There is no better time than right now to ditch that hideous, unhealthy morning routine full of sugar and carbs and switch to the morning nourishment that is the complete and polar opposite: Bulletproof Coffee.

If you haven’t tried it, I urge you to hop on board and see if after a month or so you don’t notice a difference in your energy level and brainpower. And you may even drop a few pounds.

Perhaps you’ve heard of it. People in health circles have been raving about Bulletproof Coffee for a couple of years. It has caught-on like wildfire, simply because people who try it, such as myself, simply love it.

The taste is better than a mocha milkshake and the feeling you get from it is the combination of energy plus mental clarity. To top it all off, it’s absolutely fantastic for your overall health. What’s not to like?

People with high-powered jobs, such as entertainers and politicians, who simply must be on their game at all times can’t do without their Bulletproof Coffee because of the brain focus and energy it gives them.

But when it comes down to it, don’t we all want and need that?

So what is Bulletproof Coffee? It’s an invention that comes from many years of research by health expert Dave Asprey. He discovered the basic truths about why this is so beneficial while he was hiking in Tibet, where people were drinking a version of what later became Bulletproof Coffee.

Bulletproof Coffee doesn’t start with your typical cup of Joe. You must use primo coffee beans, the type that are free from the toxins that plague so much of the coffee you buy at the store … even the “gourmet” kind that are compromised by processing.

The wrong coffee zaps your energy and leaves your feeling irritated. If you feel like you “can’t tolerate” coffee, you are probably drinking the wrong kind. Remember coffee is good for you because it contains vital antioxidants.

Then you add UNSALTED (important), GRASS-FED (important) butter. Kerrygold happens to be my favorite brand, and I recently noticed Walmart sells it! Grass-fed butter means the cows eat grass, not corn, so the end result is much healthier for you.

Butter, particularly grass-fed butter, is a healthy fat I’ve talked about so much and is a product that’s continually gaining popularity and credibility within the nutrition community. You shouldn’t have any trouble finding it at your grocery store. As I said, even Wal-Mart carries it, and other higher-end stores have a larger selection. Oh, and you will looooooove the flavor!

After the coffee and the unsalted, grass-fed butter, you add wonderful MCT oil. MCT stands for Medium Chain Triglyceride. These are the fats that are the key ingredient in coconut oil, which I’ve reported about for so long now. Coconut oil, and these medium chain triglycerides have been linked to improved cognitive function in people with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, ALS, Parkinson’s disease and so on.

MCT oil is true brain food. Asprey calls his “high octane.” I love that. It says it all. He claims it offers 18 times the power of regular coconut oil.

So you take the toxin-free coffee, the grass-fed butter and the MCT oil and whip them up all frothy in the blender and you have the very best way to start your day. It’s so delicious!

It blows those expensive, sugary lattes out of the water! You will be full of energy, fully focused, clear in your thinking and full in your tummy so you won’t be craving food for hours.

Also, since you nixed the carbs and sugar that are the staple of the typical American breakfast, you won’t have to suffer through that inevitable energy drop that comes when the sugar spike wears off.

Hello Bulletproof Coffee … Goodbye emotional roller coaster.

Lots of us like to doctor-up our Bulletproof Coffee. For instance, I add a pinch of pure ground vanilla to mine. I have heard of people adding ground cocoa, even two eggs or three egg yolks for a richer beverage that contains even more healthy fat, not to mention protein.

Bulletproof Coffee is a key lifestyle change for those of us who have adopted low-carbohydrate, Ketogenic or Paleo diets. The idea is to bump up those healthy fats and forego sugar and grains.

So here is the actual recipe from Dave Asprey’s website. Remember, you can tweak it a bit. For instance, I make mine in a drip coffee maker, add more butter (4 TBSP) and a pinch of ground vanilla.

By the way, if you’re not used to coconut oil or MCT oil, you may need to start small, like with one teaspoon, and gradually work your way up, or you might have a stomachache at first.

Bulletproof Coffee Recipe

1. Brew 1 cup (8-12 oz.) of coffee, using filtered water just off the boil, with 2 1/2 heaping tablespoons of freshly ground Bulletproof Coffee Beans. (French Press is easiest.)
2. Add in 1-2 tablespoons of Brain Octane™ to the hot coffee (It’s STRONG—start with 1 tsp. and work up over several days).
3. Add 1-2 tablespoons grass-fed, unsalted butter or ghee.
4. Mix it all in a blender for 20-30 seconds until it is frothy like a foamy latte.

A while back, I posted a list of “10 Things Wives Want to Hear from Their Husbands,” and it was so popular that we followed that up last year with another post of “10 More Things Wives Want to Hear from Their Husbands.“

I thought it might now be helpful to share with you things a husband should never say to his wife. So I went to iMOM Facebook and asked the wives that follow us to tell us one thing they do not want to hear from their husbands. Here are nine things you should never say to your wife based on the top Facebook responses—with a few that I’ve added based on what the women in our office shared with me:

1. “Calm down. Relax!” Several variations on this theme, like “chill out,” made the point loud and clear. When our wives are upset about something, these phrases are not helpful. This can come across as belittling of their stress and the issues that cause the stress.

2. “What’s wrong now?” Words like this, or worse yet, like “What’s wrong with you?” strike a nerve because they treat our wives like they are a problem to fix or a machine to control. These phrases lack empathy and also risk demeaning our wives or the situations that concern them.

3. “What were you thinking?” There’s a theme here. The ladies are trying to tell us something, men. Sometimes the words we use sound more appropriate for a prosecuting attorney or a kindergarten teacher. This phrase is belittling. It only serves to convey the assumption that very little thought, or good thought, went into her decision. It certainly does not build her up.

4. “What did you do all day?” Here’s yet another example of how assumptions and ignorance can lead to disrespect and pain. When we say these condescending words, particularly to a mom who works full time at home taking care of the kids, we show how little regard we have for their contributions inside and outside the home—especially compared to what we do.

5. “Is it that time of the month?” I probably don’t need to explain this one too much. Men, whether it is “that time of the month” or not, I would encourage you not to say it.

6. “I don’t love you anymore.” Saying something like this pierces the heart of a woman and will not be forgotten. Remember, love is not just a feeling, it’s a decision. Choose to love your wife for life.

7. “Are you going to eat all that?” Ouch. When you say that, you’re basically telling your wife she is fat. Not a good idea.

8. “Get off my back … you’re always nagging me.” Whether she’s nagging you or not, saying this is not going to make things better. The better course of action would be to sit down with her and explain in a kind way how the things she says bother you and make you feel.

9. “You’re just like your mom!” This is usually said in a derogatory way. When said, you’re not only insulting her but also her mom, your mother-in-law.

If you’ve said one or more of these things to your wife, you might also benefit from reading this: “5 Toxins of the Tongue that Can Poison Your Marriage.” Let’s guard our tongues with our wives as much as we guard our money, time and other resources. What we speak can do so much good, but in a few short words, we can do so much harm. Let’s use our words to build up not tear down.

What other phrases have you discovered that cause more hurt than help in your marriage? Share them below in our comments so we can all learn from each other!

Mark Merrill is the president of Family First. For the original article, visit markmerrill.com.

After my first go at a “high-intensity” CrossFit workout three years ago, I thought to myself, I have no idea how I survived that. I thought my body would fail.

After I suddenly lost my dad on a beautiful August evening five years ago, I thought to myself, “I have no idea how I survived that.“ I thought my spirit would fail.

We’ve all been through intense situations and lived to tell about them. The question I have for you in this article is:

How would you react if an intense situation presented itself to you today?

“Intensity” is defined as “extreme strength, force, energy or feeling; the degree or amount of strength or force that something has.”

When we call a roller coaster “intense,” we’re referring to its scream-eliciting speed, the bone-rattling force of its twists and turns and sudden stops, and its heart-pounding vertical drops. We often step off of the ride, waddle a few steps, and say with stammering lips, “Well, I survived …”

When a film critic speaks of an actor’s intensity, he’s likely referring to the actor’s ability to powerfully convey heavy emotions, such as anger, outrage, melancholy and determination. In the first example, intensity is felt bodily; in the second, it’s experienced emotionally or spiritually. (Of course, emotions can indeed cause physical symptoms, such as sweating, fatigue, appetite loss, etc.) But both can accurately be described as “intense.”

Returning to the question I posed to you above, intense situations are unavoidable. They’re part of life, part of the curse of this earth until Jesus comes again to wipe away every tear and restore all things. There are a myriad of ways to respond to crises and tragedies, from letting yourself become a veritable ball of paralyzed, self-pitying mush, to turning inward, closing yourself off and barricading your heart for fear of feeling it break again. But as unnerving, sad, destructive and devastating as intense experiences can be, each one possesses a unique and extraordinary beauty, hidden like diamonds formed in a meteorite’s crater.

Unfortunately, too many of us don’t take the time to dig for the diamonds; we’re too busy checking our vitals, dusting ourselves off and moving as far away from the impact site as possible. So the diamonds lie undiscovered … their brilliance never beheld. I’m so glad I didn’t give up on CrossFit after I thought its intensity might make me keel over. And I’m grateful I looked to the Lord to help me find diamonds after I lost one of my dearest treasures, my father.

There are dozens, perhaps hundreds of ways to exercise, from aerobics to Zumba—even boot throwing, which turns out to be quite a popular sport in Finland, according to a trivia game I played recently. But lately, mounting research is showing that the ideal form of exercise is something known as “H.I.I.T.”—”high intensity interval training.”

A H.I.I.T. workout alternates between intense bursts of activity and fixed periods of less-intense activity, or even complete rest. An example is sprinting for one minute and then jogging or walking for two minutes. Repeat that three-minute interval five times for a very efficient, highly effective 15-minute workout.

The benefits—we’ll call them “diamonds”—of H.I.I.T. training are many:

• Little to no equipment required
• Short duration
• Provides health benefits you simply cannot get from regular aerobics, such as a tremendous boost in human growth hormone (HGH), aka the “fitness hormone”
• Leads to significant reductions in total abdominal, trunk and visceral fat, but also can give you significant increases in fat-free mass and aerobic power
• Improves cardiovascular endurance
• Promotes weight loss without muscle loss
• Boosts metabolism thanks to the increased production of HGH

High-intensity exercise, like CrossFit, is tough. But like you read above, the rewards make it more than worth it. The same goes for the “spiritual intensity” that crashes into our lives like a fireball from out of the blue. See what God has to say about the beauty of pain this side of Heaven:

“Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way” (James 1:2-4, MSG, emphasis mine).

“Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory” (1 Peter 1:7, MSG).

Whatever you’re going through, be it a long, arduous run, a grueling sweat session at the gym, or a family crisis or job predicament that’s brought you to your knees, I urge you to dig for the diamonds. I encourage you to let the Bright and Morning Star illuminate them for you. I challenge you to walk away from the rubble stronger and more radiant than ever … to see—to become—the beauty of intensity.

Stay fit, stay faithful.

Diana Anderson-Tyler is the author of Creation House’s Fit for Faith: A Christian Woman’s Guide to Total Fitness and her latest book, Perfect Fit: Weekly Wisdom and Workouts for Women of Faith and Fitness. Her popular website can be found at dianaandersontyler.com, and she is the owner and a coach at CrossFit 925. Diana can be reached on Twitter.

For the original article, visit dianaandersontyler.com.

Everything seems so perfect the day of a wedding. There is dancing, celebration and the dream of a wonderful life together. Everyone expects their marriage to last forever.

Having a relationship that lasts is hard and takes work. People get hurt, problems fester or perhaps someone wanders into the arms of another. No one expects that divorce will find their marriage—their home. However we have all seen the statistics. It is brutally painful to see a marriage end, let alone experience one. The situation is intensified when kids are involved in the equation.

Children experience the most pain in a divorce. They have no control over anything and have little understanding of the why it is happening. It’s confusing, complicated and difficult to explain. The intent here is not to debate whether or not divorce is ever appropriate, but how to explain divorce to a child.

Be Together

This discussion needs to happen all together. Make sure everyone is present. Anytime parents are not unified, it creates anxiety in children. Think back to when you were a child and how you felt anytime your parents got into a fight. Obviously, a divorce brings that anxiety to its highest state because their worst fears are playing out.

Being on the same page and showing respect to one another as you explain what is happening will be helpful. Be sure to coordinate what should be said and not said. It may even be good to write down talking points. Both parents should talk, not just one.

No Villains

This is a time when you need to put your hurt feelings aside, regardless of who cheated or who did what to who. You can deal with all of that one-on-one. The focus needs to be on the children and what you can communicate to stabilize the situation. Any negative statement or attitude about your ex-spouse (or soon-to-be) throws the children in the middle—exactly where you need to keep them from being. Your ex-spouse may be a villain to you, but they are a loved one to your kids.

Reassurance

Their world is being jarred, so they will need a lot of reassurance. In many ways, it is like a death in the family. A strong fear of how life is going to change will hit them. Assure them of your love for them and how that will never change. They may blame themselves or a sibling. Make sure it is clear to them that none of this is their fault. Also, reassure the areas of their life that will not change (possibly living in the same place, same school, etc.). The most important thing they need to know is that they still have two parents who love them and will take care of them.

Details

The younger they are, the less details they will need. However, you want to be prepared with a game plan of what details you want to communicate and what can wait until later. You don’t need to be detailed in the causes of your divorce. Keep it simple with some general concepts, understanding that younger kids are going to be more black and white.

Tweens will probably ask the most questions while teenagers are more aware and will probably have seen it coming. Regardless of the age, it is still painful and hard to understand. You don’t need to cover it all with one talk.

There will be unavoidable, ongoing pain from a divorce. It’s a difficult reality. Being unified as much as you can be will go a long way in providing some sense of stability. Make every effort to achieve it for the sake of the children.

Related Resource: “10 Ways to Stay Connected to Your Kids After Divorce“

Sound off: What other ways can parents reduce the pain of divorce for the kids? Huddle up with your kids and ask, “What qualities do you want in a husband or wife someday?”

© 2014 All Pro Dad. All Rights Reserved. Family First, All Pro Dad, iMOM, and Family Minute with Mark Merrill are registered trademarks. Used with permission.

For the original article, visit allprodad.com.

Catching the flu is quite a common occurrence during this time of year. Preventing ever getting one in the first place is the best practice. But if you work quickly at the onset of the flu, you can stop the virus from getting any worse.

Here are several specific herbs and vitamins which can help curb the growth of any flu.

As far as vitamins are concerned, Vitamin A, D, E and C are all essential for a healthy immune system, so increasing of any or all of these would prove to be most beneficial in killing the flu. If you decide to take Vitamin C in high doses, be sure to wean off the dose in halves rather than simply stopping taking them or your immune system could suffer.

COQ10 is a supplement that has been proven to improve the immune system, so it would always be a welcome addition to any flu prevention remedy. Echinacea and garlic are both known to improve a flu situation; Echinacea has been proven to reduce the length of time a virus lives and garlic is anti-viral, anti-fungal and antibacterial. While Echinacea comes in pill and tea form, garlic can be taken in pill form or chewed raw.

Garlic can fight any virus, as well as kill any bacteria that you might come in contact with, so it is a great addition as well. Selenium and Zinc have proven effective qualities for fighting colds and are also great as topical treatments on herpes. There is a long-held belief that the use of Zinc and Selenium could also prevent the replication of the herpes virus. White blood cell counts are reliant on Selenium to work properly.

St. John’s Wort has been used to maintain a healthy immune system, which helps to avoid catching any viruses. Using Probiotics is another popular method of ensuring that optimal health is achieved and sustained. Probiotics are especially useful for the digestive system and work to keep intestinal tracks working properly through keeping a healthy balance of bacteria present. Colloidal silver is also known to prevent enzymes from viruses building up, killing their ability to use oxygen and grow. This is also helpful for killing any bacteria.

Green tea has been used for thousands of years and is known to be able to offset viral infections through the strong flavonoids it contains. Olive leaf extract is also an effective tool for preventing virus growth and has been proven in studies showing a success rate of over 95 percent in helping aid a rapid recovery for the respiratory tracts and viral skin infections such as herpes. Liquorice root has been proven to be more effective at fighting and preventing the SARS virus than are four different antiviral drugs, reducing replication and cell absorption which renders the virus unable to penetrate cells. It is also being used to treat HIV.

Elderberry has been known for thousands of years. It has been studied through double blind trials that confirmed its ability to enhance immunity as well as reduce influenza symptoms and the speed a person recovers from a flu virus. Echinacea inhibits the ability a virus would otherwise have to penetrate healthy cells, as it contains very strong antioxidants. It is also known to slow down and decrease the replication of herpes.

Pau d’Arco is a holistic medicine used by indigenous cultures for millennia. It contains a compound called lapacho, which has been proven to be effective in fighting many viruses including herpes types I and II, polio and influenza, inhibiting replication.

The best defense against catching a flu virus will always be to maintain good prevention measures: Eat healthy, exercise often to help your immune system stay healthy and make sure to sleep the recommended 6-8 hours a night.

Don Colbert, M.D. has been board certified in Family Practice for over 25 years and practices anti-aging and integrative medicine. He is a New York Times Best-selling author of books such as The Bible Cure Series, What Would Jesus Eat, Deadly Emotions, What You Don’t Know May be Killing You, and many more, with over 10 million books sold. He is the medical director of the Divine Health Wellness Center in Orlando, Florida, where he has treated over 50,000 patients. He is also a internationally known expert and prolific speaker on integrative medicine.

For the original article, visit drcolbert.com.

The Israeli-Arab conflict is not over how much land Israel should keep or give to the Palestinians. The Arab people have 672 times more land than the Jewish people.

The conflict exists because the Arabs want the 673rd portion as well—the sliver that currently belongs to Israel. These Palestinian Muslims have been taught since birth that Israel has no right to exist. The spirit driving the Muslim peoples against Israel has one goal: annihilation.

No matter how much land Israel might give to the Palestinians, it will not bring peace, for the battle is spiritual. Satan wants to destroy Israel. I can understand why citizens of other nations living far away find this hard to believe. But the citizens of Israel face this every day.

Our nation is in strife with no end in sight. Hatred and anguish, built up over the years, has exploded in both Jewish and Arab hearts. The Jews continue to fight for their lives and the Arabs are fighting for the “liberation of Palestine.”

In 1974, Philip Goodhart, member of the British parliament, wrote the following: “The plight of the Arab refugees is depressing; but it is by no means unique.” Both British and Israeli records estimate the number of Arab men, women and children who left their homes in Palestine in 1948 to be between 550,000 and 600,000.

“Even if one excludes from one’s calculations all refugees who left their homes temporarily to avoid local fighting, the Arab exodus from Palestine is only the 12th-largest movement of refugees to take place since the end of World War II.”

Why Not Absorb Them Like Everyone Else?

“For example, by the second week in October 1947, it had been reported in the New York Times that 2,388,000 Muslims had moved from India into Pakistan, and 2,644,000 Hindus had fled from Pakistan into India.

“Before this mass flight stopped in April 1950, the most conservative estimates suggest that at least 4,000,000 Muslims and more than 4,000,000 Hindus left their homes. The estimates of the number of refugees driven from their homes by the first partition of India range between 8 and 11 million.

“In Europe, the post-war movements of population have been measured more precisely. Official West German statistics show that by September 1950 almost 3,000,000 Sudeten Germans had been expelled from Czechoslovakia. Of these, 2,068,000 had settled in West Germany or Austria and 916,000 in East Germany.

“Between 1949 and the building of the Berlin Wall in August 1961, a further 2,739,000 refugees from East Germany registered at official reception centers in West Germany. The total number of refugees from East Germany is more than 3,500,000. Even this figure is dwarfed by the 6,750,000 Germans who left their homes in the Provinces annexed by Poland.”

Goodhart continues that, in Africa during the civil war in Nigeria, well over 1,000,000 Ibos arrived in Eastern Nigeria as refugees. Another million Frenchmen and pro-French Arabs fled during the Algerian War. More than a million refugees from North Korea settled in South Korea after the North Korean attack in 1950, and another million Chinese have fled the Mainland for Hong Kong.

“When Vietnam was partitioned in 1956, 800,000 North Vietnamese, many of whom were Roman Catholic, moved to South Vietnam to escape from Ho Chi Minh’s regime. During the major Communist offensives in the mid-1960s, more than 1,000,000 South Vietnamese also moved out of their homes into temporary refugee camps.

“In the Middle East itself, the exodus of Jews from Arab lands has been even larger than the flight of Arabs from Israel. In 1948, there were almost 850,000 Jews in Arab lands ranging from Iraq to Morocco. By 1973, there were less than 50,000.

“There is, however, one factor which distinguishes the bulk of the Arab refugees from the millions of people who have left their homes and countries in the last 40 years because of political, ethnic or religious pressures. Every one of the non-Arab countries that received a flood of refugees did their best to resettle the new arrivals. India, Pakistan, Western Germany, Biafra, South Vietnam, Hong Kong and Israel all launched successful programs of absorption.

Palestinian Refugees Must Not Be Allowed to Settle Down

“On the other hand, in most of the Arab countries where the Palestinians moved, strenuous efforts were made to prevent or to limit the resettlement of the refugees. The reason for their unprecedented callousness to their own brethren on the part of many Arab leaders was avowedly political. If the Arab refugees were to find new jobs and new homes in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt, they might easily settle down and lose their sense of Palestinian identity and their yearning for their old homes.

“While the Arab policy towards their own refugees may have been inhumane, it would be idle to deny that it has been a brilliant success politically. The whole world knows about the sufferings of the Palestinian Arabs. Meanwhile, almost everyone has forgotten Israel’s valiant and largely successful efforts to integrate the Jewish refugees from Arab lands. Once again, too many people and too many governments have been prepared to adopt a double standard instead of studying the facts.

“A lasting solution to the whole sad problem can only be found when all concerned recognize that there has been a double exodus, involving a lasting exchange of people. The Arab departure from Israeli territory must be balanced against the flight of an even larger number of Jewish refugees from Arab lands.” (Most of the facts in this article are taken from The Double Exodus: A Study of Arab and Jewish Refugees in the Middle East by The Hon. Terence Prittie and Bernard Dineen.)

So, let’s summarize.

Why is there an Arab refugee problem in Israel? Because the Islamic nations have kept the Arab refugees purposely in refugee camps. They were convinced that if they kept them in dire want, in miserable conditions, with no future possibility to build their lives in any Arab country, then one day these same refugees would explode in frenzied hatred and throw Israel into the sea. That is still the plan.

The problem of Arab refugees began on Nov. 29, 1947. The U.N. Partition Resolution provided for the setting-up of a Jewish state and a second Arab state in what Britain called Palestine. Notice that the U.N. declared two states for Arabs and Jews.

There was no entity known as Palestinians in 1947. The Palestinian myth began to take shape in the late 1950s and gained ground after the Six-Day War when Israel captured its ancient city Jerusalem, the Biblical Judea and Samaria, plus the Gaza Strip. (The first Arab State in the Holy Land had already been established as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.)

Even though the proposed area for a Jewish State was tiny, the Jews accepted the U.N. resolution. But the Arabs of Palestine fiercely rejected it, and the next day new Arab riots and attacks on the Jewish population began. The attacks were stimulated by the infiltration of terrorists from neighboring Arab countries.

When Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, according to the U.N. resolution, declared Israel an independent Jewish State on May 14, 1948, six Arab nations invaded and attacked the very next day. The local Arabs began fleeing to nearby countries when the Arab radio stations carried continuous messages urging Arabs within Israel to leave their homes, so that the invading armies could mop up and drive the Jews into the sea. The Arab civilians were promised that they would soon be back to take the spoils. 

The Wealthy and the Powerful Left First

In addition, many Arabs left because, as the Commander of the British Troops at that time, General Sir Hugh Stockwell, put it: “The Arab leaders left first, and no one did anything to stop the mass exodus, which became first a rush, and then a panic.”

One hundred sixty thousand Arabs did stay, or were allowed to return to their families soon after the Independence War. The Israeli Government, which had spent two millennia experiencing exile and eviction, did not sanction or tolerate a policy of driving out the Arabs. We must interject that there were some isolated cases of evicting Arabs from their homes in the heat of the battle. But by far, the main reason Arabs fled is because they were told to by the Arab nations who invaded Israel.

Indeed, record after record shows that the government of Israel, the local Israeli municipalities the unions, and the Israeli army all pleaded with the local Arabs not to flee.

But these Palestinians believed there would be a swift and sweeping Arab victory. Meanwhile, they were anxious to spare themselves the temporary danger and discomfort that might have to be endured if they stayed put while the Jews were being expelled.

In contrast to the British and Israeli census of 550,000 to 600,000 refugees, the Arabs claim that some 900,000 Arabs had fled, and by 1950, had 1,019,000 on U.N. rations. Friends and relatives in the surrounding countries joined as refugees, births were quickly recorded, and many times deaths were not reported, thus increasing the number of refugees on record. Literally any Arab in the area who came from anywhere in the Middle East could claim that he and his clan had come from Haifa or Jaffa or any other place now within Israel’s borders. That claim made him an officially registered Palestinian refugee.

Again, during the Six-Day War another 250,000 Arabs left, about half of them being “old refugees” who had gone to the West Bank or Gaza in 1948. As the Arabs fled, a Custodian Council was appointed within Israel to register all abandoned property. It was valued at about 100,000,000 British pounds, a huge amount in 1950. The Israeli government offered to pay compensation, but the Arab governments refused to accept any lump sum as a basis for negotiations. They didn’t want money, no matter the amount. They wanted the land.

In 1964 the Palestinian National Covenant, approved by all the countries of the Arab League, stated that the whole of Palestine, including the State of Israel, was Palestinian territory and the property of the Palestinian people. The State of Israel should cease to exist and only those Jews, whose families had been there since 1917 (when the British took the Holy Land from the Ottoman Empire), should be allowed to remain.

Mr. Ralph Galloway, a former head of United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNWRA) in Jordan in August 1958 stated: “The Arab States do not want to solve the refugee problem. They want to keep it as an open sore, as an affront to the United Nations and as a weapon against Israel. Arab leaders don’t care (he used stronger language Ed.) whether the refugees live or die.” 

Palestinian Refugees ‘Used’

Arab governments regarded the destruction of the State of Israel as a more pressing matter than the welfare of the Palestinian refugees. Palestinian bitterness and hatred had to be fanned. The Arab nations made sure that the Palestinian refugees continued to live in poverty and misery.

Many attempts have been made to resettle the refugees. For example, Egypt from 1948 to 1967 had closed off the Gaza Strip (26 miles long, 4 to 5 miles wide) and made it a ghetto. Even though Egypt claimed the Gaza strip as her own, she would not give the Gazans Egyptian citizenship. In 1950, UNWRA put forth a plan to move 100,000 Gazans to Libya. Egypt blocked the plan.

UNWRA tabled a plan to move 50,000 to 60,000 Palestinian refugees to Northern Sinai. Again, Egypt vetoed the plan. Egypt had no desire to be seen cooperating in the resettlement of Arab refugees anywhere except in Israel.

In the years 1952-54, UNWRA sought to negotiate with Syria for the resettlement of up to 85,000 refugees living in Syria and Lebanon. Syria said no.

It is reasonable to say that up to 4,000,000 Arab refugees would now be living in permanent homes if their families of several generations ago had been allowed in the late ’50s to resettle. But the Arab nations wouldn’t allow it.

The most serious development in the last couple of decades, as can be seen in the former article, is that UNWRA has absorbed the Arab narrative that all of Israel is really occupied land that belongs to the Arabs, not the Jews. UNWRA has become the eternal Palestinian refugees’ main advocate and promoter. Their 30,000 employees, mostly Muslim, depend on UNWRA for employment and encouragement that one day they will be able to conquer and destroy Israel in order to return to their grandparents and great grandparents’ supposed homeland.

And who has paid for the refugees’ upkeep, which has cost the world many billions of dollars? Certainly not the Arab nations. As late as 2004, they were donating 5 percent of the budget. The U.S. gave 70 percent. The Soviet Union and the Soviet block countries, which have shed so many crocodile tears for the Palestinian refugees, have not given a penny.

The Western powers have never received a word of thanks from the Arab world. Instead, they have been depicted as ruthless and extortionate “imperialists” and the enemies of the Arab people.

It has been pointed out that every refugee could be permanently resettled and housed with just 10 days’ oil revenues from the Arab barrels, and the problem would be over. Obviously, that is far from the Arab nations’ plans. Rather their war plan is this:

1. The maximum number of Palestinian refugees should be encouraged to retain “refugee status.” This would enable all concerned to assert an enduring and inalienable right to return to former homes in Israel.

2. Palestinian refugees should not be encouraged to integrate themselves into the life of the Arab countries in which they find themselves. Should they do so, they run the risk of losing any desire to return to their old homes—thus improving the state of Israel’s chance of survival.

3. The Arab nations should not be responsible to feed, clothe or educate the refugees, since their status is an affront to the Arab world. Rather, the outside powers, who allow Israel to exist, should pay for their upkeep.

4. Any attempts to improve the refugees’ lot, to re-house them or to give them jobs, should be resisted by every possible means. A better life will cause them to forget that their mission is to make Israel an Islamic State.

As we all know, the plan that the Arab nations have conceived has served their goals well. Decades of riots, wars and unrest with Israel’s desperate attempt to quell them has kept the Palestinian refugees before the public eye more than any other refugees in world history.

The goal, one must never forget, is that the refugees be used as the means to replace Israel with another Arab Muslim state.

Alas, the 22 Arab countries possessing land twice the size of the U.S. cannot accept one tiny Jewish state in her historic home, now approximately 263 miles in length and at its narrowest point, 9.3 miles wide—a country smaller than the state of New Jersey.

However, what the Muslims do not know—and even many Israelis—is that in spite of it all, Israel will continue to exist until the throne of David is re-established, and the Messiah comes back to reign in the Jewish city of Jerusalem.

For the original article, visit maozisrael.org.

I once enrolled in a sewing course at a community college. The first night the class was held, the teacher instructed us, “Be thinking about why you are here.”

Before the second class was over, that question was burning in my mind. Had I come to learn how to sew—or to thoroughly embarrass myself in public?

That night when I had gotten up to join my fellow classmates on a break, I had noticed that I couldn’t get out of my seat. I was stuck! I glanced down at the sewing machine and to my horror, discovered that the blouse I was wearing was stitched to the piece of cloth under the needle!

“Great, Sandra, “I blurted out loud. “How did we do this?”

Naturally, my question attracted the attention of my mercy-motivated instructor, who came over to help me out of my predicament. Unfortunately, her indiscretion outweighed her gift of mercy. In a high, falsetto voice that could have filled a stadium, she exclaimed, “Oh, Sweetie, what did we doooooo?”

I’ll tell you what I DIDN’T do. I didn’t go back. I know perhaps I should have stuck it out—gotten back up on that proverbial horse after I’d fallen—but my desire to avoid doing something the wrong way outweighed my desire to learn to do it the right way. So I played it safe.

My loss; I could have learned something.

My response was similar to that of the gifted students I taught some years ago in senior high honors English. Often, when given a choice in selecting a writing topic, they would pick up something with which they were comfortably familiar. They were playing it safe—not just for the grade, but to avoid the risk of failing they faced when tackling the unknown.

It was their loss because they could have grown.

The Word of God is full of stories of men and women who, in order to accomplish God’s plan for their lives, had to risk failure. Ruth chose to follow Naomi into foreign territory where, because of their Moabite background, she would not be welcome. But despite the odds stacked against her, the outcome of her choice was victory. God had Boaz waiting for her. (See the book of Ruth.)

Consider the woman who washed the feet of Jesus with her perfume and tears, wiping them with her hair. She risked public scorn. The outcome: Jesus Himself praised her actions (see Luke 7:44-47).

And what about Rahab, who risked her life to help the soldiers scout out the Promised Land (Josh. 2)? Or, how about Esther, who risked her life when she approached the king for a favor—and ended up saving her people (Esth. 4-5)?

Jesus risked public scorn when He sat and dined with sinners and tax collectors (Matt. 9:10-13), and He opened Himself up to condemnation when He healed the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath (Matt. 12:9-14).

The tasks God gives us generally require risk. If we fail, His purposes are not accomplished. If we succeed, others may be threatened. In either case, if we turn our eyes toward man, we lose. It is only when we keep our eyes toward Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith that we stand to gain.

I seriously doubt that if had I risked further embarrassment by continuing to attend my sewing class, I’d pose any great threat to Martha Stewart today. But in walking away from failure, I also walked away from potential success and blessings.

Today, as you contemplate the odds stacked against you in carrying out God’s plan, ask yourself: Isn’t it worth the risk to obey Him? He has so much in store! More than you can even ask or think (see Eph. 3:20). Make a commitment to doing your best for Him who gave His best, Jesus, for you.

Prayer Power for the Week of November 10, 2014

Pray that as the Holy Spirit empowered the early disciples with fearless boldness, believers everywhere would be given a new boldness in Christ to do His work for the kingdom. Pray for our persecuted and abused believers around the world and ask the Lord to give them supernatural strength to withstand what lies ahead. Continue to pray for our leaders to seek God for His wisdom, mercy and continued protection. Ask the Lord for faith to obey Him in all areas, regardless of the risk. Pray for worldwide revival and remember Israel in the mix (Eph. 3:20).

The scariest news a dad can hear is that your daughter’s innocence has been stolen. Perhaps she was raped after a “roofie” slipped into her drink, or her virginity was taken by a more experienced boyfriend—or man.

Or maybe she was sexually assaulted, abused or traumatized by a relative, teacher or neighbor.

Dads can hardly imagine allowing their underage daughter to date, let alone imagine the unthinkable. But when daughter disaster strikes, what can a dad do? While pulling out a shotgun, clenching fists or mentally rehearsing a tortuous revenge may seem like a good idea, it’s not.

Helplessness, hurt, anger and sadness will settle in. But the Bible—in particular, Jesus—offers some guidance. In my years of counseling wounded young ladies and dads, I’ve seen the despair and frustration caused by rape, overdose, divorce and other daughter disasters. Fortunately, we serve an all-powerful, all-knowing God who is trustworthy.

From this premise—and from my experience—I offer the following outline to help dads deal with trauma associated with their daughters:

1. Know that God knows. We live in a sinful world. Bad things happen to good people. Good people make bad decisions. It’s seen over and over in the Bible. God gave us free will so we would choose to follow his ways. Still, we all choose unwisely at times. But that doesn’t change God’s love for us. He knows us and our situations better than we do.

Where is God when we are sinning? Is He with us or apart? He’s with you. He’s grieving too.

In John 4, Jesus knew the Samaritan woman at the well had not one, but five husbands. He knew her. He knew what she needed—living water. He knew she needed forgiveness, and He delivered grace and truth to her. We’ll come back to these in a minute.

2. Know the sexual identity slide. Victims of sexual abuse, even consensual sex, are reeling inside. Like the Samaritan woman, our daughters wrestle with the question “Am I worthy of love?” Their sexual identity is constantly being defined by our society. One example is “princess” movies that feed into the idea they must be “beautiful” to be worthy of a prince’s love. Their sexuality can come from this twisted, cultural math that their dignity is equal to quantity or quality of men who desire them.

Too often, the daughter is actually using men as much as men use her, in order to build her identity as a beautiful, desirable woman. This can lead to an unhealthy perspective of men, which can get projected onto dads themselves. It’s a mental and sexual bondage that can lead to hyper-sexuality or hypo-sexuality to turn away all men.

Here’s the downward sexual identity slide dads need to know: Your daughter’s self-perception that she’s not worthy of men’s love can breed a fear. Her fear produces anxiety. Anxiety needs relief. She may start a quest for relief. This quest for relief can come in many forms, including what she wears to get attention, an overt flirtatiousness or vulnerability to risky situations with men.

This can lead to sexual trauma. The trauma creates strongholds in the mind that continue to impact her self-perception. Her self-perception is degraded. She may continue to lower herself and standards to feel better. The cycle continues: She feels dirty and guilty and, because she doesn’t want to feel that way, she does it again. This can lead to sexual distortion. That was bad, so she feels bad.

So, she may continue to try again, with hopes she will feel good. It’s all a clever distortion of the truth from the enemy that promotes moral darkness, a space where anger and rebellion are free to traffic. Her purity is lost, emotional infrastructure is weakened and a stronghold is established.

But the slide doesn’t have to go that far.

3. Know your role. Dads and daughters may need professional counseling to deal with the range of strong emotions, mental struggles and related issues to address the trauma. But dads must know they played a role in their daughters’ sexual identity development. Dads must take ownership of their own behaviors in order to understand their impact on their daughters’ lives.

To handle a crisis, we can take a page from how Jesus dealt with the Samaritan women and proceed in grace and truth.

• Grace

When discussing the disaster with your daughter, come from a place of grace. Recognize that we all fall short. We’re all human. Welcome to the club. That’s why we know and love Jesus. He’s the friend and forgiver of sinners. Create an environment of safety by acknowledging similar vulnerability.

Parents are under the same rules. Admit that dads are vulnerable to sexual temptation as well. Dads are under authority as well, and they can’t go around doing whatever they want to do, or else they hurt people. We all need the living water Jesus offered the Samaritan woman. We are all a work in progress and need accountability.

• Truth

Now a few ground rules: Have a dialogue, not a diatribe. Don’t condone, but don’t condemn. Seek to connect rather than withdraw. Lead with forward-thinking convictions, not looking backward with condemnation.

Now, recognize the trauma and respond to the reality of the situation—to what she did, what happened, and how that relates to her identity.  You may ask, how was it after? Did you get what you were looking for? Did you find respect or regret? Dignity or guilt?

If she falls on the regretful side, her sexual identity may be sliding. Regardless, by talking in grace and truth, she may be able to see both the consequences and you differently.

Next Steps

• Make amends with God and your daughter. Encourage her to do the same to God and you. Study the Bible about strongholds, and break those chains.
• For her sake, avoid public humiliation. Working with grace, you have to decide to create a safe place and pursue private healing. Particularly for teenagers, avoid public humiliation at school or church, which can get ugly quickly.
• Seek support. Enlist prayerful support without giving details. You and your daughter may benefit from finding one healthy person to confide in, for example, a counselor or pastor at church. If you know the young man who stole your daughter’s purity, you may approach his parents to let them know what happened and how it has affected your family. His parents will take it from there.
• Finally, dads need to let their daughters know that they are worthy of love. They don’t need someone else’s attention to define them. Dads need to step it up, be available, treat your daughters as the gifts they are and prepare them for marriage by being a healthy, loving husband and father at home.

Kenny Luck, founder of Every Man Ministries, men’s pastor at Saddleback Church, and ChristianMingle advisory board member, provides biblically oriented teaching and leadership for men and pastors seeking relevant, timely material that battle cultural, worldly concepts threatening men and God’s men. Follow Kenny and Every Man Ministries on Facebook, Twitter (@everyMM) and YouTube.

For the original article, visit everymanministries.com.

Recently, I blogged about some important reasons why every dad should interview his daughter’s date. Today, I’d like to share with you how to interview your daughter’s date.

There are lots of suggestions you can find on the Internet, including some really funny ones like an application to date your daughter. But for most of us, this is serious business and we just need a few simple guidelines to go by.

My friend, Dennis Rainey, has written a good book, Interviewing Your Daughter’s Date, which covers this topic in depth. But to give you some quick insights, let me share with you a few key steps from my experience.

1. Have your daughter prepared to tell any guy that asks her out to call you first before answering him. This helps her know that you are expecting to be her first line of defense and gives her guidance on how to respond to a guy’s invitation. This also allows you to be the heavy when she wants to say, “No,” but is struggling to do so.

2. Set a time and place that’s comfortable. An in-person visit works best. So you might invite the young man, and even his dad, to your home. I wrote how I did this for my first interview with my eldest daughter’s date in my original blog on interviewing your daughter’s date.

3. Start with asking him questions about him. Ask about his family, his work and studies, his life plans, what he enjoys doing and even his driving record … the kinds of things that will give you clues about his values and character. Don’t be shy … even if it seems a bit uncomfortable for him and for you. Your job is to help your daughter, not just make him feel good about himself.

4. Share with him your thoughts and expectations for him if you agree to let him take her out. Here are some points—with some of Dennis Rainey’s included—that you can share:

a. Let him know that your daughter is priceless and that you expect him to treat her as such.

b. Share with him that you expect him to keep her safe and not put her in any dangerous situations.

c. Make sure he understands that no alcohol or drugs should ever be involved.

d. Make sure he understands that if they get in a situation where they are uncomfortable or need any kind of help, he should call you immediately.

e. Acknowledge that attraction of a young man to a young woman is both normal and good but that a physical relationship is to be reserved for marriage.

f. Acknowledge that you’re going to hold him accountable for his relationship with your daughter—the physical relationship as well as how he treats her in general.

g. Make sure he has understood everything you’ve talked about…don’t assume he gets it. You might even ask him to repeat back, in his own words, what your expectations will be.

5. End the conversation by thanking him for coming to speak with you. At that point, you can give him permission to take out your daughter. Or you might even buy yourself some time by saying you’ll think the conversation over and get back to him with an answer, especially if you saw issues that you believe need to be addressed with your wife and daughter.

So, I encourage you to make the investment of your time to do these interviews, and someday, when your daughter is looking back, she is very likely to be really, really grateful that you did.

What are some other good questions or points that you think should be part of an interview with your daughter’s date? Share your comments with us!

Mark Merrill is the president of Family First. For the original article, visit markmerrill.com.

This quote from the founder of PrayFit® Ministries struck my spirit like a sword when I read it recently on a friend’s Instagram feed:

“If I can be so bold, shame on us if we train and eat ‘perfectly’ this week, but never crack open our Bibles or hit our knees in prayer.” —Jimmy Peña

Yes, it is a bold statement, but it’s what many of us health-minded, Jesus-professing folks need to hear. What I believe to be key when we hear this, or any other convicting message, is not to let the sharpness of its words offend or scar us, but instead allow it to penetrate the dark, tender places of our hearts, the unspoken shadows where truth stings like salt in a wound. Our reaction to the pain—whether we address and treat it or ignore and forget it—will determine whether the darkness is excised, or given permission and more space to grow.

I have been guilty of letting days, even weeks, elapse without cracking open my Bible.

I have risen in the morning and gone to bed at night without so much as muttering a single word of thanks to my heavenly Father for giving me that day.

I have often devoted more time to physical training than spiritual training.

There have been many days when I’ve tasted and enjoyed more physical food than spiritual food.

And today that realization, that sword-in-the-gut feeling, inspires me to never let a single day pass without nourishing my soul with the God-breathed Bible and lifting my voice in prayer and praise to the one who’s breathed life into all of us … who removed the sting of death for all of us.

The devil doesn’t want us to be fit in any way—not physically, not spiritually. He is a thief, a destroyer and a murderer, and will do everything he can to afflict us—from trying to bind us to poor eating and exercise habits to keeping us away from our Bibles.

The Lord, on the other hand, is our Rock, our Fortress, and our Deliverer, and loves us more than any human being ever could. He longs to commune with us, to give us life in abundance as we cling to Him like branches grasping a grapevine. When we are separated from Him, our Root, or when we proudly resist His pruning, we begin to weaken and wither. But if we hold on tightly, even when faced with strong winds and the Husbandman’s precise, perfecting shears, we will thrive and bear fruit, continuously supplied with fresh strength and grace anew.

Taking time—any amount of time—out of your day to read the Scriptures and quiet yourself in prayer may at first feel like, well, work. Similar to eating nutritious foods and maintaining a consistent exercise schedule, spiritual disciplines will likely not be easy, or even enjoyable at the start. But I promise… the rewards are great! And what’s more, the longer you stick with your commitment to seek God’s face and drink in His truths and promises, the less it will seem like drudgery. In fact, it will become the highlight of your day and, ultimately, the source that sustains your life.

Below are 10 of my favorite verses on the topics of reading the Bible and spending time in prayer. I pray that after reading them you will feel inspired to enter into God’s presence yourself and carve out a slice of time each day to let His Spirit wash over you and fill you with the love, mercy, grace and goodness that cannot be obtained apart from Him.

 God’s Word

• “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16, ESV).
• “For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12, NLT).
• “Blessed is the one … whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season” (Psalm 1:1-3, NIV).
• “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God (Colossians 3:16, ESV).
• “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path (Psalm 119:105, ESV).

Prayer

• “Search for the LORD and for his strength; continually seek him” (1 Chronicles 16:11, NLT).
• “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to teach them that they should always pray and never become discouraged” (Luke 18:1, GNT).
• “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful” (Colossians 4:2, NIV).
• “In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Philippians 4:6, ASV).
• “The LORD is close to all who call on him, yes, to all who call on him in truth” (Psalm 145:18, NLT).

Diana Anderson-Tyler is the author of Creation House’s Fit for Faith: A Christian Woman’s Guide to Total Fitness and her latest book, Perfect Fit: Weekly Wisdom and Workouts for Women of Faith and Fitness. Her popular website can be found at dianaandersontyler.com, and she is the owner and a coach at CrossFit 925. Diana can be reached on Twitter.

For the original article, visit dianaandersontyler.com.