Real Peace at Home

Real Peace at Home by Romulo P. Espina, Jr.

"No real peace at home," is the comment that we often heard from those who are experiencing legitimate unhappiness in their marriage. The US Supreme Court allows divorce as an option. But it is not true that marriage is meant to be a nightmare. The home is life's greatest source of joy and comfort. You are unhappy because of incompatibility. Again, it is not true. Marriage is never the union of two warring kingdoms. Your home is like hell because you are "hell" yourself in your understanding of the wedded state.

I wrote the book "Real Peace at Home" because I experienced great joy and happiness with my family. And it did not happen by chance, but rather by a rigid application of well-proven principles. Mary Kay coined the phrase: "God first, family second, career third." I love her philosophy. "Real Peace at Home" contains a proven formula to keep the family from the breakup.

"Real Peace at Home" by Romulo P. Espina, Jr. is now with Amazon Kindle Store. Here is the link.

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We Will Decide Our Own Heaven or Hell Now in This Life

Our own heaven or hell.

Our destination after death is either heaven or hell. That's our Christian teaching. The good news is that we will be the one to decide our own eternal destination. Jacob, David, Isaiah--these men of God, among others, had made their decision to obey and follow the God of Abraham, the God of the Holy Bible. Judas, on the other hand, turned his back on Jesus Christ. He even decided to betray our Lord Jesus. Judas' own hell-destination was just the result of his own decision. Yes, we will be the one to decide our own heaven or hell now in this life!

Our eternal destination is one that requires both action and affirmation.

As we won't know when death shall snatch away our soul from our body, so we need both action and affirmation that we already have heaven's ticket and that our ride for our eternal journey is ambulance-ready. Now, what action thus do we need to take? Well, first off, we need to know heaven's environment which can be described as the place of God, the city of holiness and peace. In contrast, earth, our present realm, is chaotic, satanic, and awfully sinful. By action we mean our wearing a garment of salvation, a "heaven-suit" or a "suit of holiness." Such suit is priceless, for it is heaven-manufactured. This is how the Apostle Paul had taught us about it in 2 Corinthians 5:2-4:

For indeed in this house [referred to our body] we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent [again, referred to our physical body], we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.

Yes, we will have a "dwelling from heaven," therefore we need to be "clothed," [a heaven-suit, which is definitely unlike NASA's spacesuit!] because our "mortal clothing," (our total being, both spiritual and physical) is going to be swallowed up by immortality.

What is this heaven-suit or clothing we and the Apostle Paul are talking about? As mentioned, heaven is a place of perfect holiness, the kind that we don't possess--even church pastors, leaders, the Pope, don't have such clothing of perfect and heaven-proof holiness. Since we need to act and right now for death is coming as it is just a breath away, then we need to grab one heaven-suit for me and one for you. And action is the only way to grab it. For we must decide our own heaven or hell now in this life--right now!

But how?

We need a heaven-suit or a clothing of holiness and we need it right now, for death comes like a thief in the night.

How to have a clothing of holiness? Well, let's do a little logic here: heaven is holy, but we are not. So how to have a heaven-compliant holiness? [Ask Pope Francis, and he will tell you he's pro-gay!] My simple answer is that I always tried to be perfectly holy, but the power of sin continues to make me a potential candidate to help populate hell. I'm telling you the truth: we cannot be made holy through our own efforts, contrary to the belief of most religious leaders through out the world. Here's the declaration of the Apostle Paul in Romans 7:15-19 about his being imperfect in this life, like you and me:

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.... So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

Our problem is that we don't believe that heaven requires a God-approved suit of holiness (or robe of righteousness), for we want to create our own brand of holiness such as tithing or regular church attendance.

I have this reflection: life is really full of surprises, and death may somehow interfere with our plans and dreams for our life. Yes, it is simply because we don't own our life. Someone Bigger, our living God and Creator, gave it to me and to you as well--and for free!

I watched "Hereafter" on TV and heard one actor in the movie (location: at Paris) saying that death is simply the turning off of the "lights", the unplugging, so to speak. I visited Paris and I noticed our tour guide proudly claiming to be an atheist and that he guesstimated of around 30% of Parisians do have his religious convictions. Whatever religious persuasion do we embrace, the truth is that we will all die, and that the question why and where will we be going is intelligent and thus needing a satisfactory answer.

Certainly, we will decide our own heaven or hell now in this life. Our problem is that we don't believe that heaven requires a God-approved suit of holiness to be able to live there forever.

Life belongs God, even natural food supplements cannot prolong it without Him approving.

While still alive, it is better to take Omega 3 and other natural food-supplement products (drinking alkaline water regularly is proven scientifically to be beneficial to our health!) and to have a regular physical exercise, since modern man's diet and his sedentary lifestyle are factors that have reduced effectively his lifespan on earth. These are all that we can do: have a good sleeping habit, a healthy diet, and a regular physical exercise--the rest belongs to God.

Your life after death therefore, is all yours to decide--and right now!

Since life belongs to God, we therefore need to follow His word in order to be assured of heaven.

We need to act right now, if we don't want to die a hell-assured death. What we need is heaven's suit, which is also termed in Scriptures as the robe of righteousness and the garments of salvation. Observe Isaish 61:10:

I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, My soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

Your life after death requires a robe of righteousness that is Christ's.

Grab eternal life right now for yourself by having heaven's suit or robe of righteousness which is in Christ Jesus, our Savior and Lord, according to the Holy Bible. This is what the Apostle said in 1 Corinthians 1:30:

But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.

The New Living Translation Bible makes an interesting rendering of Romans 4:4-8, which talks about the blessedness of a man whose righteousness was given to him:

When people work, their wages are not a gift, but something they have earned. 5 But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners. David also spoke of this when he described the happiness of those who are declared righteous without working for it:

“Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight. Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of sin.”

Paul said that Christ is our wisdom and righteousness. How to have eternal life then, and now?

The answer is simple: Have Christ by faith, for He is your heaven-approved Righteousness.

By trusting in the Scriptures, accept Christ by faith right now by a simple prayer; the prayer of asking Him to save your soul from hell and forgive you of your sins--and His Spirit will start to dwell in your whole being, if you truly have believed in Him and in what you have asked from Him. Then your body will become God's temple. It happened to the thief. After praying, Christ answered: "Today, you will be with me in paradise."

Do you want affirmation of your eternal destination in heaven? Then come to Christ by faith and experience Romans 8:16: "The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God."

Faith in Christ is the price you need to pay in acquiring heaven's suit, which is your robe of righteousness, your assurance of salvation. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever BELIEVES in Him shall not perish, but have ETERNAL LIFE." (John 3:16).

While permanent residence in heaven is simply our decision to believe in Christ, our destination in hell on the other hand, is simply our decision to reject Christ in our heart. Indeed, we ourselves will decide our own heaven or hell now in this life.

This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life. (Deuteronomy 30:19)

What do you think?

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Are You Facing a Problem Or a Fact of Life?

A problem or a fact of life?

There are problems that don’t have a solution. Death is one example. It ceases to be a problem, for we can do nothing about it. We can preserve a dead body inside a glass coffin as what Imelda Marcos did to her husband Ferdinand (Philippine dictator for 20 years!) for around 22 years. Marcos didn’t wake up until now. I was there at Marcos’ viewable grave. I felt bad inside me, for why make such a disgusting spectacle. Who is he in history books, by the way? Death is a fact of life, not a problem, because it doesn’t have a solution at all!

Being not good-looking is a fact of life and plastic surgery is a temporary solution only to the fact.

If you don’t like your face, your looks-–well, you can have you face changed as what Michael Jackson did to his. To the poorer ones, they say, that if your problem is your face, don’t face the problem! Well, that’s more humor than reality, for you cannot avoid seeing your looks after the invention of the mirror. Being not good-looking is a fact of life and plastic surgery is a temporary solution only to the fact!

The truth is that we are sometimes less victorious with our problems, because the first rule in solving them is acceptance that they indeed exist and that they have respective solutions. For, without a solution, a problem becomes a fact of life, and thus ceases to exist (as a problem).

Most of the time, our problems are just our own making.

The other issue that is of interest is that most of our problems are simply our own making. A man reaps what he sows, says the Good Book.

The sick and twisted doesn't have a problem with his guilt as if his conscience malfunctions. Such is a fact of his riotous life, too.

I think to be truly at peace with ourselves, the first thing that we need to do is to identify what area of our being is susceptible to the harassment of our own guilt. If you don’t feel guilty killing people, for instance, then your keen sense of good moral judgment is defective, hence the prison cell is no problem to you. For you understand that it is always a part of you. Committing a crime is just very natural to you; it is part of your being a killer and a criminal. There is no true peace however to the sinner, even if he has a twisted and sick conscience and a wrestled sense of guilt.

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Why are Good Looking Women Becoming Worthless and Unloved?

Good looking women becoming worthless and unloved.

I have a question: why do most beautiful women seem to be more unloved than most of the seemingly uglier ones? Have you heard of a beautiful woman having no husband, a single mom and unloved? Whereas, her not so good-looking neighbor of her age was loved, and had a husband who's willing to die for her?

My answer is simple: most beautiful women don't understand the dynamics of man-woman (or husband-wife) relationship. What is that? They normally demand value for their beauty, just like selling something that's of good quality. "If you truly love me," demands Miss Beautiful, "you must provide me all my wants. After all, "a thing of beauty is a joy forever" (Keats). Well, that kind of an attitude is acceptable, for behind the success of most women lies beauty, good looks, pleasing personality! But as regards marital union, most beauties are happier as an employee than as a wife, so to speak. For most of them don't understand that men marry for the sake of life partnership, not for the sake of having someone to behold on to, like beholding a diamond ring one wore daily.

Most men prefer a long lasting relationship and partnership, which is more than the lifespan of beauty.

Yes, what would life partnership look like when Miss Beautiful requires her man to "worship" her good looks and loveliness? With all the natural gifts of most movie female superstars--their acting, singing, good looks, popularity--only a handful of them landed a good marriage, and only by sacrificing their career.

Have you heard of this expression: "I buried two husbands already!" This is coming from most widows (mostly old and losing any trace of good looks already!) who understand man's love better than most failed-in-marriage celebrities.

Man's love, I mean the love of a responsible and mature man, is always anchored on life partnership, not on beauty per se. For, marrying a woman for the sake of beauty is just like buying a house for the sake of the paint.

Successful wives never demand value of their beauty but rather on their character.

If your wife is so beautiful and so good a partner, then you're a lucky man, like the man who won a lotto jackpot!

My simple and unsolicited advice to beautiful women is this: submit yourselves to your own husbands and never pretend to be superior to men, for women were created as "help mate" of men. Go to your Bible if you think I am pretending authority on the issue of good-looking-women becoming worthless and unloved.

May I reiterate: Why is it that most beautiful women are either divorcees or simply abandoned or single parents, whereas the uglier ones have men beside them willing to die for them in the name of love? Well, it is because Miss Beautiful is demanding too much value on her beauty, and less value on her character.

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Most Wives are Just Pretending to be Weak and Submissive

The Woman's Ability to be More Patient

It is easier for the woman to understand her husband, than for the man to his wife. One reason lies on the woman's ability to be truly patient, which men don't naturally possess. There is indeed power in patience. That is why most men are easily cowed by their wives in a way so subtle that no husband can easily detect such patience-based wife power.

Wives are Pretending to be Weak and Submissive

I think true peace at home between husband and wife has to start somewhere, perhaps right at the husband's clear understanding of his impulsive manner and on his wife's ability to patiently pretend to be weak and submissive. The Biblical prescription is for the man to understand his wife as a "weaker vessel" and for the latter to be always submissive to him. Most wives don't truly submit to their own husbands, for the simple reason that they are not loved the way they wanted to. Peace at home is elusive if the husband doesn't understand that Eve was created differently, from a piece of man's bone in contrast to Adam's dust-origin.

How to Understand a Woman?

We can truly understand a woman only if we employ scriptural teachings. The woman was tempted first, not the man. There's indeed validity to one survey that wives are more adulterous than husbands in most democratic societies. I should say every husband should keep this in mind: wives are not required by God to love, but only to obey their own husbands. If submission to one's husband is absent, then the monkeying of the wife is always a possibility--most especially if she is good looking and earning more!

We prepared a comment portion for you if you have something to say.

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The Dark Reality Inside Us As Manisfested in Our Confused and Inconsistent Views on What is Right

The Dark Reality Inside Us

Why is it that we are not improving, for example, in our moral values and judgments, in spite of the explosion of knowledge and the endless establishment of school institutions? It seems we don't advance ourselves. We are improving in many aspects of our life as we witness the advent of mobile phones and other technological wonders of our generation. The U.S. has the capability, and we all know that, of waging war from its warships, even without sending troops on the ground. Based on our achievements, our skyscrapers, our computers--we are super humans! Yet, inside us, we are no different from the people of this world 500 years ago—we tend monkey our ways. We are left behind, while all around us are making progress. Survey shows that most convicts and prostitutes alike are diploma holders. Moreover, why do we love to decorate our bodies with tattoos, or at least, approve those actors and actresses wearing them, when this practice belonged only to the unschooled and wicked people from ages long past and forgotten? Why is it that most of our young, particularly movie personalities, would want to portray themselves as being bad and wild people? Why? Why most girls tend to love the bad boys and to frown at the good ones? Who is twisting our minds to love the unlovely, and to do what is tabooed and deemed unnatural and inhuman? Most movies are making lovely actresses as whores and vampires—what’s happening, why are we this squirmed? We seemed confused and inconsistent!

The Reality Inside That Seems Confused and Inconsistent

There’s indeed something wrong somewhere in this world. Most of the Arabs are anti-American, but are more than willing to die for the American brand of democracy. What’s happening to us? If America would send troops to Libya, to let its soldiers die for the freedom of a nation who hated them so much (because of Israel!), the opinion of the region is that the U.S. is interested of Libyan oil. But if America would just fold its hand, people around would begin to say: What kind of a leader is America? What a weak foreign policy?

Even Our Educational System Failed to Give Us Some Light on What is Right

Now, what’s happening to our educational system? There are surveys that show more functional illiteracy yearly in most countries. After graduation, our children tend to act as if they are unschooled—illiterates! Isn’t this phenomenon simply the result of too much modernization—of information overload? There’s indeed something wrong somewhere, indeed.

Our Church Leaders Seem to Love the People More than God's Truth Making Us All the More Confused

Pope Francis of the Catholic Church is one edifice of religious confusion. When asked about gay priests, he answered: "Who am I to judge?" And this is the culmination of Pope Francis most confused philosophy published at huffingtonpost.com:

"God is in everyone's life. Even if the life of a person has been a disaster, even if it is destroyed by vices, drugs or anything else_God is in this person's life."

.

This pronouncement is equivalent to saying that God is a party to sin. On the contrary, the Bible said that Mary Magdalene, during the days of her prostitution, was ruled by 7 demons. (cf. Mark 16:9). This is the common mindset of a leader, religious or otherwise as in the case of President Obama who approved gay marriage, who loves the people more than God. For the Bible says, that Church leaders are ambassadors or spokespersons of God. They should not put words into God's mouth. They should not use a "Who am I to judge" argument, because God has a word for gay people already that they cannot "inherit the kingdom of God." Observe this verse in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10:

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.(NASB)

Conclusion

The dark reality inside us as manifested in our confused and inconsistent views on what is right requires, to use a Bible doctrine, the intervention of God's Spirit who will teach us all truth. Outside of God, we will continue on to deteriorate in the areas of moral standards just like the legalization of gay marriage.

What do you think? May you drop your comments below.

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My AdSense Experience

I am so excited about my new hobby: blogging--telling the world with something that matters! Not only that. I learned we could earn money as we do a blog. A few hours ago I received an email from Google AdSense informing me that my application for an Adsense Account was denied.

I couldn't believe it. I was charged for "invalid clicks" or cybersquatting, as I went deep into the issue. Here's AdSense Team's email to me:

"Thank you for your interest in Google AdSense. Unfortunately, after
reviewing your application, we're unable to accept you into Google
AdSense at this time.

"We did not approve your application for the reasons listed below.

"Issues:

"- Page type

" ---------------------

"Further detail:

"Page type: Your website is a type of website that we do not currently accept into our program. Such websites include, but are not limited to, chat sites, sites that drive traffic through cybersquatting, and sites that use excessive keywords in the content or code of their pages."

I made an appeal, but I don't know if it will be reconsidered.

I wrote somewhere in this blog that life is full of surprises. Why? What really happened, since I am just a 4-day-old blogger? I tried to refresh my memory for the past few hours: I was so excited about the possibility of my putting a "gadget" for related topics on my blog. I want my blog to be full of references; to have more similar articles. The Web is indeed full of "here's the answer" blogs. So, like a child learning to walk, I surfed the Web and added HTML commands, which I gathered, into my blog's layout. The result was Google AdSense rejection of my account.

The worse thing that will always happen to a new blogger is when one starts to tinker things one doesn't understand well. I don't know, for example, HTML and PHP languages, the ones used in the layout; yet I started to toy them as if I was a Web savvy.

I went to ProBlogger for advice, and I could feel the sincerity of Mr. Darren Rowse. And I know there are thousands of bloggers out there, who are just as honest as Mr. Rowse.

I think My AdSense experience is a good lesson to those who are aspiring to be a blogger and earn a living out of writing, out of doing what you've always loved to do all your life---which is writing, yes, writing! I wish to see newbies like me to be extra careful not to offend those institutions that are giving bloggers money. I know it is a win-win scenario for these establishments are also benefiting from the talents of bloggers. The bottom line, however, is that bloggers do not have the ability to cancel a particular AdSense Account. Thus, bloggers have to humble themselves before institutions that have the power to monetize a blog; just like when the proverbial giraffe bent down its neck and feet only to be able to enter Noah's ark.

I know that most Web-master bloggers will not bite my admonition to cooperate with institutions that are giving bloggers money. There are Web experts out there who have hacking abilities. That is why Google AdSense is quite firm and very imposing in its policies. I tried their tricks in my four-day-old blogging by blindly pasting into my layout their "commands, " and the result was cancellation of my account. I'm no Web savvy. I won't swallow hook, line, and sinker their tips again.

Yaro Starak has a coaching program to new bloggers. I think it is wise to walk with blog gurus like him---of course, at a certain amount of money. It is not wisdom for Mr. Starak to give away his hard-earned blog knowledge for free. He is now earning a monthly income of from $10,000 to $35,000; that's something. He is a very successful blogger worthy of following.

I am learning a lot also from Darren Rowse, his story about how he became a very successful blogger.

Blogging is life. And doing it the right way is always the best way if we want a long-lasting success in this career. Both Rowse and Starak told the world their experience being at square one in blogging. I want to tell the world I followed the shortcut method blindly, and for it, I lost my Google AdSense Account.

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