists are discovering about the interrelationship of space and time.
How many of us are listening to the Radio Station in our heads – Radio WIIFI ?
- “What’s In It For Me?”
This is the world we live in, it’s a ‘dog eat dog’ philosophy, given my first blog entry about the amount of dog crap appearing in our neighbourhood, perhaps the ‘dog eat dog’ idea wouldn’t be so bad after all
We have hectic lives and often the mentality is prevalent of “what does that do for me”, or “what do I get out of this?”
As this befits the ‘me-me-me’ age we live in but we can do more, reaching out and do something for others, volunteering, being actively involved in our communities we can get as much out of giving our time as those we help.
I’ve always believed the giver receives back far more and that is a principle for which humankind should strive to live our lives. Yes, I’m a dreamer, but there have been times upon the earth’s history when utopian’s societies have existed.
Ancient records indicate pre-Mayan or Aztec civilisations which existed a period of almost 200 years, ending approximately 1800 years ago when several generations lived in complete peace and harmony. There was no greed, no poor and no pride, just a utopian society living in absolute peace. You may wonder what happened to this idyllic society of people…. more on that another time, it’s pretty grim though!
My message for the day is next time you feel like taking – think Pay it Froward, just like the movie, give to others, help those who can’t help themselves. Do more, Be More and ultimately you will have more.
The more you help others have what they want in life, it seems the more you find joy in achieving what you want!
Make a difference in someone’s life today; bring about a smile from the many sad faces we see around us daily.
