The Bible, The Truth, The Word of GOD. Pass It On!

CAST YOUR VISION AND EXPECT A BIG CATCH by Pastor DaRhonda

That's My King!

Discouragement

Psalm 16:7-11

Discouragement is a powerful, destructive force. Before we can understand how to rid our lives of this deadly landmine, we must recognize its harmful nature.

Understand that discouragement...

1. Is something we choose. Nobody else can make us discouraged; it is a choice that we alone make when facing disappointments.

2. Is universal. Everybody will face periods of disappointment and discouragement from time to time. This simply cannot be avoided, because we live in a seriously flawed world that is filled with equally flawed people.

3. Can recur. Sometimes we think we've settled an issue, which later resurfaces when we least expect it. Or, we may have old emotional wounds that are torn open by something a person says or does.

4. Can be temporary--or it can destroy our life. The choice is ours. If we refuse to deal with discouragement head-on, we are opening the door for it to completely dominate our life.

5. Is conquerable. With the Lord's help, we can choose not to be discouraged. If we don't believe discouragement can be conquered, then we're actually saying that God doesn't want His children to have a rich and fulfilled life.

Are you stuck in the throes of discouragement? If so, it will simply be impossible to experience the peace and inner joy that God wants for His children. Let Him help you out of that lowly state: start by believing that the Father wants to lift you up and get your life back on track with Him.

For more biblical teaching and resources from Dr. Charles Stanley, please visit www.intouch.org
and
click here to listen to Dr. Stanley at OnePlace.com.

A Man Fell in a Hole

Ask Yourself This Question: Who is Stopping You From Building Your Life?

Sit down in a quite place and ask yourself this simple question; "why am I where I am right now in my life?"

Now if you come up with an answer that has ANYTHING to do with you being where you are because of; a person, an institution or a group of people, then you are in bondage to that particular person, institution or group of people. There is NO hope for you if they are the ones to blame for being where you are right now.

You may say, well God is my vengeance and he is faithful and he will provide; you are ABSOLUTELY correct in saying that, however you have to know God and his way’s in order for him to Bless you.

There is a very popular story in the Bible that everyone is familiar with both believers and non believers; the story of Noah, the building of the ark and the Great flood. God said he will Bless Noah and his whole family and save them from destruction because Noah was a man of God, a man of integrity.

This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. - Genesis 6:9 (NIV)

God told Noah to build an ark and gave detailed instructions on how to do it and by nature supplied him with all the resources he needed to build it.

Very interesting story; why did God instruct Noah to build the ark; couldn’t God have just built it for him? Noah was NOT a carpenter, I am sure he had a lot of real good excuses to not build the ark and he was surrounded by a world of Godless Evil people who most likely did everything they could to make fun and discourage him, you can only imagine.

God will give you EVERYTHING in life that you need in order for his Blessings to “rain” down on you; however you must build the ark yourself despite your circumstances. God Bless. – Chris Stevenson. 

Feel free to leave a comment below.



Reference: The Holy Bible ; Genesis Chapter 6

BATTING MY EYELASHES AT YOU

BATTING MY EYELASHES AT YOU

By Janet Perez Eckles

A baby camel asked his mother, "Why do we have such large hoofs on our feet?"
She turned to him. "God made us that way for a very special reason," and she began her explanation. "The big hoofs are to keep us from sinking into the sand."
"Oh! So why do we have long eyelashes?"
"It's to protect our eyes from the sand."

"Why the big humps?"

"That is to store fat and have enough energy to go long distances in the hot desert!"

"I see!" the baby camel stretched his neck and looked up at his mother, "The big hoofs are to keep from sinking into the sand, the long eyelashes are to keep the sand out of our eyes, and the humps are to store energy to travel long distances.then what are we doing in this cage in the middle of a zoo?"

Like the camel, I had asked the same kind of questions. When my blindness set in, I initially locked myself in a cage of self-pity and bitterness.
Weary from pacing within that gloomy cage, something nudged me to see beyond my circumstance and unfortunate plight.

Heavens! What was I thinking? Those bars were self-imposed. But worst of all, I'd supported them with the cold metal of my negative attitude.

Eventually, eagerness to leave my stuffy cell of discontent prompted me to open my ears to hear a reassuring whisper--God had created me for much more.
Itching to break free, I broke down those bars and stepped out into the desert of life. I trudged through the heat with determination and drive. I endured the blistering sun with perseverance and tenacity. I quenched my thirst with fresh inspiration and encouragement. And the hooves of confidence kept me from sinking into the sand of insecurity.

Thinking ahead, I made sure I'd stored a healthy supply of wisdom and positive attitude to take me through the long haul.

Goodness gracious. Each time I reached another point in my journey, my eyes saw a whole new world with opportunities to make a difference. Best of all, I was delighted with the affirmation that I was indeed created for much more!
Bars come in all sizes and shapes. Some are physical; others are emotional or even mental. But none can withstand the force of determination that breaks them down. The effort is worth it and the results, simply amazing!
So, batting my long eyelashes to keep out the sand of discouragement, I challenge you: Step back and peek at what bars limit you. Take a deep breath, Break them down, and emerge into the freshness of a new life.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Janet Perez Eckles lacks physical sight, but uses her insight to impart inspirational messages across the country. She's a freelance writer, and contributor to seven books including the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. She authored "Trials of Today, Treasures For Tomorrow: Overcoming Adversities in Life."

She offers encouragement to splash joy into your day at: http://www.janetperezeckles.com

The Work Begins!

June 2

Read Ezra 3 -- 5

Highlights In Today's Reading:

The work begins! Check their priorities -- the altar is rebuilt and then burnt offerings (3:2-3). The foundation is finished (3:10-13) and enemies slander and complain to Darius the king (5:8).

Zerubbabel and the returning Jews left the luxuries of Persia for the hardships of Jerusalem. What once had been the glorious promised land was now a heap of rubble. Houses needed to be rebuilt and the fields had not been plowed for over half a century. But spiritual needs must come first.

It may have seemed "reasonable," humanly speaking, to first build their own houses. Instead, they chose to build the Altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings thereon, as it is written in the Law of Moses (3:2). This act of faith took place about four months after the Israelites had left Babylon. The Feast of Trumpets was celebrated as required (Lev. 23:24; Ezra 3:6), and 14 days later the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 23:34; Ezra 3:4).

This was followed by the difficult task of laying the foundation of the Temple. After the builders laid the foundation (3:10) they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord (3:11). After the foundation of the Temple was laid, the priests, the trumpeters, and the Levites began praising the Lord and giving thanks.

At first the Israelites set aside self-interests until they had restored true worship; but then, as weeks became months the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building. . . . and made them to cease by force and power (4:4,23).
As the people began building their own homes, the construction of the Temple ceased for about 14 years. But, once the Word and authority of God were recognized, the people again began to build the House of God (5:2). Fourteen years before, the hostile crowd made them to cease (4:23). But this time they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah (6:14). Listening to the Word of God by Haggai and Zechariah, they builded, and finished it (the Temple), according to the Commandment of the God of Israel (6:14).

Deciding to "serve the Lord" by no means guarantees a life free from problems. To the contrary! Satan will use his power to convince us that we cannot -- at least now -- finish the task we have set out to accomplish.
However, the Word of God is the source of strength by which His children cannot by force be defeated. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds (II Cor. 10:4).
Thought for Today:

Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. . . . Above all. . . . take . . . the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God: Praying always . . . with all perseverance and supplication (Eph. 6:11,16-18).

Christ Revealed:

Through the great (huge) stones used in building the Temple of God (Ezra 5:8). Jesus Christ is the Stone which the builders refused (rejected) and He has become the Head Stone of the Corner (Cornerstone) of our faith (Ps. 118:22; Matt. 21:42).

Word Studies:

3:3 his bases = its original foundation; 3:8 set forward oversee; 3:11 by course = by the assigned divisions of priests; 4:4 weakened the hands of = discouraged and frightened; 5:10 certify = inform.

Prayer Needs:

Pray for English International Shortwave Broadcasts sponsored by Franklin Lancaster and Nancy Golpe • Radio Sri Lanka Broadcasts sponsored by Nancy Golpe • Bible Pathway Media Producer: Rick Hash • Government Official: Rep. Michael Rogers (MI) • Country: Niger (10 million) in west-central Africa • Major languages: French and Hausa • Christian evangelism is limited • 89% Muslim; 10% animist; .4% Christian • Prayer Suggestion: Give thanks for the privilege of assembling with other Christians each week (Heb. 10:25).

Optional Reading: II Corinthians 4
Memory Verse for the Week: Matthew 6:31

Why Did Jesus Come? By Greg Laurie

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind. . . ."

— Luke 4:18

No doctor can heal a broken heart. He or she may be able to treat other ailments you might have. But no physician can get to the source of a broken heart—and a broken heart is a very real thing when you have experienced one.

Your heart may be broken right now. Maybe it is from the loss of a loved one or from a lost romance. Perhaps it is broken because of constant failure. Maybe your children have let you down. Maybe your parents have let you down. Maybe your husband or wife has let you down.

Jesus came to heal the brokenhearted, and only He can heal a broken heart. So if you have a broken heart today, let Him heal it.

Jesus also came to bring deliverance to the captives. The Bible teaches that before we became believers, we were spiritual prisoners-of-war who were held captive by the devil, the god of this world (see 2 Timothy 2:26).

Jesus came to free us. He can unlock the door, but we must walk through it. Let Him set you free.

He came to bring recovery of sight to the blind. Before we were Christians, we were spiritually blind (see 2 Corinthians 4:3–4). Jesus wants to open your eyes to what is true. Let Him.

Are you brokenhearted? Are you under the power of some sin? The same Jesus who walked this earth, died on a cross, and rose from the dead loves you. And He came to set you free.

Copyright © 2009 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Bible text from the New King James Version is not to be reproduced in copies or otherwise by any means except as permitted in writing by Thomas Nelson, Inc., Attn: Bible Rights and Permissions, P.O. Box 141000, Nashville, TN 37214-1000

Original Blog Post: http://www.harvest.org/devotional/archive/devotion.html?date=2009-06-02

THE TRUE MEANING OF TURN THE OTHER CHEEK

THE TRUE MEANING OF TURN THE OTHER CHEEK

Both the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi said Jesus' Sermon on the Mount provided the foundation for their political protests. Yet the Sermon on the Mount seems to recommend passive acceptance of injustice and oppression. According to Matthew 5:39-41, Jesus says:

If any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also.

If anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give him your cloak as well.

If any one forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.

For much of Christian history, people have heard these verses as affirming political acquiescence, not active resistance. Yet King and Gandhi interpreted Jesus as justifying political action. Which interpretation was right? Recent Jesus scholarship suggests these verses are creative non-violent strategies of protesting oppression. Such is the persuasive argument of New Testament scholar Walter Wink.

In his books "Engaging the Powers" and "The Powers That Be," Wink argues that Jesus rejected two common ways of responding to injustice: violent resistance and passive acceptance. Instead, Jesus advocated a "third way," an assertive but non-violent form of protest.

The key to understanding Wink's argument is rigorous attention to the social customs of the Jewish homeland in the first century and what these sayings would have meant in that context.

To illustrate with the saying about turning the other cheek: it specifies that the person has been struck on the right cheek. How can you be struck on the right cheek? As Wink emphasizes, you have to act this out in order to get the point: you can be struck on the right cheek only by an overhand blow with the left hand, or with a backhand blow from the right hand. (Try it).

But in that world, people did not use the left hand to strike people. It was reserved for "unseemly" uses. Thus, being struck on the right cheek meant that one had been backhanded with the right hand. Given the social customs of the day, a backhand blow was the way a superior hit an inferior, whereas one fought social equals with fists.

This means the saying presupposes a setting in which a superior is beating a peasant. What should the peasant do? "Turn the other cheek." What would be the effect? The only way the superior could continue the beating would be with an overhand blow with the fist--which would have meant treating the peasant as an equal.

Perhaps the beating would not have been stopped by this. But for the superior, it would at the very least have been disconcerting: he could continue the beating only by treating the peasant as a social peer. As Wink puts it, the peasant was in effect saying, "I am your equal. I refuse to be humiliated anymore." That is not all. The sayings about "going the second mile" and "giving your cloak to one who sues you for your coat" make a similar point: they suggest creative non-violent ways of protesting oppression.

Roman law permitted soldiers to force civilians to carry their gear for one mile, but because of abuses stringently prohibited more than one mile. If they ask you to do that, Jesus says, go ahead; but then carry their gear a second mile. Put them in a disconcerting situation: either they risk getting in trouble, or they will have to wrestle their gear back from you.

Under civil law, a coat could be confiscated for non-payment of debt. For the poor, the coat often also served as a blanket at night. In that world, the only other garment typically worn by a peasant was an inner garment, a cloak. So if they take your coat, Jesus says, give them your cloak as well. "Strip naked," as Wink puts it. Show them what the system is doing to you. Moreover, in that world, nakedness shamed the person who observed it. Thus, these sayings from the Sermon on the Mount, these seemingly mild sayings, are actually potent ways of confounding and exposing injustice.

King and Gandhi may not have been aware of the finer points of modern Biblical scholarship, but they were no doubt clear that Jesus was counseling a radical new way of empowering the underclass.

And so, those little verses from the Gospel of Matthew are the foundation upon which King and Gandhi built their world-moving campaigns for social justice.

A CHANCE TO LIVE

A CHANCE TO LIVE

By Ed Mitchell

Your choice to donate was so right.
 Written to honor the unknown family from Arizona who in December 2000 donated the gift of life in a time of grief -upon the death of a child.


My first kidney transplant was in July 1991 and ended in just 3 months. After serious infections a donated kidney showed signs of failure, its removal was inevitable to save my life. As signs of rejection occurred it brought all kinds of actions by my transplant team. Next as I slip into a coma my family was given little hope I would live. God would intervene and use the skills provided by the team to bring back my life and avoid death at the age of 37. At one point, I was given no hope of survival, but I did, despite all odds. Although all this happened it was still the best course of action because it allowed me an opportunity to prevent the dreaded alternative of dialysis 3 times a week. During those months, I learned that an organ transplant is a treatment and not a cure and comes with many pitfalls.


After 10 years on dialysis a true miracle occurred when on December 6, 2000. I received a call from the transplant team that a possible match was available. Transplantation is so unlike other surgery or hospital stays. First the long awaited call comes without warning telling me that a kidney is available. In moments, by my acceptance I implied my willingness to do everything possible to keep as healthy as possible in preparation for the major operation the following day. Also I knew this time by my acceptance that it would bring daily activities, sinceas I would have to constantly be diligent to follow my doctor's advice and follow endless preventative measures to insure that "Nick", my donated kidney would work long and give me a more productive life.
Please know that I will always remember my donor's sacrifice and my donor family's special love, and that while I am not keeping your child alive, by your choice I am keeping your gift of life, the kidney alive. Please know that it is a most humbling experience to get a donation from an unanticipated death of a child, your most precious possession. I knew it took all of your own inward courage to donate while still grieving and to give to me a stranger the gift of life.
By making the choice to accept the kidney I have learned in time to deal with the sometimes-overwhelming feelings and found the inward strength needed to conquer those feelings. In part that has happened due to your love, which has helped me, deal with all the feelings that come from just being so grateful to receive this kidney and end my many years of weekly dialysis.
Since 2000 Nick has worked great and while I have often faced additional problems over the years I have been able to start working again. I have also discovered that what is most important is that I continue to know where my true confidence and strength lies and that it's not within myself but in my strong belief and faith in God that has helped me to a greater understanding of situations, and to get through whatever happens in my life's journey as well as my final destination.
I close with my prayer for you, and all organ donors that you too will also find a joy and peace from God by knowing you made the right choice when you gave the gift of life.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ed Mitchell, 53 divorced and lives in Orlando, Florida. He enjoys swimming, camping, and RV. He is an Eagle and Moose and active in church and the transplant community having received 2 kidney transplants.



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Maintaining Honesty and Integrity by Jim Rohn

Maintaining Honesty and Integrity by Jim Rohn (excerpted from Cultivating an Unshakable Character)

For a leader, honesty and integrity are absolutely essential to survival. A lot of business people don't realize how closely they're being watched by their subordinates. Remember when you were a kid in grammar school, how you used to sit there staring at your teacher all day? By the end of the school year, you could do a perfect imitation of all your teacher's mannerisms. You were aware of the slightest nuances in your teacher's voice - all the little clues that distinguished levels of meaning that told you the difference between bluff and "now I mean business".
And you were able to do that after eight or nine months of observation. Suppose you had five or 10 years. Do you think there would have been anything about your teacher you didn't know?
Now fast forward and use that analogy as a manager. Do you think there's anything your people don't know about you right this minute? If you haven't been totally aboveboard and honest with them, do you really think you've gotten away with it? Not too likely. But if you've been led to believe that you've gotten away with it, there might be a good probability that people are afraid of you, and that's a problem in its own right.
But there is another side of this coin. In any organization, people want to believe in their leaders. If you give them reason to trust you, they're not going to go looking for reasons to think otherwise, and they'll be just as perceptive about your positive qualities as they are about the negative ones.
A situation that happened some years ago at a company in the Midwest illustrates this perfectly. The wife of a new employee experienced complications in the delivery of a baby. There was a medical bill of more than $10,000, and the health insurance company didn't want to cover it. The employee hadn't been on the payroll long enough, the pregnancy was a preexisting condition, etc,etc,..
In any case, the employee was desperate. He approached the company CEO and asked him to talk to the insurance people. The CEO agreed, and the next thing the employee knew, the bill was gone and the charges were rescinded.
Then he told some colleagues about the way the CEO had so readily used his influence with the insurance company, they just shook their heads and smiled. The CEO had paid the bill out of his own pocket, and everybody knew it, no matter how quietly it had been done.
Now an act of dishonesty can't be hidden either, and it will instantly undermine the authority of a leader. But an act of integrity and kindness like the example above is just as obvious to all concerned. When you're in a leadership position, you have the choice of how you will be seen, but you will be seen one way or the other, make no mistake about it.
One of the most challenging areas of leadership is your family. Leadership of a family demands even higher standards of honesty and integrity, and the stakes are higher too. You can replace disgruntled employees and start over. You can even get a new job for yourself, if it comes to that. But your family can't be shuffled like a deck of cards. If you haven't noticed, kids are great moral philosophers, especially as they get into adolescence. They're determined to discover and expose any kind of hypocrisy, phoniness, or lack of integrity on the part of authority figures, and if we're parents, that means us. It's frightening how unforgiving kids can be about this, but it really isn't a conscious decision on their part; it's just a necessary phase of growing up.
They're testing everything, especially their parents.
As a person of integrity yourself, you'll find it easy to teach integrity to your kids, and they in turn will find it easy to accept you as a teacher. This is a great opportunity and also a supreme responsibility, because kids simply must be taught to tell the truth: to mean what they say and to say what they mean.
Praise is one of the world's most effective teaching and leadership tools. Criticism and blame, even if deserved, are counterproductive unless all other approaches have failed.
Now for the other side of the equation, we all know people who have gotten ahead as a result of dishonest or unethical behavior. When you're a kid, you might naively think that never happens, but when you get older, you realize that it does. Then you think you've really wised up. But that's not the real end of it. When you get older, you see the long-term consequences of dishonest gain, and you realize that in the end it doesn't pay.
“Hope of dishonest gain is the beginning of loss.’ I don't think that old saying refers to loss of money. I think it actually means loss of self-respect. You can have all the material things in the world, but if you've lost respect for yourself, what do you really have? The only way to ever attain success and enjoy it is to achieve it honestly with pride in what you've done.
This isn't just a sermon, it's very practical advice. Not only can you take it to heart - you can take it to the bank.
To Your Success,
Jim Rohn

Perfect for a new graduate, Jim Rohn's Cultivating an Unshakable Character provides an inspirational look at the 12 pillars of character, the inner resources that support and sustain you on your journey through life. It's now available at great savings as part of our special graduation gifts offer. For complete details, go to http://graduation.jimrohn.com

Social Networking & G.P.T. & Home Based Business OR MLM STOP THE MADNESS! (Part 1)

Social Networking and G.P.T and Home Based Business OR MLM STOP THE MADNESS!

How many people can be out their branding themselves? What will be the next Social Networking Buzz and how soon will it fade away? How much do I REALLY have to spend and who is REALLY making the Money? These are the questions I will answer and a lot more as I reveal the truth behind the “New Way” of building a network marketing business and Social Network websites and the internet as a whole. Network Marketing is a relationship business and the “old School” techniques are NOT dead, they are simply being done a new way with new marketing tools such as the Internet.

Let me make this clear, the Internet is a GREAT way to build your business and social media websites are awesome, however these are just tools and not a means to an end and are NOT need to start a real network marketing home based business. Network Marketing has been around WAY before the Internet, how do you think the Mega Companies became so successful with out it? The same way the REAL network marketing Companies are doing it now… Online and Offline… New and Old.

There are businesses out their creating “systems” that are doing very well, however they are all going to be short lived and many will loose out and not make true time freedom wealth. These are the business system that gives Network Marketing a bad name.

Here is what is happening:

There are self proclaimed Social Network Marketing “Gurus” Popping up EVERYWHERE, how many guru’s can there be?

They ALL are selling products teaching you business skills, yes a lot of these skill are great information and rooted from the “Old School” such wisdom from Business Skill Giants like Dale Carnegie, Napoleon Hill, Jim Rohn and Zig Ziglar to name a few. As Robert Kiyosaki would say, “It’s NOT money that makes you Rich, its Business Skills” However, what is really going on is these companies selling these products which are just DVD, EBooks, CDs and online videos are being sold to network marketers who are “struggling” for people to join their business.

OK so what is wrong with that?

Nothing expect that these guru’s are telling these network marketers that they will show them how to get thousands of leads for their business, however what they are NOT telling them is the business they are talking about is their business selling these “How to” products, NOT their business. What they do is downplay these network marketers own business by calling them “Primary” business, now if you have a “primary” business it only means you have a secondary, however the FACT is you cannot build two NM businesses, there is a HUGE conflict of interest and since their business “looks” easier and the initial investment is less, everyone is going to focus on the so called “secondary” business which is their business, that is as far as their “Genius” business system goes, if you want to call deceiving people genius!

What they are NOT telling You.

They are NOT telling you how much you need to invest in advertising to generate these thousand of leads and even if they have some great “on a budget” tips and tricks to get all the Google and blog hits its going to cost over $500 a month and a lot of blogging to accomplish this no matter how you look at it; a huge investment and a huge learning curve and a lot of time.

They are also NOT telling you that there will be thousands of people just like you in which they have to compete with and they all will have the same cookie cutter websites and all be NM Gurus. Oh yes they will show you how to “brand” yourself by creating some video of yourself telling struggling network marketers lies, telling them what they want to hear not what they need to hear. Most network marketers fail because they do not follow their upline system or the system they are in is the problem or they are told that they will make money instantly; well these Guys are telling you the same thing. The real NM Companies don’t do this and most people quit because they do not want to put in the work.

Let me explain one type of trick they are using I like to call the “I was in that business” trick.

They use internet keywords of other Network Marketing Company names to attract these network marketers Most of these companies they use are VERY successful reputable companies that are in the health and wellness industry which are selling consumable products that create real residual time freedom income and they make these websites say that they were also in your business and failed miserably because they did not have a system like they have now. They will say things like OH I had to Cold call these people and get rejected and how I had to sell products and beg people to join my business and so on.

They are Lying, because if you change their link and replace your company name with another company name, it will say the same thing about how they where in another company. I have done this one time with over 10 company’s names and again and again their web page talked about how they where in Company ABC… how many companies can you be in? Really give me a break! I am tempted to put an example in this message however I refuse to name any of these businesses; I am not looking to point out any of these Guys for two reasons.

1. It is very clear who these so called gurus are, as you know they spend thousands and make their team members spend thousands to get top Google rankings, so they are everywhere and they brag about it to and show you!
2. If I mention a company then I will just get a bunch of comments from these Guys defending their business system, this way if they do comment, I can tell them I never mentioned your business… I guess you know who you are.

So you may be thinking again, so what is wrong with all this, the idea is to make money and it is CLEAR that these guys are making money. Well if you want to make money lying to people then go ahead and if you want to make non residual money that is depended on lies from the top, then have fun and see how long the ride will last.

Speaking of lying, here is another thing they do and that is showing you how much they are making. I call this the “look at my checks” trick. They got handfuls of checks or they show you their PayPal accounts with huge totals, the funny thing is these pictures are mostly from their guru at the top, think about this for a moment. Let’s say you join one of these systems how in the world will you instantly have ALL these checks to flash and show people on your webpage? THINK about it! Of course you will not so you have to lie again and again.

No harm in that you might think, if that is how you ride, then go join them.

I have been emailed a thousand times by these Guys in all shapes and sizes. I just put up a YouTube video up and no sooner than 10 minutes I get one of these guru’s telling me in a comment how they can show me how to get thousands of hits to my YouTube site. WOW that is cool, however again they are NOT talking about the video or my YouTube channel I just posted about my business.

So what do we have to offer?

We have to offer one thing and that is The Truth… take it or leave it. Here is how our Fast Track To 20K business system works.

1. We are part of a Company that has broken ALL Growth Records in its industry that sells recession-proof consumable products that people love and order month after month year after year.
2. Our business system requires No Selling of products, no time and money wasted on advertising or marketing because our system combines all of this for each team member and everyone works together.
3. You will never have to invest no more than $8.33 a day in your business and you will learn true time after time tested “old School” business skills that have NEVER failed for any business model including network marketing.
4. You will create REAL relationships between you and your Sponsor that goes beyond automated “no reply” emails and cookie cutter websites.
5. You will be accountable to your Goals and Dreams because of our unique contractual agreement which holds both you and your Sponsor accountable to both of your Goals and Dreams and you will be working with people of integrity, who are honest, teachable and know how to follow instructions which DO NOT include blogging, social media sites or spending thousands on generating Google hits. You will be learn real business skills that will change the way you see business and money, you will learn how the wealthy make money and how they keep it for a lifetime.
6. You will NOT be begging people to join your business, instead you will be offering positions to people you pick for REAL growing positions in your business. NO cold calling as well, you will be in contact with people who are waiting for you to call them and are looking to fulfill their Goals and Dreams within their lifetime and their children’s lifetime for decades to come.

Friends Can Drag You Down

What I want to share with you here has a lot to do with your friends. Please keep reading!

If you live in a home, I'm certain you have an idea what the houses are going for in your neighborhood. Depending on how long you have been living in your home, you might even know how much your house has appreciated over the years.

Although sometimes, depending on the location or the economy, your house may depreciate. If that's the case, you need to move. Find yourself a better neighborhood.

I am sure you have heard that your network determines your net worth? Now, my question to you is how is your net worth? Okay, let's get back to the real estate concept.

How do you think appraisers come up with the value of a home? Most likely they research your area to find out what prices houses have been selling for. Based on their findings, they put a price tag on yours.

Of course, there are other factors to it. The condition of your home is one of them. But I guarantee you that what other houses around the block are selling for have a huge factor. Basically, the value of your home is directly related to the value of the homes within the area.

Consider your friends. Just like your home, your value is directly related to the value of your friends. So, if you have a bunch of friends who are struggling and making low income, it will have a direct reflection on your personal value. It's all about your network!

Like the old adage says, “Tell me who you hang out with and I’ll tell who you are.” Well, in this case, it’s “I’ll tell you what you have.” Take a moment to let this sink in. You may agree or disagree. But it’s really true! There’s a good reason why birds of a feather flock together.

The rule of thumb is to always surround yourself with people who will help increase your net worth–your value. Does that make sense? It should.

Let’s see, take a good inventory of your friends. How productive are they? Do they have a great monthly income? Do they spend their money foolishly? Do they invest in personal development? Do they talk about negative and petty things? Do they have mentors? Do they have a solid plan for the future? Are they focused and committed?

I can go on and on with those questions. But my point is very simple. Do not surround yourself with people who will depreciate your value. Make a mental note of this: You become who you hang with.

The reality is, even your language will change depending on the friends you spend time with. Personally, I start using certain words in my conversations based on who I spend my days with. You might think that you are not easily influenced. But no man or woman is exempt from falling under the influence of another.

Listen, I don’t know you. Well, maybe I do. But whether I do or not, your entire life and situation at the moment is a direct reflection of the people whom you surround yourself with. Period. If you want more or a better life, eliminate your present cabinet. Act as if there’s a new president in office.

I really do hope that I’m making sense to you. Many years ago, I had some friends who were up to no good. At the time, I didn’t know it. I’m sure you might not be aware of it either. But, over time, as I began to change my mindset and have better focus on exactly where I want to be in the future, my network automatically began to shift.

That’s amazing! Some of the people who were my friends slowly began to evaporate from my life. And you know what? It wasn’t my doing. I didn’t wake up one day and say, No. Somehow, we just lost touch. Even when we meet, the conversation is always short. Why? Again, it’s not intentional. We simply don’t have too much in common anymore.

That’s not to say because I have achieved some level of success, I’m dumping my friends. Of course not. Many of the people I knew long ago are still friends. But you can bet they, too, are moving upward. They are progressing just like I am. Everything on this earth is either contracting or expanding. I want to expand! Don’t you?

By the way, I do try very hard to bring friends with me where I’m heading. But many refuse. And I find no need to drag myself down with them while trying to save them. I hope you feel the same way, too.

My advice to you is to never let friends drag you down and depreciate your value. Lovingly zap them out of your life. Simply put, love them, be there if they need you, but guard your mind diligently so that they don’t depreciate your value.

Finally, if the quality of your life is not appreciating, it’s depreciating. Maybe your neighborhood is going down. I am talking about your friends and environment. Then you need to move! Find yourself a better and more valuable neighborhood.

To your success,
Rene Godefroy


Original Post at http://villagehero.com/blog/friends-can-drag-you-down

Beeronomics: Ten Men drinking Beer and your Taxes

Beeronomics: Ten Men drinking Beer and your Taxes

I’m going to share with you a great analogy to how the American Tax System works.
This is best I have ever seen this described. Make sure you pay close attention because it’s a good lesson why it’s important to be an Entrepreneur and more importantly why you should be wealthy. This guy is a genius and we could use more people like him.
Written by: David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics, University of Georgia.
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer, and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.

The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that’s what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. ‘Since you are all such good customers, he said, I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his ‘fair share?’

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay!
And so: The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing–(100% or 0% savings).

The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 —————(33% savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7———— (28% savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12———— (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 ————(22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59———— (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.
‘I only got a dollar out of the $20, ‘declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, ‘but he got $10!’

‘Yeah, that’s right,’ exclaimed the fifth man. ‘I only saved a dollar, too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more than I!’

‘That’s true!!’ shouted the seventh man. ‘Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!’

‘Wait a minute,’ yelled the first four men in unison. ‘We didn’t get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!’ The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction.

Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

I hope you enjoyed the lesson in Beeronomics…

I couldn’t have said it any better. One things for sure either we better get educated about who we elect to keep taxes down or we’re all going to have to sober up!
Go ahead right now and leave a comment below.

I would really like your thoughts on what you just learned.

Running A Successful Business

Consumable Product, it just make Home Business sense

When it comes to running a successful home based business that can pay you for years and years to come, there are several important factors to consider when choosing a company to run with.
First, you want to market a consumable product that has a high demand in the marketplace.

This will ensure that when the bottle or jar is empty, people want to re-order or purchase again to continue to receive the fantastic benefits of the product.
This element alone creates what is called "product attachment" which will allow YOU to earn income for years and even decades into the future as your customers continually order product direct from your company.

Second, you want to market a Product that has a broad range of benefits, so that it doesn't only appeal to just one niche market, but to everyone, from young to old.
Third, you want to market a product that people want, need and can afford.

And finally, you want to market a product that has a powerful system behind it.
You see, although McDonald's certainly does not have the best tasting hamburger in the world, it sure has the best system in the world for selling lots of hamburgers.

This is why McDonalds is one of the most successful businesses in the history of business.
Their System is everything to their success.

And so will yours be.

Are You on the Right Path?

One of the first things successful people realize is the old adage, "If it is to be, it is up to me." Your success and your course are up to you. Jim Rohn, personal-development icon, says you must ask yourself this question: Are all the disciplines I'm currently engaged in taking me where I want to go?
"What an important question to ask yourself at the beginning of the month, the beginning of the week, the beginning of the day. You don't ever want to kid yourself—hoping you will arrive at a good destination when you're not even headed that way," Rohn says.
Ask yourself if the direction you're headed is what you want for your life and if it's your own direction.
"After you have answered these questions within yourself, then take it one step further and ask, 'What am I doing that is working or not working?' Debate it all," Rohn says. "Let the power of your own ambition take you where you want to go, to do what you want to do, to create the life you want to live."

Enterprise is Better Than Ease by Jim Rohn

If we are involved in a project, how hard should we work at it? How much time should we put in?
Our philosophy about activity and our attitude about hard work will affect the quality of our lives. What we decide about the rightful ratio of labor to rest will establish a certain work ethic. That work ethic - our attitude about the amount of labor we are willing to commit to future fortune - will determine how substantial or how meager that fortune turns out to be.
Enterprise is always better than ease. Every time we choose to do less than we could, this error in judgment has an effect on our self-confidence. Repeated every day, we soon find ourselves not only doing less than we should, but also being less than we could. The accumulative effect of this error in judgment can be devastating.
--- FORTUNATELY, IT IS EASY TO REVERSE THE PROCESS ---
Any day we choose we can develop a new discipline of doing rather than neglecting. Every time we choose action over ease or labor over rest, we develop an increasing level of self-worth, self-respect and self-confidence. In the final analysis, it is how we feel about ourselves that provides the greatest reward from any activity. It is not what we get that makes us valuable, it is what we become in the process of doing that brings value into our lives. It is activity that converts human dreams into human reality, and that conversion from idea into actuality gives us a personal value that can come from no other source.
So feel free to not only engage in enterprise, but also to enjoy it to its fullest along with all the benefits that are soon to come!

To Your Success,
Jim Rohn

Great Advice

Here's some great advice I received from a dear friend:
1. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you walk, smile. It is
the ultimate anti-depressant.
2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day. Talk to God about
what is going on in your life.
3. When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement, 'My
purpose is to __________ today. I am thankful for______________'
4. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that
is manufactured IN plants.
5. Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, wild Alaskan
salmon, broccoli, almonds & walnuts.
6. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
7. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, energy vampires, issues
of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead
invest your energy in the positive present moment.
8. Eat breakfast like a king or queen, lunch like a prince or princess
and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card.
9. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
10. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
11. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
12. You are not so important that you have to win every argument. Agree
to disagree.
13. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.
14. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their
journey is all about.
15. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
16. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: 'In five years,
will this matter?'
17. Forgive everyone for everything.
18. What other people think of you is none of your business.
19. GOD heals everything - but you have to ask and believe and be open
to receive .
20. However good or bad a situation is, it will change. Change is the
only constant.
21. Your job won't take care of you when you are in need. Your friends
will. Stay in touch!!!
22. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
23. Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements: I
am thankful for __________. Today I accomplished _________.
24. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.
25. When you are feeling down, start listing your many blessings.
You'll be smiling before you know it.

Why McDonald's Fries Taste So Good?

Why McDonald's Fries Taste So Good?

THE french fry was "almost sacrosanct for me," Ray Kroc, one of the founders of McDonald's, wrote in his autobiography, "its preparation a ritual to be followed religiously." During the chain's early years french fries were made from scratch every day. Russet Burbank potatoes were peeled, cut into shoestrings, and fried in McDonald's kitchens. As the chain expanded nationwide, in the mid-1960s, it sought to cut labor costs, reduce the number of suppliers, and ensure that its fries tasted the same at every restaurant. McDonald's began switching to frozen french fries in 1966 -- and few customers noticed the difference. Nevertheless, the change had a profound effect on the nation's agriculture and diet. A familiar food had been transformed into a highly processed industrial commodity. McDonald's fries now come from huge manufacturing plants that can peel, slice, cook, and freeze two million pounds of potatoes a day. The rapid expansion of McDonald's and the popularity of its low-cost, mass-produced fries changed the way Americans eat. In 1960 Americans consumed an average of about eighty-one pounds of fresh potatoes and four pounds of frozen french fries. In 2000 they consumed an average of about fifty pounds of fresh potatoes and thirty pounds of frozen fries. Today McDonald's is the largest buyer of potatoes in the United States.

The taste of McDonald's french fries played a crucial role in the chain's success -- fries are much more profitable than hamburgers -- and was long praised by customers, competitors, and even food critics. James Beard loved McDonald's fries. Their distinctive taste does not stem from the kind of potatoes that McDonald's buys, the technology that processes them, or the restaurant equipment that fries them: other chains use Russet Burbanks, buy their french fries from the same large processing companies, and have similar fryers in their restaurant kitchens. The taste of a french fry is largely determined by the cooking oil. For decades McDonald's cooked its french fries in a mixture of about seven percent cottonseed oil and 93 percent beef tallow. The mixture gave the fries their unique flavor -- and more saturated beef fat per ounce than a McDonald's hamburger.

In 1990, amid a barrage of criticism over the amount of cholesterol in its fries, McDonald's switched to pure vegetable oil. This presented the company with a challenge: how to make fries that subtly taste like beef without cooking them in beef tallow. A look at the ingredients in McDonald's french fries suggests how the problem was solved. Toward the end of the list is a seemingly innocuous yet oddly mysterious phrase: "natural flavor." That ingredient helps to explain not only why the fries taste so good but also why most fast food -- indeed, most of the food Americans eat today -- tastes the way it does.

Open your refrigerator, your freezer, your kitchen cupboards, and look at the labels on your food. You'll find "natural flavor" or "artificial flavor" in just about every list of ingredients. The similarities between these two broad categories are far more significant than the differences. Both are man-made additives that give most processed food most of its taste. People usually buy a food item the first time because of its packaging or appearance. Taste usually determines whether they buy it again. About 90 percent of the money that Americans now spend on food goes to buy processed food. The canning, freezing, and dehydrating techniques used in processing destroy most of food's flavor -- and so a vast industry has arisen in the United States to make processed food palatable. Without this flavor industry today's fast food would not exist. The names of the leading American fast-food chains and their best-selling menu items have become embedded in our popular culture and famous worldwide. But few people can name the companies that manufacture fast food's taste.

The flavor industry is highly secretive. Its leading companies will not divulge the precise formulas of flavor compounds or the identities of clients. The secrecy is deemed essential for protecting the reputations of beloved brands. The fast-food chains, understandably, would like the public to believe that the flavors of the food they sell somehow originate in their restaurant kitchens, not in distant factories run by other firms. A McDonald's french fry is one of countless foods whose flavor is just a component in a complex manufacturing process. The look and the taste of what we eat now are frequently deceiving -- by design.

The Flavor Corridor

THE New Jersey Turnpike runs through the heart of the flavor industry, an industrial corridor dotted with refineries and chemical plants. International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF), the world's largest flavor company, has a manufacturing facility off Exit 8A in Dayton, New Jersey; Givaudan, the world's second-largest flavor company, has a plant in East Hanover. Haarmann & Reimer, the largest German flavor company, has a plant in Teterboro, as does Takasago, the largest Japanese flavor company. Flavor Dynamics has a plant in South Plainfield; Frutarom is in North Bergen; Elan Chemical is in Newark. Dozens of companies manufacture flavors in the corridor between Teaneck and South Brunswick. Altogether the area produces about two thirds of the flavor additives sold in the United States.

The IFF plant in Dayton is a huge pale-blue building with a modern office complex attached to the front. It sits in an industrial park, not far from a BASF plastics factory, a Jolly French Toast factory, and a plant that manufactures Liz Claiborne cosmetics. Dozens of tractor-trailers were parked at the IFF loading dock the afternoon I visited, and a thin cloud of steam floated from a roof vent. Before entering the plant, I signed a nondisclosure form, promising not to reveal the brand names of foods that contain IFF flavors. The place reminded me of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. Wonderful smells drifted through the hallways, men and women in neat white lab coats cheerfully went about their work, and hundreds of little glass bottles sat on laboratory tables and shelves. The bottles contained powerful but fragile flavor chemicals, shielded from light by brown glass and round white caps shut tight. The long chemical names on the little white labels were as mystifying to me as medieval Latin. These odd-sounding things would be mixed and poured and turned into new substances, like magic potions.

I was not invited into the manufacturing areas of the IFF plant, where, it was thought, I might discover trade secrets. Instead I toured various laboratories and pilot kitchens, where the flavors of well-established brands are tested or adjusted, and where whole new flavors are created. IFF's snack-and-savory lab is responsible for the flavors of potato chips, corn chips, breads, crackers, breakfast cereals, and pet food. The confectionery lab devises flavors for ice cream, cookies, candies, toothpastes, mouthwashes, and antacids. Everywhere I looked, I saw famous, widely advertised products sitting on laboratory desks and tables. The beverage lab was full of brightly colored liquids in clear bottles. It comes up with flavors for popular soft drinks, sports drinks, bottled teas, and wine coolers, for all-natural juice drinks, organic soy drinks, beers, and malt liquors. In one pilot kitchen I saw a dapper food technologist, a middle-aged man with an elegant tie beneath his crisp lab coat, carefully preparing a batch of cookies with white frosting and pink-and-white sprinkles. In another pilot kitchen I saw a pizza oven, a grill, a milk-shake machine, and a french fryer identical to those I'd seen at innumerable fast-food restaurants.

In addition to being the world's largest flavor company, IFF manufactures the smells of six of the ten best-selling fine perfumes in the United States, including Estée Lauder's Beautiful, Clinique's Happy, Lancôme's Trésor, and Calvin Klein's Eternity. It also makes the smells of household products such as deodorant, dish washing detergent, bath soap, shampoo, furniture polish, and floor wax. All these aromas are made through essentially the same process: the manipulation of volatile chemicals. The basic science behind the scent of your shaving cream is the same as that governing the flavor of your TV dinner.

"Natural" and "Artificial"

SCIENTISTS now believe that human beings acquired the sense of taste as a way to avoid being poisoned. Edible plants generally taste sweet, harmful ones bitter. The taste buds on our tongues can detect the presence of half a dozen or so basic tastes, including sweet, sour, bitter, salty, astringent, and umami, a taste discovered by Japanese researchers -- a rich and full sense of deliciousness triggered by amino acids in foods such as meat, shellfish, mushrooms, potatoes, and seaweed. Taste buds offer a limited means of detection, however, compared with the human olfactory system, which can perceive thousands of different chemical aromas. Indeed, "flavor" is primarily the smell of gases being released by the chemicals you've just put in your mouth. The aroma of a food can be responsible for as much as 90 percent of its taste.

The act of drinking, sucking, or chewing a substance releases its volatile gases. They flow out of your mouth and up your nostrils, or up the passageway in the back of your mouth, to a thin layer of nerve cells called the olfactory epithelium, located at the base of your nose, right between your eyes. Your brain combines the complex smell signals from your olfactory epithelium with the simple taste signals from your tongue, assigns a flavor to what's in your mouth, and decides if it's something you want to eat.

A person's food preferences, like his or her personality, are formed during the first few years of life, through a process of socialization. Babies innately prefer sweet tastes and reject bitter ones; toddlers can learn to enjoy hot and spicy food, bland health food, or fast food, depending on what the people around them eat. The human sense of smell is still not fully understood. It is greatly affected by psychological factors and expectations. The mind focuses intently on some of the aromas that surround us and filters out the overwhelming majority. People can grow accustomed to bad smells or good smells; they stop noticing what once seemed overpowering. Aroma and memory are somehow inextricably linked. A smell can suddenly evoke a long-forgotten moment. The flavors of childhood foods seem to leave an indelible mark, and adults often return to them, without always knowing why. These "comfort foods" become a source of pleasure and reassurance -- a fact that fast-food chains use to their advantage. Childhood memories of Happy Meals, which come with french fries, can translate into frequent adult visits to McDonald's. On average, Americans now eat about four servings of french fries every week.

HE human craving for flavor has been a largely unacknowledged and unexamined force in history. For millennia royal empires have been built, unexplored lands traversed, and great religions and philosophies forever changed by the spice trade. In 1492 Christopher Columbus set sail to find seasoning. Today the influence of flavor in the world marketplace is no less decisive. The rise and fall of corporate empires -- of soft-drink companies, snack-food companies, and fast-food chains -- is often determined by how their products taste.

The flavor industry emerged in the mid-nineteenth century, as processed foods began to be manufactured on a large scale. Recognizing the need for flavor additives, early food processors turned to perfume companies that had long experience working with essential oils and volatile aromas. The great perfume houses of England, France, and the Netherlands produced many of the first flavor compounds. In the early part of the twentieth century Germany took the technological lead in flavor production, owing to its powerful chemical industry. Legend has it that a German scientist discovered methyl anthranilate, one of the first artificial flavors, by accident while mixing chemicals in his laboratory. Suddenly the lab was filled with the sweet smell of grapes. Methyl anthranilate later became the chief flavor compound in grape Kool-Aid. After World War II much of the perfume industry shifted from Europe to the United States, settling in New York City near the garment district and the fashion houses. The flavor industry came with it, later moving to New Jersey for greater plant capacity. Man-made flavor additives were used mostly in baked goods, candies, and sodas until the 1950s, when sales of processed food began to soar. The invention of gas chromatographs and mass spectrometers -- machines capable of detecting volatile gases at low levels -- vastly increased the number of flavors that could be synthesized. By the mid-1960s flavor companies were churning out compounds to supply the taste of Pop Tarts, Bac-Os, Tab, Tang, Filet-O-Fish sandwiches, and literally thousands of other new foods.

The American flavor industry now has annual revenues of about $1.4 billion. Approximately 10,000 new processed-food products are introduced every year in the United States. Almost all of them require flavor additives. And about nine out of ten of these products fail. The latest flavor innovations and corporate realignments are heralded in publications such as Chemical Market Reporter, Food Chemical News, Food Engineering, and Food Product Design. The progress of IFF has mirrored that of the flavor industry as a whole. IFF was formed in 1958, through the merger of two small companies. Its annual revenues have grown almost fifteenfold since the early 1970s, and it currently has manufacturing facilities in twenty countries.

Today's sophisticated spectrometers, gas chromatographs, and headspace-vapor analyzers provide a detailed map of a food's flavor components, detecting chemical aromas present in amounts as low as one part per billion. The human nose, however, is even more sensitive. A nose can detect aromas present in quantities of a few parts per trillion -- an amount equivalent to about 0.000000000003 percent. Complex aromas, such as those of coffee and roasted meat, are composed of volatile gases from nearly a thousand different chemicals. The smell of a strawberry arises from the interaction of about 350 chemicals that are present in minute amounts. The quality that people seek most of all in a food -- flavor -- is usually present in a quantity too infinitesimal to be measured in traditional culinary terms such as ounces or teaspoons. The chemical that provides the dominant flavor of bell pepper can be tasted in amounts as low as 0.02 parts per billion; one drop is sufficient to add flavor to five average-size swimming pools. The flavor additive usually comes next to last in a processed food's list of ingredients and often costs less than its packaging. Soft drinks contain a larger proportion of flavor additives than most products. The flavor in a twelve-ounce can of Coke costs about half a cent.

The color additives in processed foods are usually present in even smaller amounts than the flavor compounds. Many of New Jersey's flavor companies also manufacture these color additives, which are used to make processed foods look fresh and appealing. Food coloring serves many of the same decorative purposes as lipstick, eye shadow, mascara -- and is often made from the same pigments. Titanium dioxide, for example, has proved to be an especially versatile mineral. It gives many processed candies, frostings, and icings their bright white color; it is a common ingredient in women's cosmetics; and it is the pigment used in many white oil paints and house paints. At Burger King, Wendy's, and McDonald's coloring agents have been added to many of the soft drinks, salad dressings, cookies, condiments, chicken dishes, and sandwich buns.

Studies have found that the color of a food can greatly affect how its taste is perceived. Brightly colored foods frequently seem to taste better than bland-looking foods, even when the flavor compounds are identical. Foods that somehow look off-color often seem to have off tastes. For thousands of years human beings have relied on visual cues to help determine what is edible. The color of fruit suggests whether it is ripe, the color of meat whether it is rancid. Flavor researchers sometimes use colored lights to modify the influence of visual cues during taste tests. During one experiment in the early 1970s people were served an oddly tinted meal of steak and french fries that appeared normal beneath colored lights. Everyone thought the meal tasted fine until the lighting was changed. Once it became apparent that the steak was actually blue and the fries were green, some people became ill.

The federal Food and Drug Administration does not require companies to disclose the ingredients of their color or flavor additives so long as all the chemicals in them are considered by the agency to be GRAS ("generally recognized as safe"). This enables companies to maintain the secrecy of their formulas. It also hides the fact that flavor compounds often contain more ingredients than the foods to which they give taste. The phrase "artificial strawberry flavor" gives little hint of the chemical wizardry and manufacturing skill that can make a highly processed food taste like strawberries.

A typical artificial strawberry flavor, like the kind found in a Burger King strawberry milk shake, contains the following ingredients: amyl acetate, amyl butyrate, amyl valerate, anethol, anisyl formate, benzyl acetate, benzyl isobutyrate, butyric acid, cinnamyl isobutyrate, cinnamyl valerate, cognac essential oil, diacetyl, dipropyl ketone, ethyl acetate, ethyl amyl ketone, ethyl butyrate, ethyl cinnamate, ethyl heptanoate, ethyl heptylate, ethyl lactate, ethyl methylphenylglycidate, ethyl nitrate, ethyl propionate, ethyl valerate, heliotropin, hydroxyphenyl-2-butanone (10 percent solution in alcohol), a-ionone, isobutyl anthranilate, isobutyl butyrate, lemon essential oil, maltol, 4-methylacetophenone, methyl anthranilate, methyl benzoate, methyl cinnamate, methyl heptine carbonate, methyl naphthyl ketone, methyl salicylate, mint essential oil, neroli essential oil, nerolin, neryl isobutyrate, orris butter, phenethyl alcohol, rose, rum ether, g-undecalactone, vanillin, and solvent.

Although flavors usually arise from a mixture of many different volatile chemicals, often a single compound supplies the dominant aroma. Smelled alone, that chemical provides an unmistakable sense of the food. Ethyl-2-methyl butyrate, for example, smells just like an apple. Many of today's highly processed foods offer a blank palette: whatever chemicals are added to them will give them specific tastes. Adding methyl-2-pyridyl ketone makes something taste like popcorn. Adding ethyl-3-hydroxy butanoate makes it taste like marshmallow. The possibilities are now almost limitless. Without affecting appearance or nutritional value, processed foods could be made with aroma chemicals such as hexanal (the smell of freshly cut grass) or 3-methyl butanoic acid (the smell of body odor).

The 1960s were the heyday of artificial flavors in the United States. The synthetic versions of flavor compounds were not subtle, but they did not have to be, given the nature of most processed food. For the past twenty years food processors have tried hard to use only "natural flavors" in their products. According to the FDA, these must be derived entirely from natural sources -- from herbs, spices, fruits, vegetables, beef, chicken, yeast, bark, roots, and so forth. Consumers prefer to see natural flavors on a label, out of a belief that they are more healthful. Distinctions between artificial and natural flavors can be arbitrary and somewhat absurd, based more on how the flavor has been made than on what it actually contains.

"A natural flavor," says Terry Acree, a professor of food science at Cornell University, "is a flavor that's been derived with an out-of-date technology." Natural flavors and artificial flavors sometimes contain exactly the same chemicals, produced through different methods. Amyl acetate, for example, provides the dominant note of banana flavor. When it is distilled from bananas with a solvent, amyl acetate is a natural flavor. When it is produced by mixing vinegar with amyl alcohol and adding sulfuric acid as a catalyst, amyl acetate is an artificial flavor. Either way it smells and tastes the same. "Natural flavor" is now listed among the ingredients of everything from Health Valley Blueberry Granola Bars to Taco Bell Hot Taco Sauce.

A natural flavor is not necessarily more healthful or purer than an artificial one. When almond flavor -- benzaldehyde -- is derived from natural sources, such as peach and apricot pits, it contains traces of hydrogen cyanide, a deadly poison. Benzaldehyde derived by mixing oil of clove and amyl acetate does not contain any cyanide. Nevertheless, it is legally considered an artificial flavor and sells at a much lower price. Natural and artificial flavors are now manufactured at the same chemical plants, places that few people would associate with Mother Nature.

A Trained Nose and a Poetic Sensibility

HE small and elite group of scientists who create most of the flavor in most of the food now consumed in the United States are called "flavorists." They draw on a number of disciplines in their work: biology, psychology, physiology, and organic chemistry. A flavorist is a chemist with a trained nose and a poetic sensibility. Flavors are created by blending scores of different chemicals in tiny amounts -- a process governed by scientific principles but demanding a fair amount of art. In an age when delicate aromas and microwave ovens do not easily co-exist, the job of the flavorist is to conjure illusions about processed food and, in the words of one flavor company's literature, to ensure "consumer likeability." The flavorists with whom I spoke were discreet, in keeping with the dictates of their trade. They were also charming, cosmopolitan, and ironic. They not only enjoyed fine wine but could identify the chemicals that give each grape its unique aroma. One flavorist compared his work to composing music. A well-made flavor compound will have a "top note" that is often followed by a "dry-down" and a "leveling-off," with different chemicals responsible for each stage. The taste of a food can be radically altered by minute changes in the flavoring combination. "A little odor goes a long way," one flavorist told me. From the archives:

"The Million-Dollar Nose," by William Langewiesche (December 2000) Robert Parker Jr. is a plainspoken American with an astonishing gift for judging wine. He is indefatigable and incorruptible, and his numerical rating system is relied on by millions. His taste is changing the way wine is made and sold. Naturally, the French hate him. Naturally, they honor him. In order to give a processed food a taste that consumers will find appealing, a flavorist must always consider the food's "mouthfeel" -- the unique combination of textures and chemical interactions that affect how the flavor is perceived. Mouthfeel can be adjusted through the use of various fats, gums, starches, emulsifiers, and stabilizers. The aroma chemicals in a food can be precisely analyzed, but the elements that make up mouthfeel are much harder to measure. How does one quantify a pretzel's hardness, a french fry's crispness? Food technologists are now conducting basic research in rheology, the branch of physics that examines the flow and deformation of materials. A number of companies sell sophisticated devices that attempt to measure mouthfeel. The TA.XT2i Texture Analyzer, produced by the Texture Technologies Corporation, of Scarsdale, New York, performs calculations based on data derived from as many as 250 separate probes. It is essentially a mechanical mouth. It gauges the most-important rheological properties of a food -- bounce, creep, breaking point, density, crunchiness, chewiness, gumminess, lumpiness, rubberiness, springiness, slipperiness, smoothness, softness, wetness, juiciness, spreadability, springback, and tackiness.

Some of the most important advances in flavor manufacturing are now occurring in the field of biotechnology. Complex flavors are being made using enzyme reactions, fermentation, and fungal and tissue cultures. All the flavors created by these methods -- including the ones being synthesized by fungi -- are considered natural flavors by the FDA. The new enzyme-based processes are responsible for extremely true-to-life dairy flavors. One company now offers not just butter flavor but also fresh creamy butter, cheesy butter, milky butter, savory melted butter, and super-concentrated butter flavor, in liquid or powder form. The development of new fermentation techniques, along with new techniques for heating mixtures of sugar and amino acids, have led to the creation of much more realistic meat flavors.

The McDonald's Corporation most likely drew on these advances when it eliminated beef tallow from its french fries. The company will not reveal the exact origin of the natural flavor added to its fries. In response to inquiries from Vegetarian Journal, however, McDonald's did acknowledge that its fries derive some of their characteristic flavor from "an animal source." Beef is the probable source, although other meats cannot be ruled out. In France, for example, fries are sometimes cooked in duck fat or horse tallow.

Other popular fast foods derive their flavor from unexpected ingredients. McDonald's Chicken McNuggets contain beef extracts, as does Wendy's Grilled Chicken Sandwich. Burger King's BK Broiler Chicken Breast Patty contains "natural smoke flavor." A firm called Red Arrow Products specializes in smoke flavor, which is added to barbecue sauces, snack foods, and processed meats. Red Arrow manufactures natural smoke flavor by charring sawdust and capturing the aroma chemicals released into the air. The smoke is captured in water and then bottled, so that other companies can sell food that seems to have been cooked over a fire.

The Vegetarian Legal Action Network recently petitioned the FDA to issue new labeling requirements for foods that contain natural flavors. The group wants food processors to list the basic origins of their flavors on their labels. At the moment vegetarians often have no way of knowing whether a flavor additive contains beef, pork, poultry, or shellfish. One of the most widely used color additives -- whose presence is often hidden by the phrase "color added" -- violates a number of religious dietary restrictions, may cause allergic reactions in susceptible people, and comes from an unusual source. Cochineal extract (also known as carmine or carminic acid) is made from the desiccated bodies of female Dactylopius coccus Costa, a small insect harvested mainly in Peru and the Canary Islands. The bug feeds on red cactus berries, and color from the berries accumulates in the females and their unhatched larvae. The insects are collected, dried, and ground into a pigment. It takes about 70,000 of them to produce a pound of carmine, which is used to make processed foods look pink, red, or purple. Dannon strawberry yogurt gets its color from carmine, and so do many frozen fruit bars, candies, and fruit fillings, and Ocean Spray pink-grapefruit juice drink.

N a meeting room at IFF, Brian Grainger let me sample some of the company's flavors. It was an unusual taste test -- there was no food to taste. Grainger is a senior flavorist at IFF, a soft-spoken chemist with graying hair, an English accent, and a fondness for understatement. He could easily be mistaken for a British diplomat or the owner of a West End brasserie with two Michelin stars. Like many in the flavor industry, he has an Old World, old-fashioned sensibility. When I suggested that IFF's policy of secrecy and discretion was out of step with our mass-marketing, brand-conscious, self-promoting age, and that the company should put its own logo on the countless products that bear its flavors, instead of allowing other companies to enjoy the consumer loyalty and affection inspired by those flavors, Grainger politely disagreed, assuring me that such a thing would never be done. In the absence of public credit or acclaim, the small and secretive fraternity of flavor chemists praise one another's work. By analyzing the flavor formula of a product, Grainger can often tell which of his counterparts at a rival firm devised it. Whenever he walks down a supermarket aisle, he takes a quiet pleasure in seeing the well-known foods that contain his flavors.

Grainger had brought a dozen small glass bottles from the lab. After he opened each bottle, I dipped a fragrance-testing filter into it -- a long white strip of paper designed to absorb aroma chemicals without producing off notes. Before placing each strip of paper in front of my nose, I closed my eyes. Then I inhaled deeply, and one food after another was conjured from the glass bottles. I smelled fresh cherries, black olives, sautéed onions, and shrimp. Grainger's most remarkable creation took me by surprise. After closing my eyes, I suddenly smelled a grilled hamburger. The aroma was uncanny, almost miraculous -- as if someone in the room were flipping burgers on a hot grill. But when I opened my eyes, I saw just a narrow strip of white paper and a flavorist with a grin.

Eric Schlosser is a correspondent for The Atlantic. His article in this issue is adapted from his first book, Fast Food Nation, to be published this month by Houghton Mifflin.

Illustrations by Francis Livingston.

Copyright © 2001 by The Atlantic Monthly Company. All rights reserved. The Atlantic Monthly; January 2001; Why McDonald's Fries Taste So Good - 01.01 (Part Two); Volume 287, No. 1; page 50-56.