"To Dress & To Keep"

Genesis 2:15
" Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it."

The Garden of Eden was the environment that God created for a relationship with Him to take place. Adam and Eve's responsibility was to dress and keep it. They were put there, not to do nothing, not just to pluck fruit off a tree, not even merely to receive eternal life, but to take care of the Garden.
Dress means "to embellish." This may seem a little strange, but Adam and Eve were to take care of it so well that it would become better than it was when God gave it to them. We like to think of the Garden as being a place of absolute and perfect beauty. Instead, since God told them to "dress and keep it," it seems that it was not complete. It had only been started. What He had done was certainly beautiful, but He wanted them to carry on and finish it.
Keep means "to guard" or "to preserve." If they did not work to dress the Garden, God is telling them, it would deteriorate. That is the way of all things physical, they degenerate if they are not maintained and taken care of.
There are spiritual lessons here. We have been invited into a relationship with God. Like any relationship, it must be worked on to make it increasingly tighter and more productive. We are to "dress and to keep" the relationship. We are not in the Garden, certainly, but we are in the relationship. To do this, we must use and grow in the Holy Spirit. The relationship is the key to accomplishing this. If there is no relationship, there is no Holy Spirit working in and with us, no chance that we will ever grow in the Spirit, and no way we can be close to God. The relationship is the key.
John W. Ritenbaugh

Obligation

Romans 13:8-10
(8) Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. (9) For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery," "You shall not murder," "You shall not steal," "You shall not bear false witness," "You shall not covet," and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." (10) Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Paul presents us with an interesting paradox. On the one hand, he says that we should owe no man anything that he can rightfully claim from us. But on the other hand, we must owe everyone more than we can hope to pay, that is, perfect love.
He extends and intensifies the concept of obligation. We must be more scrupulous within the limits of the common idea of indebtedness, and also infinitely widen the range within which it operates. Did not our failure to meet our obligations to God and man accrue for us an unpayable debt? Now that the debt has been paid, we are obliged not only to strive to avoid further indebtedness, but also to expand and perfect the giving of love.
This paradox is more apparent than real, because love is not an added duty but the inclusive framework within which all duties should be done. Love is the motivating power that frees and enables us to serve and sacrifice with largeness of heart and generosity of spirit.
If we view love as just the keeping of God's laws, we are stuck on a low-level, letter-of-the-law approach to righteousness. Do not misunderstand, keeping God's law is a necessary aspect of love, but love is far more complex. Commandment keeping is compulsory and can be done in an "only because" attitude, one that concludes, "I must love the person, but I don't have to like him." Drawing upon Christ's teaching, Paul gives an entirely new significance to the idea of obligation.
John W. Ritenbaugh

Four Tips For Travelling The High Road by "John Maxwell"

1) It's Not What Happens to You, but in You That Really Matters

2) High Roaders See Their Own Need for Grace, Therefore They Extend It to Others

3) High Roaders Are Not Victims; They Choose to Serve Others

4) High Roaders Set Higher Standards for Themselves Than Others Would

Funny Story by " John Maxwell "

John tells this story in his book "Today Matters" on Page 108. A man was researching his family tree and came to find out that his family was not the greatest. In fact it was really bad, so the man hired a professional biograpgher to write up a document on the family's black sheep. It reads as follows, "Uncle George had been executed in the electric chair for murder. No problem said the biograpgher. I'll say that Uncle George occupied a chair of applied electronics at an inportant government institution. He was attached to his position by the strongest of ties, and his death came as a real shock."

Networking "Leadership Quotes"

"The currency of real networking is not greed but generosity."
~ Keith Ferrazzi

"Always recognize that human beings are ends, and do not use them as means to your ends."
~ Immanuel Kant

"Your network determines your net worth."
~ Anonymous

Deep Wisdom From A Teenager "ECT"

" Ungratefulness can be traced to a failure to find benifits in everything we expierence, and an unwillingness to trust God to fulfill our deepest needs." Author Unknown

Inspiration

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." ~ John Quincy Adams

"Leadership is based on a spiritual quality; the power to inspire, the power to inspire others to follow." ~ Vince Lombardi

"Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

A Realistic View Of Life!

2 Timothy 4:6-8
Our culture desperately tries to postpone death. Vitamins, exercise, and wise diets are ways we try to live as long as possible.
Not that these things are bad! Our motive, however, is key. For instance, knowing that our bodies are God's temple (1 Cor. 3:16), we should take care of His dwelling. And since He has good works for us to do (Eph. 2:10), we should stay fit to complete His tasks.
On the other hand, prolonging life for fear of dying isn't of God. Because Jesus died in our place, those who have faith in Him as Lord and Savior need not fear death. Once saved, we have assurance of a real place where we will live eternally in His presence. The Bible teaches that fear isn't from God (2 Tim. 1:7). In fact, the apostle Paul assures us that, far from being a dreadful change, physical death actually leads believers home to be with the Lord forever (2 Cor. 5:8).
God already knows the duration of each person's life. With this in mind, how can we best prepare for what's next? The first step is to receive Jesus as Savior through faith. Next, we should live a surrendered life and strive to walk according to His will. Furthermore, it is vital that believers fight the tendency to view this world as "home." If we become too comfortable here, finding our security and worth in earthly success, we won't be able to maintain an eternal perspective.
It is an inescapable fact that life on earth is temporary. It would be foolish not to prepare for something inevitable. How can you best live so that you are ready when God decides it is time?