I received this email yesterday and found it to be amazing.  Want to share it with all of you.  There is reference that this article was written by a doctor, but I don't know who wrote this piece.  Sure glad I received it, however!

~~~~~~~~~~

The Cross IN Our Bodies
 
This is a pretty neat story and an interesting thing that few of us know. It's brief, so please read.

A couple of days ago I was running (I use that term very loosely) on my treadmill, watching a DVD sermon by Louie Giglio... And I was BLOWN AWAY! I want to share what I learned....

He (Louie) was talking about how inconceivably BIG our God is... How He spoke the universe into being... How He breathes stars out of His mouth that are huge raging balls of fire... Then He went on to speak of how this star-breathing, universe creating God ALSO knitted our human bodies together with amazing detail and wonder. At this point I am LOVING it (fascinating from a medical standpoint, you know.) And I was remembering how I was constantly amazed during medical school as I learned more and more about God's handiwork. I remember so many times thinking, 'How can ANYONE deny that a Creator did all of this???'
 
And then I lost my breath. And it wasn't because I was running my treadmill, either!!! It was because Louie started talking about laminin. Being a doctor, I knew about laminin.  For the lay person here is Wikipedia's description:

"Laminins are a family of proteins that are an integral part of the structural scaffolding of basement membranes in almost every animal tissue. You see, laminins are what hold us together, LITERALLY. They are cell adhesion molecules. They are what holds one cell of our bodies to the next cell. Without them, we would literally fall apart. And I knew all this already. But what I didn't know is what they LOOKED LIKE!"

But now I do. And I have thought about it a thousand times since. Here is what the structure of laminin looks like, AND THIS IS NOT a 'Christian portrayal' of it. If you look up laminin in any scientific/medical piece of literature, this is what you will see....

Now tell me that our God is not awesome! Amazing! The glue that holds us together - ALL of us in the shape of the cross. Immediately Colossians 1:15-17 comes to mind. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. All things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things HOLD TOGETHER. Call me crazy. I just think that is very, very, very cool. Thousands of years before the world knew anything about laminin, Paul penned those words. And now we see that from a very LITERAL standpoint, we are held together - One cell to another - By the cross. 

You would never in a quadrillion years convince me that is anything other than the mark of a Creator who knew EXACTLY what laminin 'glue' would look like long before Adam breathed his first breath!!

What I found when I googled laminin:

~~~~~~~~~~
Oh, We Have Such An Awesome God!

The Christian Warrior
By  Gabriel Suarez

To prevent the unforeseen when I'm alone and down the block
I pack a Holy Bible...a Bible and a Glock.
If the enemy opposing has a Christian soul to seal
I will bless him with a scripture, but if not... with lead and steel.
I want to live in peace with everyone I see.
I shall always try to do so, as much as depends on me.
But there's no evil I will stand, no devil hand that I won't still
Like the Lion and the Lamb. The very hand that blesses you can kill!

To prevent the unforeseen when I'm alone and down the block

I pack a Holy Bible... a Bible and a Glock.

Introduction, The Christian Warrior

This book took a great deal of coaxing for me to write. I had several colleagues and friends insist for many months that such a book needed writing. I always pointed out that I was not knowledgeable enough, or not worthy, and put it off. But it was not until I sat at a third grade breakfast at my son's school that I decided to proceed.

As Cheryl and I sat with our kids the mother of one of their friends came by and sat with us. It was winter but I had a nice sun burn from a recent trip to Central America I'd just returned from. She inquired about it and I told her I was down in Piedras Negras training bodyguards, cops, and business owners in our gunfighting program. I mentioned that just about anyone in Central America was at risk of violent crime so students were very motivated to learn what I had to say. She said that I should write a book. I laughed as I washed down the last of my cinnamon roll with some coffee. "I've already written a couple", I said.

"Not for pistoleros or commandoes, for regular people", she immediately replied. I gave her a confused look as if to say, why would any "regular people" want to read about that? Before I could say what I was thinking, she said, "How a Christian man can do what you do would be a great read".

The perception that a Christian man could not possibly teach other men to fight and shoot and so on, and still be a Christian was on her mind, as it has been on the minds of many I have crossed paths with in the last few years. Yes, the book needed writing. So here goes.

What you are about to read is a compilation of various articles and essays I wrote for our online newsletter - The Warrior News. This was begun in 2000 as a compliment to our training courses and contained a multitude of pertinent subjects for our readership weapons discussions, tactics, a little politics, and of course a section devoted to spiritual development titled Christian Warrior.


Table of Contents
Introduction To Christian Warriors............................................................................................................3
The History Of Christian Pacifism..............................................................................................................4
The Roman Military Oath.............................................................................................................................5
Constantine's Conversion...........................................................................................................................9
The Lamb And The Lion............................................................................................................................11
What Was Jesus Really Like?...................................................................................................................12
The Politically Correct Christ?..................................................................................................................14
The Christian Man - Like Jesus................................................................................................................15
Unconditional Submission Is Wrong.......................................................................................................16
The Sword In Its “Proper” Place...............................................................................................................18
Fighting Spiritual Warfare.........................................................................................................................21
On Liberalism And Christianity................................................................................................................22
Christ's Birthday.........................................................................................................................................24
On Loftiness...............................................................................................................................................26
Christian Tolerance....................................................................................................................................27
On Loving Enemies....................................................................................................................................28
On Revenge................................................................................................................................................29
On Forgiveness..........................................................................................................................................32
Overcoming Fear........................................................................................................................................33
Pride, Ego, And The Christian Warrior....................................................................................................35
On Leadership............................................................................................................................................36
On Discipline..............................................................................................................................................40
The Warrior's Cross...................................................................................................................................41
A Prayer Before Battle...............................................................................................................................42
The Christian Warrior's Prayer.................................................................................................................45


Download the full PDF Below. 

Below are ten inspirational, motivational quotes that may encourage you as you begin the journey into the promises of 2013

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

--George Bernard Shaw

Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right.

--Henry Ford

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.

--Helen Keller

I never worry about action, but only about inaction.

--Winston Churchill

The heights by great men reached and kept

Were not attained by sudden flight, 
But they, while their companions slept, 
Were toiling upward in the night

--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

If you don't know where you are going, 
you'll end up someplace else.

--Yogi Berra

Don't bunt. Aim out of the ballpark.

--David Ogilvy

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, 
is not an act but a habit.
--Aristotle

Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.

--Samuel Johnson

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

--Albert Einstein

May this year be the best year of your life!

Sources:

www.famous-quotes-and-quotations.com

www.inspirational-quotes.info

www.motivationalquotes.com