Spiritual Journey

Heaven Ministries
Volume 3 Issue 20

Heaven Ministries Newsletter
Journey on the Roads Less Traveled

What's New?

About JOURNEY ON THE ROADS LESS TRAVELED

Synopsis

Chapters

Introduction

Articles
Take The Plunge to Stay At Home
by a stay at home mom talking to Dr. Laura

Monthly Devotional
God's Format

New Web site for soon to be released book http://spiritual.journeybooks.4t.com/

Please sign the guest book

What's New?

Journey on the Roads Less Traveled book is soon to be released.

Dear friends,

We are getting closer to a release date of my book, Journey on the Roads Less Traveled. The editors have finished the manuscript proofs and are now working on the cover design. We are looking at a late August or early September release date!

My publishers are offering the book two weeks before release date at a 20% discount to all my friends and family. If you would like to be included for this 20% discount mailing please email me ASAP with your NAME and MAILING ADDRESS and Publish America will send you a press release and the 20% discount offering. See below for more details about this new book.

Know before you buy.

THIS NEWSLETTER will give you the information you need about the book before buying. Have any questions, contact me.
Thank you, Angie Lewis

For more information about the book go to the website at http://spiritual.journeybooks.4t.com/

NEED REVIEWS for Journey on the Roads Less Traveled
Last but not least, I need five avid readers of spiritual/Christian writings to REVIEW the book for me. Let me know if reviewing this book sounds like something you would like to do and I will send you the manuscript via email. I need reviews for the new web site I have created for the book.

This is a great way for you to read the book for free. First five people who respond will receive the manuscript in PDF format via email for you to review. Thank you, Angie Lewis

reviews@heavenministries.com

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Journey on the Roads Less Traveled
Published by Publish America
Written by Angie Lewis

Synopsis:

Journey On The Roads Less Traveled is a spiritual journey providing an avenue for people to change their lives through Jesus Christ in a way that is not commonly understood. Most of us have acknowledged Jesus Christ in our lives, but have we received Jesus Christ into our life?

The Less Traveled Roads take the reader down a comprehensive and well-rounded foundational understanding into the biblical world of acceptance, beliefs, spirituality, feelings, marriage, children, family, forgiveness, temptation, faith, and finally prayer while applying the power of “real love” into all of the above elements. The book will challenge the reader to go a step further in their faith and beliefs by helping them to identify with all the aspects of their character, namely the spiritual element of who they are and can become.
In her book, Angie Lewis offers the spiritual counsel we need to live at peace with ourselves, and have a closer relationship with God.

Chapters of Journey on the Roads Less Traveled

Stumbling onto Love Avenue
Choosing To Take the Roads Less Traveled
Turn Right on Belief Street (see entire chapter below)
Driving on Marriage Blvd
Gateway to Marriage Precepts
Labor of Love Intersection
42nd Street to Submission
Highway to Effective Communication
Crossroads of Temptation
Bridge to Our Children
Thoroughfare to Our Spiritual Self
The Way to Loving Our Neighbor
Entering Judgment Overpass
Following The Path to Forgiveness
Side Road to Faith

Introduction - Journey on the Roads
Less traveled.

This book is written from my heart to yours. It is for those individuals who would like to further their spiritual growth, reach out from self and capture a personal and growing relationship with Jesus Christ. This handbook is your handbook now. Peruse it, reference it, dog ear it, use it. If you feel no need for any help outside yourself, this book is not for you.
     I believe that people choose to love or not to love, but I assure you it is a bit more complicated than that. My assumption is that people make their own path in life, and if we choose to love others with “real love” we have truly broken free from the prison of self. It is through my own experiences of trial and error that I have found the non-loving choice is not our "true selves."
     Some of us are incapable of loving until we give up our position that our way is the right way. Trying to dissect our spouses feelings and experience them as our own doesn't help the love process. Most couples when they profess to love each other, it is what they imagine them to be, not what they are. This is phony love and phony self. It's not real.
     I finally realized how phony I was when my husband moved out and left me to sulk over my resentment and beer alone every night. I began to see that I didn’t love myself. And I thought who am I loving? We need to love ourselves first before we can love another and be real. But our nature is to be selfish, which ultimately makes us unable to love to its fullest, and that is why we need to discover the missing link.
     Don’t take this wrong, of course we love our spouse, family and children, but only in the way, and to the degree we know how to love. I honestly thought I was being loving, and then one day my bubble burst. It wasn’t until much later and after many careless mistakes that I came to realize I was too absorbed in my own thoughts and feelings to share “any” of myself with anyone that I supposedly loved. I created a safe-haven for myself in my own little secure world of make-believe, believing only what I wanted to believe and allowing in only that which I wanted in.
     Our ability to capture love and to love others is much greater then we allow. Many things hold us back, and control us from loving properly, such as our emotions, fear, self- esteem, addiction, depression and resentment just to name a few. We are afraid to be ourselves so that we strive to be what others want us to be, even when deep down that is not what we want or need. This happened to me. I used to have this need to please people, especially my husband because I felt guilty over my drinking indulgences and fits of resentment. So I threw in bittersweet phony love to fill in the missing gaps and of course make my guilt go away. But this temporary solution is stressful and a lot of work. Being emotionally overstressed with our spouse limits our own "love capacity" to be what God intended for it to be. I have always believed that what is generated in the heart comes out in our actions, and if that be the case, then we need to know what it is we are allowing into our heart and mind. In essence, our capacity to love others is in how true we are to ourselves. We certainly aren't very true to ourselves or to God when we are controlled by sinful behavior or emotions that control us to such an extent that we are in fear to be who it is we really are.
     This book leads us out from the selfish aspect of our ego and into a loving and growing relationship with Jesus Christ. We discover a purpose for our self that leads us on the roads less traveled while understanding what “real love” is and finally applying that love into our own life.
     We need to ask our self what is it that I am lacking? What is my weakness? What do I need? In our journey we will find that we need to accept, forgive, and believe in what we do not believe in, we need to seek, understand and find the truth. But maybe we think we’re living the truth already and so we really don’t know what the problem is. With that in mind, the first hurdle is to understand that we cannot love what we do not know, or what we do not care to know, and we cannot love if something is holding us back from loving.
     Love is an extension of who we are, and we must go beyond ourselves, come out of our own little world, and grasp at the concept of loving by using all of “who we are”. Finally, when we have claimed that love for ourselves can we share “real love” with others. We can choose to love or not to love.

If you like what you have read so far and would like the 20% discount, please email me as soon as possible with your NAME, and MAILING ADDRESS.
angie@heavenministries.com
Thank you.

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Take The Plunge To Stay At Home!
2005-06-16
www.dr.laura.com

Dear Dr. Laura,

I had to sit down to write this to you before the call was even over! You were speaking to a young woman who called in to talk about the fact that she is the primary bread-winner, but she wants to start a family and be a stay-at-home mom. She said it was not possible to stay home on her husband's $30,000 yearly income. I don't know where she lives, so maybe I am not taking a fair view in regards to the cost of living, but I have to say to her—buck up, make some sacrifices and take the hard choices, lady!

I get so frustrated when I hear that excuse from people! I know dozens of families living happily on incomes of that level. When I became a stay-at-home mom four years ago this month, my husband was making a similar income to your caller's husband. We did everything; I mean everything we could think of to cut costs to live on the money my husband brought home. All monthly subscriptions were cut—no newspaper, no magazines, no cable, no cell phone and no internet. We stopped going out to eat, going to the theater or even renting movies. New clothes and household items were rarely purchased and only considered if the need was high. I switched to the cheapest grocery store in town and started following guide lines to drastically cut our food costs while still meeting our nutritional needs and still providing tasty meals. I began clipping coupons and bargain shopping. I learned what wonderful items can be found at dollar stores, consignment and thrift shops and yard sales. Our cars were old but ran well and were paid for. You think this would be a recipe for misery but in fact the opposite was true. I. was waking up every day to my beautiful baby and spending my time meeting her needs and caring for her and my husband. My little family discovered all the fun things we can do for free or nearly free. Because we spent so much time together since there wasn't money to "go out" we deepened our relationships in ways I think dual income families miss.

If your caller was serious about staying home to care for the baby she seems so eager to create, she wouldn't think twice about cutting down the expenditures to make it possible achieve her dreams. If they look through their budget and still can't make it, maybe the husband can get a transfer with the phone company to move somewhere where it would cost less to live. We would love to live near our parents so our children could have regular contact with their grandparents, but for now we are staying where we are because it's what we can afford.

I encourage your caller and anyone else listening who is facing the same decision to take the plunge. It's so worth it and rest assured you are not alone. My husband and I are here with our two daughters and there are hundreds of thousands of other families right along side us.

Sign me...
Laurel, a woman blessed in riches beyond her dreams, although not the earthly kind.

Monthly Devotional

GOD'S FORMAT by Joanne Lowe

My computer stopped working right and no matter what I did to fix it nothing worked. My brother-in-law who is a computer expert advised me to format my computer and it would be just like sending it to the factory to be fixed.

Many times we try to format our hearts by being nice to others and by doing good deeds. That is just like trying to fix a computer that is broke, it will not work. Our feeble efforts to love someone in our own strength has never worked and will never work. It is only as others see and feel the Love of Jesus in us that they will know that Jesus does love them.

Have you been trying to be nicer to your family and friends? Do you get frustrated because it seems no matter what you do to be kind to others it is not appreciated? We need to go to Jesus and ask Him to take His Broom of Mercy and Grace and sweep out all the bitterness and resentment in our hearts toward other people.

We are not capable of loving others as Jesus wants us to love others in our own strength. It takes Jesus planting His Love in our hearts to format our hearts to minister to people. I urge you to ask Jesus to format your heart with His Compassion and Mercy so that you can effectively love others.
Joanne Lowe
February 24, 2005