The Seven, a prophetic novel by Michael H Brown  A coming sign? Events by a sinister personage? Disaster? In his first work of fiction, Brown pens the driving, suspenseful, and deeply spiritual story of a mysterious government property that harbors secrets relevant not only to a young cop who tries to investigate strange goings-on, but also to an equally mysterious and incredibly powerful old priest who joins forces with him to solve the mystery -- and try to prevent an end-times-like disaster!   CLICK HERE

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TAKE NOTHING FOR GRANTED; ACKNOWLEDGE BLESSINGS AND OTHER BLESSINGS WILL COME

God has a plan for you and you find it in what occurs around you. Have you taken note? He has a destiny for you. It's in everything that has happened to you!

There's a set course for your life and it may shift (according to the actions of our free will), but that destiny remains in its essence -- and is meant to play out when our time on earth comes to an end.

There's a plan for you and the paths are shown in both the problems we face and the blessings.

Sit down and reflect in prayer on the major routes and intersections of your life.

Map them out. Note the way events occurred when you were on the wrong course and when you were on the right one; look how events interwove!

Let's hover on the blessings: They direct our paths. Do we take them for granted -- or use them to glorify God (and map our paths)?

You were given certain talents. Everyone has talents. It could be as a housewife. It could be as an engineer. It could be as a janitor.

Those things are gifts and in God's mysterious Plan equal to the gifts given anyone else. 

When we reject our talents and seek something more "glamorous" (worldly) we stray off course and lose our peace. It is the "world" versus Heaven.

You were given parents. How have they affected you? What would your life be without their guidance? How often do you consider them a gift? Many have been given husbands and wives. How often do we wonder at the circumstances of our marriages -- and how important we are to each other, in God's scheme? How has marriage affected the course of your life -- and the way you developed spiritually? What guideposts and challenges came with matrimony -- and what does it tell you (if you are married) about yourself? A meditation this is! Likewise, how often do we wonder at the gift of our children? How have they affected us? Why were they placed with us? And how does a family move together toward God's Plan?

Do we consider a blessing as just something that has occurred -- "good luck" -- or treat each as a guidepost (glorifying God in the process)? How often do we study the circumstances in our lives and the way one thing led to another -- right under our noses but without our notice because we were swept into worldly thinking?

"At the moment of my death I awoke from a darkness," recounted a young German woman named Ann whose account of an incredible dream was authorized by her diocese years ago. "I found myself suddenly enveloped by a blinding light. It was at the same place where my body lay. It seemed almost like a theater, when the lights suddenly go out, the curtain noisily opens, and a tragically illuminated scene appears: the scene of my life. I saw my soul as in a mirror. I saw the graces I had trampled underfoot since the time I was young."

We take so much for granted! Have you thought about what it would be like without food, or good sources of water, or good health? Too often, we take the blessing of a job as just a job. We take the blessing of a loaf of bread as just a loaf of bread. We take the blessing of a house as just a house. But look at the fortuitous events God orchestrated in order for us to have that security!

It is as you fully define and acknowledge and know a blessing that other blessings will come.

Look more closely at how certain events fell into place.

Work the puzzle.

Study your life and note the dovetails!

When we take blessings for granted, we take God for granted. Big mistake!

In the blessings -- as in troubles -- are our life missions.

You will see your path.

It is defined by what we are given and what is taken away and the challenges and crises, which are the pathways of God.

[Michael Brown New Jersey retreat]

[Also: Life Missions, Family Healings]

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