Living Prophecies

"'…and I will bring my people Israel back from exile. They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,' says the LORD your God." — Amos 9:14-15

The Torah portion for this week is a double reading, Acharei Mot-Kedoshim,from Leviticus 16:1–20:27 and the Haftorah from Amos 9:7–15.

In 1867, Mark Twain visited the Holy Land. This is what he saw: “A desolate country … given over wholly to weeds … a silent mournful expanse … a desolation … we never saw a human being on the whole route … hardly a tree or shrub anywhere. Even the olive tree and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country.” The land that Mark Twain saw was the way that the land looked for more than two thousand years. As foretold in the Bible, once the children of Israel were exiled, the land ceased to blossom.

5 Ways to Have More Sex During the Holidays

GalTime

GalTime.com

by Karen Siff Exhorn for GalTime.com

The holiday season is a lot of things -- memorable, sentimental, stressful. But, how often do you think of the six super-fast weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year's as sexy? The holidays don't have to equal bah-humbug sex.

Here are five ways to have a happy and hot holiday season:

1. Enjoy Naughty Nibbles
There are too many articles that advise you to be mindful about your eating and drinking during the holidays. I say, eat, drink and enjoy! What are some sexy holiday foods to get you "in the mood?" My favorite is chocolate -- the darker the better. Chocolate has a long-held reputation as an aphrodisiac, and the antioxidants in dark chocolate are great for promoting sexual vigor. So indulge yourself in those holiday chocolate bars, cupcakes and brownies. You can always start that diet in the New Year.

From Grapes to Wine

"Why have you broken down its walls
so that all who pass by pick its grapes?" —Psalm 80:12

In Psalm 80, the Psalmist has a question for God. Using a grapevine as a metaphor, King David describes how God took the children of Israel out of Egypt and planted them in the Promised Land. There, they took root and flourished, covering the land with their sweet fruit. Yet, over time, the situation changed, causing the Psalmist to write: "Why have you broken down its walls so that all who pass by pick its grapes?" After all that work, why has God allowed his precious vineyard to be pummeled and ravaged? Why has the God of Israel allowed His people to be all but destroyed?

The prophet Hosea, as if answering King David’s question, had this to say: "Israel was a spreading vine; he brought forth fruit for himself. As his fruit increased, he built more altars; as his land prospered, he adorned his sacred stones. Their heart is deceitful, and now they must bear their guilt" (Hosea 10:1–2). Translation: While the Israelites blossomed and thrived in the land of Israel, their abundant blessings led them toward idolatry instead of toward God. In the place of thankfulness, they substituted forgetfulness. They forgot who had blessed them and what they were supposed to accomplish with all that they had been given.

Ginseng + Saffron = Good Sex? Aphrodisiacs Found in Common Spices

By BONNIE ROCHMAN |

 
Improving sexual function and desire is a pretty lucrative, albeit pricey, industry. But what if spicing up your love life were a lot cheaper and as simple as opening up your kitchen cabinet or heading to a health-foods store?

New research recently published online in the journal Food Research International finds that ginseng and saffron are key to spicing up your sex life. Both boost sexual performance, according to a scientific review of natural aphrodisiacs done by researchers at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. (More on Time.com: Many Men and Women Say They Aren’t Getting Enough Sex)

Miracle of Jesus at Cana Wedding

Bible Study Lesson:

• John 2:1-11: The Miracle of turning Water Into Wine

Q. How were wedding celebrations like in eastern cultures? Who were invited? How long do the celebrations last?

• In Eastern cultures, weddings are like social events, where family, friends, distant relatives(extended families), neighbors are all invited. (Parable of the Wedding Banquet)
• Wedding celebration can last for 2-3, even 7 days or more.

Q. The passage begins with 'On the third day', So what was is it referring to? What was Jesus' schedule like?

Let us trace back to Jesus' schedule for that week. Take a note of 'The next day' at the beginning of each verse.

Europeans are world's heaviest drinkers - WHO report

A barmaid pours a pint of beer at The Builders Arms pub in east London


LONDON (Reuters) - People in Europe drink more alcohol than in any other part of the world, downing the equivalent of 12.5 litres of pure alcohol a year or almost three glasses of wine a day, according to report by the World Health Organisation and the European Commission.

But while the title of world's heaviest drinkers goes to the European Union as whole, where consumption is almost double the world average, there are also wide variations in drinking levels between sub-regions, as well as big differences in how frequently, where and when people drink.

Zsuzsanna Jakab, the WHO's regional director for Europe, said Europe's "dubious honour" of having double the global average alcohol consumption has "clear, recognized health consequences for drinkers, those around them and society."

In a breakdown of drinking by sub-region, the heaviest drinkers were in central-eastern and eastern Europe - consuming 14.5 litres of pure alcohol per adult per year compared to 12.4 litres in central-western and western Europe, 11.2 litres in southern Europe and 10.4 litres in Nordic countries.

But the report found a different picture when it analysed these data weighted against indicators of so-called hazardous drinking - such as drinking outside mealtimes, drinking in public places and irregular, heavy so-called "binge" drinking.

In this context, Nordic countries clocked a hazardous drinking score of 2.8 - in a range where 1 is least detrimental and 5 is most detrimental - while central-eastern and eastern Europe scored only slightly higher at 2.9.

Central-western and western Europe and southern Europe had hazardous drinking scores of 1.5 and 1.1 respectively.

The report noted that there are more than 40 alcohol-related illnesses and disorders, including alcohol dependence and harmful alcohol use, liver disease, alcohol-induced chronic pancreatitis, alcohol poisoning, and fetal alcohol syndrome.

There are also many more problems where alcohol can be a contributing factor, such as injuries and deaths from road crashes as well as illnesses like cancer and heart disease.

The report found that in the European Union (EU), almost 12 percent of all deaths in 2004 among people aged 15-64 were due to alcohol - equivalent to 1 in 7 deaths in men and 1 in 13 deaths in women. Just over 3 percent of deaths were due to alcohol consumed by others.

Worldwide, some 2.5 million people die each year from the harmful use of alcohol, accounting for about 3.8 percent of all deaths, according to previous WHO data.

Steps to curb alcohol use also feature three times in the WHO's top 10 "best buys" for public health policies to reduce the burden of chronic diseases, which kill 36 million people a year worldwide.

The WHO backs policies such as regulating alcohol pricing, targeting drink-driving and restricting alcohol marketing which it says have been shown to be effective in cutting drinking levels. "The alcohol-related burden on health in Europe is avoidable," Jakab said.

(Reporting by Kate Kelland)

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/europeans-worlds-heaviest-drinkers-report-194109394.html