Are you in a constant financial struggle and juggle where there never seems to be enough? Do you wonder if God is able to or even willing to provide for you? Are you constantly paying bills and covering debt payments without seeing much progress? Are you faithful in tithing and giving but yet you cannot see on outpoured blessing?

Then this book is here for you. Financial Empowerment discusses the problems we face in different areas of our finances and shows how to manage money in a God-pleasing manner. In a simple easy-to-read manner, it provides biblical and practical solutions to personal financial management.

Financial Empowerment is a fresh look at how you see your finances and how to deal with them effectively.

Get ready to be empowered as you honor God in managing your financial resources. As you give eternal value to your money, God will continually bless you.

As our faithful blog readers, we wanted to let you know first about the official book launch of Four Given. Four Given will be launched online through many blogs and websites from Sept 1 to Sept 14 via the John316 Christian Network. 

To celebrate the launch, not only has the Kindle version of Four Given been reduced to just 99c for this period, but you can also win a Kindle Fire and other prizes (see below).

We NEED YOUR HELP. The objective is to try and get Four Given to move to the top of it's categories in Amazon. The way to do this is as many sales as possible during as short a period as possible. So please could you help by doing any of the following:

• Buy a copy (or more) for just 99c - even if you have a copy, you can pass it on via Amazon as a gift.
• Share the news of the launch by posting these Tweets on Twitter, Facebook or anywhere else you can.

Is this the next "The Shack"? Described as:"anointed","amazing","work of art". Get Four Given, just 99c till 9/14 - bit.ly/Christian_Books
 
LOST? ALONE? EMPTY? Read Four Given, described as:"anointed","work of art" for just 99c till 9/14 - bit.ly/Christian_Books
 
Do you hunger for a closer, deeper more intimate relationship with Jesus? Get Four Given, 99c till 9/14-bit.ly/Christian_Books
 
Described as:"Amazing","anointed” Four Given reveals a mystery hidden in the very name of God. Just 99c till 9/14 - bit.ly/Christian_Books
 
“Great is the mystery of Godliness”–Discover a life-changing mystery inside God’s name. Get Four Given, 99c till 9/14-bit.ly/Christian_Books
 
Forget the #daVinci Code, this is God’s code, hidden inside His Name. Discover a life-changing secret -Four Given, 99c till 9/14 - bit.ly/Christian_Books

Or share this post to our launch video:
You have to watch this - And then you really MUST read the book. Just 99c till 9/14 - http://bit.ly/itsamess

As you know, the journey to God starts with an open hand, and we will be giving 50% of all sales away to a charity that works in Africa with disadvantaged people, especially children, orphans and disabled.

Drop the kids at school, go to the shops, do the accounts, sort out the plumbing issue, phone mom about the dinner plans...and all that before 10am! - That's modern day life. Hectic. Rushed. No time. And we wonder why Twitter, with its short posts, has become so popular - people interleave social media in small chunks between the rest of life. It's sad in a way that we no longer have time to read long, well written blog posts, or books - but there just is no time. 

Yet besides the rush of it all, places like Twitter have taught us something valuable - say what you want to say and move on! Cut out the padding and get the message across. And so we have learnt how to get to the point - afterall you just have 140 characters. And maybe herein is an important lesson. We live in a society that is growing bigger on every front - weight, cars, homes, phones, TVs...and even the Gospel. The Gospel needs more music, more effects, more shows - and I enjoy all of this - but are we missing out on what Paul said? He spoke of the WWW Gospel - The Gospel Without Wise Words. 

Paul said his "message and preaching were not with wise words" (1Cor 2:4-5) - the Gospel is a power that is not in our words, or our music, or our show, but as he continues, "...but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power."

We intend to do exactly that! To cut down. To say what needs to be said. To share the powerful, life changing Good News in simple 10 second movies. The power lies not in our wise and many words, but in the Spirit's power. In just 10 seconds a message can be shared, in just 10 seconds change can begin. 

We would like to introduce you to our new ministry - what we are calling Micro Message Ministry. Using between 10 and 15 second videos we will be sharing the Good News of the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus. We are excited to say that our first two movies are done and ready for you to watch. You can see them here. That's less than 30 seconds of your day to watch two powerful messages!

We hope to put out many more as we believe that this is a powerful, simple way to touch lives, using modern technology, but God's simple, life changing messages. Please share them with others - what a great gift to pass on, a 10 second spiritual lift!

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when dreams come true at last, there is life and joy. (Proverbs 13:12)

What does it mean to be adopted? As I look at my two beautiful, internationally adopted daughters, the definition becomes living and full of personal meaning, not just a two-dimensional word on a written page. Maybe what I want is not so much a definition as an understanding of the depths of its meaning on a spiritual level—the act itself of love, sacrifice, cost, and inheritance.

Today my children are ten and seventeen years old and as American as any other child born in this country. We live in middle class suburbia, I drive a “mommy van,” our refrigerator is full of too much junk food, my kids wear J.C. Penney clothes, and sleep on comfortable flannel sheets and memory foam pillows. Manisha has Christian teenage friends who come over and watch action-packed movies on our high definition, forty-eight inch television screen, and Joy competes at level seven on a girls’ gymnastics team. We are living the American dream. On the surface, we seem “ordinary,” but in reality, we are quite to the contrary.

My two children were orphans from third world countries. They came from destitute backgrounds without hope, clinging to a miserable existence. I asked my 17 year old daughter, “What does it mean to you to be adopted?”

“It means I didn’t grow in my mommy’s stomach but in her heart,” she responded.

Sometimes when we decide to write a book, it’s because there isn’t a book on the bookshelf that addresses what we want to read. I wanted to understand what it meant to be adopted by my heavenly Father. I searched the Scriptures for all the passages on adoption and thought about what it meant for me personally. The more I thought about it and looked for material, the more I realized how little extra-Biblical literature existed.

I prayed about writing my own book and started writing, but as I wrote, I realized I had to tell my own story. I imagined a beautiful book of how we became a family because I wanted to encourage others to pursue their own dreams of adoption. I wanted it to be a story of hope and fulfillment, but God’s adoption of us and the adoption of my children aren’t just beautiful adoption stories in the sense that most of us would think of as beautiful.

Mine is the story of the struggle to create a “forever family” as I endured lies, betrayal, sickness, delay, deceit, deception, greed, corruption, suffering, fear, abandonment, and sacrifice. Eventually, through perseverance and dependence on God, I received fulfillment. It soon became clear to me that the adoption of my children wasn’t that different from God’s adoption of us.

Jesus gave His life for us by paying the ultimate sacrifice at great cost to Himself—suffering on a cruel Roman cross after being abandoned by His closest friends and even God Himself. He suffered every human emotion that I had suffered, but even more so, and without sin.

Perhaps I did accomplish what I wanted, but just not in the way I had originally envisioned. I get teary-eyed when I think about it because I know what heartache and suffering I went through, which pales in comparison to what God has done for us. He has given me a great gift, because I am able to see how much God loves me through the adoption of my children.

In heaven, the Lamb will stand before the throne, in the midst of thousands upon thousands of angels, illuminating us with His holy presence. Only when Jesus breaks the seven seals and opens the scroll, which is the deed to the earth and all its inhabitants, will our entitlement be revealed.

The adoption of my two children was a hard-fought battle—trusting God, forgiving others, and fighting forces of evil that wanted to destroy me. Ephesians 6:10 states:

Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

My earthly journey of adoption not only gave me the “Children of Dreams” I longed for, but it has shown me the inheritance awaiting us when we arrive in heaven through God’s adoption of us. My story begins many years ago….