Rebuilding the Biblical Babylon - With US Aid

Saddam Hussein had an obsession. He saw himself as a new Nebuchadnezzar, the greatest monarch of his time.

Nebuchadnezzar II, who ruled over The Neo-Babylonian Empire from ca. 604 BC to 562 BC, built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon , conquered Jerusalem and sent Judah into exile. He is mentioned in several Old Testament books, including the book of Daniel. History knows him as Nebuchadnezzar the Great.

The Bible prophesied the destruction of Babylon. Martin Luther and John Calvin, for instance, thought that these prophecies were completely fulfilled in past upheavals. However, some Bible scholars believe that the destruction of Babylon described in Revelation 18 is yet to be fulfilled.

This seemed to be impossible since until Saddam Hussein began realising his ambition, the only things that remained of Babylon were ruins buried in sand. The Neo-Babylonian Empire was relatively short-lived. In 539 BC the Persians under Cyrus the Great stormed the city.

In 1991 Dr. Charles H. Dyer, Dean of Education at Moody Bible Institute and a Middle-East expert, wrote a book called The Rise of Babylon in which he documented Saddam Hussein's ambitions. Saddam began rebuilding the ancient city near its ruins, copying the architecture of Nebuchadnezzar's time and portraying himself as a new world ruler equal to his role model.

While Saddam is no longer able to realise his ambition, his dream lives on in Iraq. His demise did not put an end to the aspiration to rebuild Babylon.

Recently, Joel Rosenberg, writing for the Bible Prophecy Today blog, reported that the Obama administration is contributing 700 000 U.S. dollars towards "The Future of Babylon Project". Iraqi officials hope the reconstructed city will become a huge tourist attraction and a reminder of the region's former glory.

The plan, if fulfilled, will be a reminder of the reliability of biblical prophecy.

Joel Kontinen is a translator and novelist currently living in Finland. His background includes an MA in translation studies and a BA in Bible and Theology. He likes to keep up-to-date on science news and often comments on creation/evolution and origins issues

http://joelkontinen.blogspot.com/

Motivation - The 3 Aspects of Human Behavior You Must Know to Succeed

Motivation can be defined in numerous ways, but there are two basic definitions or descriptions. It can be defined as the main reason or reasons that individuals partake in a certain behavior, specifically human behavior pursuant to the study of psychology or neuropsychology. It can also be defined as the driving force that initiates and drives an individual's behavior. It is the internal energy that propels us to achieve our goals. Typically, it is considered to be a dynamic state of mind not concerned with personality.

There are three aspects of human behavior that motivation is based and founded in:

1. arousal of behavior
2. direction of behavior
3. persistence of behavior

Arousal of behavior relates to a specific thing that activates behavior whereas direction of behavior relates to what is responsible for directing the behavior. Persistence of behavior relates to how the behavior is sustained.

What drives an individual to be successful is referred to as motive. Usually, all motives fall into one of three categories and are considered to be physiological or psychological in nature:

1. homeostatic motives - hunger, respiration, thirst, etc.

2. nonhomeostatic motives - curiosity about the environment, seeking shelter, etc.

3. learned or social motives - achievement, approval, power, social affiliation, etc

In any endeavor that an individual undertakes, motivation (or the lack thereof) is the key element behind the success or failure of the endeavor. It plays a key role in the workplace where the effective performance of an employee is concerned. Management or supervisory personnel have a direct impact and play a significant role in employee motivation in that they employ different motivational techniques to raise productivity levels. It also follows that this has a direct effect on the cooperation levels between the employer and the employee.

Motivation can also be classified as

1. negative or positive
2. obvious or subtle
3. intangible or tangible

Education or learning is also interrelated with motivation and instructors will oftentimes employ motivational techniques to get their students to learn. It can benefit the student by making them more competent as well as encouraging confidence and the ability to solve problems.

Self-motivation has also been classified into two different types:

1. Extrinsic - generated by external factors

2. Intrinsic - generated by internal sensations and is longer-lasting than extrinsic

Self-motivation is considered to be intrinsic in nature, and originates from an individual's internal drives. It is the basis for overcoming obstacles in the path of achieving one's goals. Additionally, certain external factors are responsible for driving a person into undertaking a new project or to move in a positive direction. Characteristically, self-motivation is comprised of three factors:

1. beliefs
2. desires
3. values

Since an individual cannot rely on others for motivation, self-motivation has to come from within. It plays a key role wherein the individual gathers the courage and strength to achieve certain goals, and is essential for developing new undertakings or making a positive change in one's lifestyle. Training programs have been proven to be the best way to educate oneself in order to improve motivation and self-motivation.

For effective motivational/stress relief techniques, sign up for one of my free ecourses at: Free 30 Day Motivational Ecourse

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Author: Scott Allen Barker

Read and Change Your Life

Most people read a book and if it's good, they might recommend it to someone else, but if the book is great, you can guarantee they will recommend it to everyone who is interested or who they think might be interested in the book. In the field of personal development, one book comes to mind, it's called, "You Can Have It All" by Arnold Patent.

I found the book in one of our antique thrift stores and paid less than $10 for it, I really didn't think much of it and never heard of Arnold Patent before. We've all heard of Anthony Robbins, Susie Orman, Wayne Dyer, but I never heard of Arnold Patent. I skimmed through the book and it looked like a short read. I read the book in about six hours and plan to reread the book, as soon as I get it back for my daughter. The book has short chapters, most of them less than five pages.

Looking at the short chapters, you could get the impression, that there isn't very much information in each chapter, how could there be with less than five pages and some chapters less than three pages. This was very deceiving to me, because each paragraph, was like a chapter and each chapter was like a small book.

The book is full of tools and advice and combines personal development with spirituality. He has chapters on meditation, energy, enjoying what you love to do for the rest of your life, cause and effect, abundance, attachment, pain and suffering, harmony, karma the past and forgiveness.

I can't tell you what a pleasure it was to read this book and if you're looking for some basics on quite a few motivational, spiritual and laws of attraction topics, this book has almost everything you need to get you interested in changing your life. You could actually read one chapter a day and think about it for the rest of the week, there's that much information in each chapter.

I was reading one of his recommendations and it was from Oprah Winfrey, she said, "It was one of the most important books that I had ever read." That's coming from one of the most successful people in the entertainment business. I stumbled across this book and might not have ever found it, but I'm telling you about it and highly recommend it.

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. Check out one of his recommended books, You Can Have It All

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.

Writing Or Evil Influence

Reading Feng Shui Books - Get Great Advice

Quite simply, a different style of living. If you're the kind of person who eats the same food week after week, shops and the same stores and only socializes with a few people, feng shui is probably not something you're going to be interested in. However, if you're someone, who wants to try something different, the Chinese philosophy of feng shui could be something that you, just might be interested in.

Where can you find feng shui books? Of course we all know you can find them at your local bookstores like Barnes & Noble, Amazon and other online sources. Here's something that might be a little new age or something that most people often forget about, how about going down to your local public library. Public libraries are a great source for books and if you don't like them, you never had to pay for them.

Feng shui books have become popular in the last 20 to 40 years and seems to create an environment out of your home. The Chinese have been practicing this for over a thousand years and it almost has a mystical power to it. If you're tired of the same old house and would like a little change in your life, I would suggest using some of the simple methods, suggested in these books.

One $20 book on home building or feng shui, can save you lots of money, if you're willing to do a little research and the labor to complete almost any home building project.

By the way, if you're interested in learning how to repair a roof, build your own house, interior decorating, structural engineering, building a deck, gathering some more information about home painting or even remodeling your bathroom. Our online home building bookstore can save you money if you're willing to do the work.

You can learn a lot by reading feng shui books and I would suggest, that if you're interested in interior design or even spirituality, these books will provide you with the information, you need to create a little change in your life.

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.

A Rich Man To Enter The Kingdom

Spending My Childhood Around Christians

I was born in the 1960s and raised in Southern California, United States of America. During that period of time, and in the area I was raised, there was basically one religion that dominated every aspect of mine and my friends lives. That religion was Christianity. When I was in elementary school, I knew one Jewish boy and he looked different than the Christians and even talk different. He was very smart and spent a lot of his time reading, instead of playing at recess.

There were no Muslims or Hindus and it was a predominantly white environment. The first black students I seen was when I entered the eighth grade and by the time I finished high school, I could count all of the black students I had met on both of my hands. So now you have a pretty good idea of my life, living in a white neighborhood that was 90% Christian.

As you can guessed it, I was raised a Christian, but not a regular Christian, I was a Methodist and proud of it, until my parents got tired of the church elders asking for money or if my father could help build the new church. My father explained to them, that he needed to work to support his family and could only contribute, what ever he could to the church and no more. They were very unhappy and made it uncomfortable for us to go to the church anymore.

Hard to imagine, isn't it. Christians asking for money and then when they don't receive it, getting mad at one of their brethren.

Well it was time to switch churches and we are now going to the Crystal Cathedral Church in Garden Grove California. These people had everything and it was a large church. This was before they built the massive glass structure that is presently the church sanctuary. I enjoy going to this church, because we didn't have to go to Sunday school and got to sit with the adults to worship.

By the time I was 15, neither one of my parents were going to church anymore and my life didn't seem to change that much, even though I prayed every night with my brother. Maybe that was it, I didn't have to go to church as long as I prayed every night... By the time I was 18 years old, I was more confused about organized religion than ever before and this included Christianity.

How can someone kill in the name of God? The Muslims were doing it, the Christians were doing it, the Muslims were fighting the Hindus in India and it all seemed normal. It didn't seem normal to me, when I was supposed to love my neighbor and live a life like Christ who never seemed to start fights or even get mad. Maybe a couple of times, over some money, in the Temple.

I have chosen not to be a part of organized religion. I'd figured out that most of our religious beliefs came from our upbringing. This seems to have brainwashed us into believing we are better because were right and know for a fact, that we have chosen to belong to the right religion. What if were not right?

I want to ask you a question, do you think that other religions are wrong and yours is right? If you really spend some time and think about this, you will see, that your religion is not that different than someone else's and neither was their upbringing. Most religious followers, belonged to the religion of their childhood.

Who Is 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 spiritual videos filled with great movies on a wide array of topics, like religion, self help and spiritual changes in the world.

Dreaming And Outer Body Experien

Is Your God Better Than Mine

If you're part of a religious organization, and were asked this question, "Whose God Is Better" meaning of course, is your God better and stronger or smarter and better looking than the religious competition. Is this something that you believe or were taught while you were young? Obviously you wouldn't think that the Hindu god Brahma is better than Yahweh or Jesus, if you're a Christian. It just wouldn't make any sense to belong to a religion that was weaker than the competition.

It seems like most religions around the world have gods or even one almighty God that is the biggest and baddest god in the neighborhood, maybe even the entire universe.

If we look at the numbers, the Christian God Jesus of Nazareth is the strongest by far. A survey that was done in 2005, showed Christians 2.1 billion strong and growing. With numbers like this, their God must be doing something right. Do you think these numbers are large because of their financial influences in poor countries? Something to think about, how did Christianity become such a large religious institution. They've got plenty of money and pay relatively little taxes. Remember the golden rule, the person with the most gold makes all the rules.

Second on our religious scale are the Muslims, the Islamic religion has over 1.1 billion followers and that puts it at almost half the size of Christianity, but more than doubled the size of the third largest religion by the numbers.

The third largest religion in the world is Hinduism and most of India which is second only to China as the most populated countries in the world are Hindus. Hinduism ranks around 800 million followers.

I'll stop right there. I wanted to give you an idea of religion by the numbers, realistically the Christians and the Muslims believe in the same God but the Muslims recognize Jesus as a prophet and the Christians don't recognize Mohammad at all and Mohammad is the number one prophet for the Islamic religion. But if we put the two of them together, it would be the largest religion by far with almost no competition economically or with military strength.

So to answer our question," Whose God Is Actually Better", I would have to say the Christian God is the most popular and powerful God and the universe. The only problem is, there's no actual proof that Jesus, Mohammed, Yahweh, Krishna or any other supreme being is real. People follow these religions and base almost everything on faith with very little facts that can actually be proven.

I'm not talking about small facts, I'm talking about big ones like, how the world was created, you can choose to believe, anything that you want but until we have some facts or at least something that sounds pretty good, you should probably stop thinking, that your religion is the only way and your God the best. Show some compassion for other religions around the world, their beliefs are no better or weaker than yours.

Hope in Religion

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. Check out one of his recommended books, religious books

What Do Your Goals Say - Self Help Tips

Do you have goals? How to you set things in motion to accomplish your goals? What is your game plan of success? You can either focus on the results or you can focus on the activities you are doing. If you have the right steps in place, you will achieve your goal.

You should be attempting to link your daily steps to your weekly achievements and then to your monthly goals. So that your efforts are always working in your favor.

Set achievable steps - let them have a purpose to your overall goals. You don't want to fall into activity traps. Yes, you are expediting energy, but it is not helping you to reach your goals, You are busy, but to no end.

Use project management software or a system of your own design of checks and balances. You know where you are on your path to goal achievement. Be realistic and know that there will be days when you may not accomplish what you intended, but "get back on the horse" the next day.

Write your goals down and review them. That way you will know if you are making strides to achieve them. Change them where you need, if something isn't working or a new approach becomes known to you. Improve your tactics and make the necessary changes. Success is yours to carve out. Complete at least one goal step each day. Keep adding to your goals. There is always more to achieve. Keep asking yourself, "Is what I am working on leading to the my achieving my goals?" If it isn't, do not waste your time doing it! You are the Captain of Your ship of life.

Gloria-Jean Brown

http://www.CoachingbyGJ.com

Eckhart Tolle