Prayer importance

"One of the questions we must ask of our Heavenly Father in private prayer is this: 'What have I done today, or not done, which displeases Thee?  If I can only know, I will repent with all my heart without delay.'  That humble prayer will be answered." (Henry B. Eyring, “Do Not Delay,” Ensign)

STOP SEARCHING FOR HAPPINESS!

I remember a time when I was getting a haircut and someone said, “Will you look at that?”

At first I thought they were looking at my bald head. Instead, they were staring out the window at one of the most spectacular sunsets I had ever seen. Everyone in the place stopped what they were doing and walked outside, aprons and all, to take in that amazing, unbelievable sunset.

It reminded me of what the psalmist David said: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork” (Psalm 19:1 NKJV).

As spectacular as a sunset or a sight like the Alps or some other natural wonder might be, God’s greatest work of art, his greatest masterpiece, his crowning achievement is humanity. The apostle Paul wrote, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (Ephesians 2:10 NLT). The term “God’s masterpiece” also could be translated, “God’s work of art.” God has been working in your life and is still working in your life.

Do you realize how intricate the human body is? Consider these facts. Your nose can recognize up to 10,000 different aromas. Your tongue has about 6,000 taste buds. Our brain contains 10 billion nerve cells, and each of those nerve cells is connected to as many as 10,000 other nerve cells throughout the body. Our body has so many blood vessels that their combined length could circle the planet two-and-a-half times.

God has also customized each of us with our own unique DNA blueprint, which is contained within every single cell. It has been estimated if our individual blueprint were written out in a book, it would require 200,000 pages to contain all of the information there. Of course, God knows about every word on every single page.

Not only that, but God has wired us uniquely with a special desire and drive in life. The Bible says that God has placed eternity in our hearts (see Ecclesiastes 3:11). And because we were uniquely created in the image of God, he has given us this drive, this desire to achieve and do something.

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Do you think you are the only one who, before you go to sleep, dreams of doing something big with your life? Maybe you see yourself as a professional athlete or musician. Maybe you see yourself achieving in the business world or in some other endeavor. You think, One of these days I would like my life to count. I would like to do something significant. God made us that way.

The Bible is speaking approvingly of those who seek the glory, honor and immortality that God offers: “To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life” (Romans 2:7 NIV). There is something in us that says, I want to make my life count. I don’t want to be another blip on the screen, just another statistic. I want to make a difference. God himself uniquely created us that way. We are made by God with an express purpose:

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” (Genesis 1:26–27 NIV)

We have been made in the image of God, and he created us for his glory.

This flies in the face of conventional wisdom. Most people believe the reason they exist is to find fulfillment, to find their own purpose or happiness in life. Whatever it takes, get it, they say. All that matter is you. You deserve a break today.

But I have found that usually the most unhappy people are those who constantly try to be happy. One writer has commented that one of the chief sources of unhappiness is the search for happiness.

Have you ever walked by a bar during “Happy Hour”? Did the people inside look happy to you? We are not going to find happiness in drinking. We are not going to find happiness in drugs. We are not going to find purpose and meaning in sex, especially outside of God’s order, which is marriage. We are not going to find the purpose and meaning we are looking for in life in a great career or in making a lot of money or in what kind of car we drive. We are not going to find it in how great we look. We are not going to find it in any of those things. None of those things will bring us the happiness we are looking for.

The Bible tells us that we should not seek happiness; it tells us that we should seek God instead. If we seek God and put Him first in our lives, we will find the happiness we wanted all along – not from chasing after it, but from chasing after Him.

So seek to live a life that pleases God. One day you will wake up and realize that you are a happy person – not because you only have been thinking about yourself and doing what you want, but because you have been living the way God wants you to live. You have been putting the needs of others above your own needs. You have been trying to do something good with your life and make it meaningful and purposeful. You will realize that you are the happiest you have ever been. This can happen for you if you will get your priorities in order.

First Corinthians tells us, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (10:31). We were created to glorify God with our lives.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/06/stop-searching-for-happiness/#d8sZsGTPPEXZivgd.99 

Licorice Shown To Kill SARS And Other Lethal Viruses

Licorice Shown To Kill SARS And Other Lethal Viruses

Sayer Ji, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

Licorice has a rich and ancient history of use as a medicine, being rooted in Indian, Chinese, Greek and Egyptian traditions, alike. Technically a legume, related to beans and peas, its sweetness results from the presence of glycyrrhizin, a compound 30-50 times sweeter than sugar. This compound is what gave licorice its name, which derives from the Greek word γλυκύρριζα (glukurrhiza), meaning "sweet” (gluku) “root” (rrhiza). But glycyrrhizin’s properties don’t end with its sweetness; it is also one of the most powerful antiviral compounds ever studied.

A study on glycyrrhizin’s inhibitory activity against SARS-associated coronovirus published in Lancet in June of 2003, received little mainstream media coverage, despite its profound importance to human health. Mind you, only a few months before this the World Health Organization issued a press release (April 16, 2003) stating the recent outbreak of lethal Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Asia was caused by the same coronoviruses used in this study. With the world still reeling from global SARS hysteria and “preparedness,” i.e. stockpiling pharmaceuticals like Ribavirin despite their well-known lack of effectiveness, you would think more attention would have been paid to promising research of this kind...

In the groundbreaking Lancet study, titled “Glycyrrhizin, an active component of liquorice roots, and replication of SARS-associated coronavirus,” German researchers summarized their intention in the following manner:
The [recent] outbreak of SARS warrants the search for antiviral compounds to treat the disease. At present time, no specific treatment has been identified for SARS-associated coronavirus infection.
And here is what they found:

We assessed the antiviral potential of ribavirin, 6-azauridine, pyrazofurin, mycophenolic acid, and glycyrrhizin against two clinical isolates of coronavirus (FFM-1 and FFM-2) from patients with SARS admitted to the clinical centre of Frankfurt University, Germany. Of all the compounds, glycyrrhizin was the most active in inhibiting replication of the SARS-associated virus. Our findings suggest that glycyrrhizin should be assessed for treatment of SARS. [emphasis added] View Study Abstract
Licorice’s potent antiviral properties are not limited to SARS-associated coronaviruses, but have also been studied in connection with another epidemic/pandemic capable and potentially lethal virus: influenza.

In an animal study dating all the way back in 1997 and published in the journal Antibacterial Agents and Chemotherapy, titled: “Glycyrrhizin, an active component of licorice roots, reduces morbidity and mortality of mice infected with lethal doses of influenza virus,” researchers found that when mice were administered glycyrrhizin at 10mg/kg body weight (the equivalent of 680 mg for a 150lb adult), they all survived a series of ten 50% lethal injections. The control group, on the other hand, only survived an average of 10.5 days, with no survivors by day 21, the end of the experiment.

Even more remarkable, when the splenic T cells from the glycyrrhizin-treated mice were transferred to mice exposed to the same lethal doses of influenza virus, 100% survived, compared to 0% for the control mice inoculated with naive T cells or splenic B cells and macrophages from glycyrrhizin-treated mice. The researchers discovered that glycyrrhizin’s powerful, life-sparing effects against lethal doses of influenza were a result of the compound increasing interferon gamma production by T cells.

In order to fully understand these findings, we must look at the question of safety first. Licorice is still commonly perceived as a “dangerous herb,” due to its ability to stimulate blood pressure elevations in susceptible individuals when consumed excessively; but considering the relatively higher toxicity of most drugs, this perception must be taken with a grain of sea salt. On the other hand, it is important to exercise caution when using licorice, or any herb, for medicinal purposes, and ideally obtaining the assistance of a medical herbalist who can work with conventional health practitioners, whenever possible.

In the United States glycyrrhizin is still classified as “Generally Recognized As Safe,” when used as a flavoring agent, but not as a sweetener. It has also been removed from most “licorice” candies, substituted with with the similarly-tasting but taxonomically unrelated anise. In the European Union the recommendation is for people to consume no more than 100 mg a day, which is the equivalent of 50 grams of licorice sweets, and in Japan, where glycyrrhizin is often used as a sugar substitute, a recommended limit is set at 200 mg a day. This should give you a sense for what a commonly considered safe, daily dose is, and puts a 600 mg “therapeutic” dose in perspective.

Also, it is important to consider that even when the glycyrrhizin is isolated and concentrated pharmaceutically, its relative toxicity is extraordinarily low, when compared to antiviral drugs like Ribavirin.

According to the federally mandated Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) provided by the manufacturers on pharmaceutically extracted glycyrrhizin and the drug Ribavirin, the former is 30 times less toxic than the later (the mouse oral 50% lethal dose is 9818 mg/kg versus 300 mg/kg for Ribavirin). It is important to understand, also, that when complexed in the whole root or powdered root form, glycyrrhizin will be treated differently by the body. It will be released slower, will have naturally occurring factors which may attenuate adverse effects, and therefore should be considered safer than the MSDS on isolated glycyrrhizin reflects.

Consider, also, that glycyrrhizin is much cheaper...

A 200 mg dose of Ribavirin from an online discount pharmacy costs approximately 4 dollars.

Let’s take a 1 pound bag of Frontier brand Licorice sticks, which costs $10, and which contains approximately 7% glycyrrhizin or the equivalent of 13,440 milligrams of glycyrrhizin per pound. This is also the equivalent of sixty-seven 200 mg servings. If I bought sixty-seven 200mg pills of Ribavirin it would cost me 268 dollars. So, that’s 26.8 times the price of the glycyrrhizin found in licorice. In both cases, the natural compound is approximately 30 times less toxic and less expensive, and let us not forget, in the SARS/licorice study, Ribavirin didn’t even work. So, it is potentially infinitely more effective. Hmmm. I wonder which I would choose if faced with an impending pandemic virus? A drug with low availability, exceedingly high costs and toxicity, and which doesn’t work, versus a time-tested, safe, affordable and highly effective herb?

The reason, of course, why licorice will never be used as an FDA-approved medicine is because it would take at least 800 million dollars of upfront capital to fund the preclinical and human clinical studies necessary to get it to that point.

Find Your Direction By The Moon

The moon rises in the east
If you are lost at night, or simply wish to navigate at night, the moon can be an important indicator of general direction if you understand its shadows and how it moves across the sky.

Here’s how…



These basic principles are for those living in the northern hemisphere, but is is possible to apply these same principles in the southern hemisphere; however, the north and south compass points will be the opposite.

The reason that we can see the moon’s light at night is because it reflects the light of the sun. The relationship of the moon to the sun can help us use moonlight to determine general direction.

Similar to the sun, the moon will appear to move in a east to west direction as it moves across the night sky, so, the moon moves across the sky in an east to west direction, just as the sun does during the day. Watch where the moon first appears in the sky, and watch where it sets, as the moon will rise in the east and set in the west.


The light of the moon (the reflection of the sun onto the moon) will generally be facing west between sunset and midnight (because the sun sets in the west and is where the light source is originating during this time period).

The light of the moon (the reflection of the sun onto the moon) will generally be facing east between midnight and sunrise (because the sun rises in the east and is where the light source is originating during this time period).


Another rough guide for direction by moonlight is the following…

If the moon is in a crescent phase, simply draw an imaginary line or hold a stick through the tips of its “horns” (from one moon crescent point to the other) down to the horizon.

The point where it touches the horizon is roughly South for the northern hemisphere and North for the southern hemisphere. The higher in the sky, the more accurate this method.

Find your direction by the moon