The official author blog of Justin McNeal.
Stop those annoying CVS phone calls.
The little bridge on the cover of "Why you should trust the Bible" book.
I had some time to kill one day, and I was driving around O'Fallon Mo. I felt the need to travel down this road that I hadn't been on before. As I drove down that little road I noticed a park up ahead tucked into a little bend in the road so I pulled in. The park was fairly empty and I sat in the car for a couple of minutes just enjoying the view of everything. Then something compelled me to get out of the car and walk around a little bit. It was on my walk that I spotted an old bridge right at the edge of the woods. It was really pretty. Old wooden planks, rusted iron hand rails, with a slight breeze blowing the leaves across its flooring planks. I thought to myself, that is kind of how life is. We are born, and we serve God's purpose for our life. We get dinged up by this life. Our external beauty is weathered and worn. All of us face our hardships, but the Lord in his infinite love and mercy, can guide us through it all. If we let Him, He can guide us from one side of the bridge (this life) across the bridge to his Love and eternity.
Later, I would tell my wife about this bridge and show it to her. We had brought my Bible in the hopes that we could take some good cover photos for the book. My wife (a talented photographer) was able to snap the photos that eventually would become the cover for this book. Those photos were used in the design for the cover by my cousin Cot Pagud.
How amazing our God is that he would guide me to find that little bridge!
Why you should trust the Bible. - Coming Soon!
Next book! - Why you should trust the Bible.
Finished uploading my next book titled "Why you should trust the Bible".
It has been proofread, formatted, revised, and is now in the queue. My wonderful wife took some amazing photos to use for the cover. I am just waiting for the cover to be finished.
Then I will push the button. The printer will bind it, print it, and send me a proof. I will then review that proof. If everything is good, I will push the button and the book will be published and available on Amazon.com after a couple of weeks!
I am so excited! So blessed in my life. God is truly great and he deserves all the glory!
Thanks everyone - CHARLIE MIKE!
Have a great day!
What to do when family members or friends attack you?
If the attack was physical, then get help immediately. Call your local police agency and press charges if you can. Do not tolerate any sort of physical attack. Look into restraining orders and any other court sponsored document that will help leave an audit trail for any future events that may happen. Your safety must come first!
In my case the attack was verbal. The person that attacked me is definitely too much of a coward to attempt a physical confrontation.
For any verbal or emotional attack
Evaluate if it is an ongoing pattern or a one time occurrence. Most often and unfortunately, it is a pattern. This is how you deal with an ongoing pattern of attacks.
The first thing you have to do is realize who you are dealing with. In my case I was dealing with a person that has a history of mental disorder, a person that has never been really happy in their life, a person that pretends to be a nice person but isn't, and a person that is actually involved in a cult. Really a deeply disturbed and terrible person that is also a compulsive liar. It is very sad actually.
Taking all of this into perspective you can see that there isn't any reasoning with a person like this.
The second thing you should recognize is that the person is probably lashing out at you because they feel inadequate and empty in their own life. They want to tear you down to make themselves feel better. They are probably jealous of your accomplishments and they want to hurt you. You don't have to take that or accept it.
The third thing you have to register is the fact that your peace of mind is worth avoiding that person in the future (if possible). Remember, you should forgive them, but you don't have to subject yourself to that type of behavior again. I know it will be hard to forgive them, but you should. Understand that you don't have to be treated this way.
The fourth thing to do is just move on with your life. Understand that some people are beyond help for us mere mortals. You should avoid that person, and pray for them. Pray that they don't lash out at anyone and pray that God will help them with their demons. Understand that only Almighty God can help them, and only if they allow it.
You can still love the person, even if it will be hard, but love them from a distance. Allow them to continue in their sad life and you go on living yours. No one deserves to be abused for any reason.
My advice to everyone is to surround yourself with positive people and people that add good things to your life. Family or friend it doesn't matter. You want people that build you up, and not try to tear you down. You want enrichment, peace, and harmony. You don't want or need drama. Thank you friends and may God bless you always.
CHARLIE MIKE :-)
Your friend
Justin M.
Let me know in the comments about similar experiences you have had in your life.
Excited about the future!
Today I work on finalizing the 5th chapter in my new book "The Real Apocalypse".
I am feeling really energized about God's plan for my life.
I started back on my diet today, and wanted to kick it off with some mega nutrition. My solution for mega nutrition, Juicing!
Today I juiced.
- Organic Kale
- Organic Butter lettuce
- 3 organic carrots
- 2 organic mini cucumbers
- 1.5 cups of honey kissed melon
- 1 small sweet potato
I am listening to my Christian music on the TV and finishing up my chapter titled "Why you should trust the Bible". This is going to be a great chapter. I hope God uses it to teach people about why they can put their faith in him and in his Word.
The Bible is the inspired and infallible Word of God.
God bless each and every one of you.
Lunch today!
Why you should never waste your time on Yelp.com.
I wanted him to be aware of the situation first, and out of respect I gave him a call. To my utter disbelief he told me to write it down for him and then basically hung up on me. Clearly he no longer cares about customers. His excuse the next day was that he was very busy.
Anyway, I digress. So in my frustration with being overcharged, treated poorly, and then being dismissed on the phone I decided to place a Yelp review. I posted the review and the very next day discovered that it had been removed.
I wasn't notified that it was removed, nor was I told why. Thinking that it was removed for putting some person's name in the review, I edited it and removed any reference to an individual. I then reposted it. The very next day again, it had been removed.
Then I remembered that they had done the same thing to me not more than a year earlier. After doing some digging, there are apparently a large number of both people and businesses that believe Yelp to be dishonest. Some people believe that negative reviews are removed for businesses that pay an advertising fee to Yelp. Others believe that Yelp is dishonest by not providing a reason for the removal of a person's review. Still others believe that many of the positive reviews on Yelp are fraudulent in nature.
Check out this link for a Forbes article talking about this very thing.
I don't know that we will ever know the complete truth. I know that Yelp has been involved in a number of lawsuits. I will never support them again with a review, either positive or negative. In my opinion they are a very dishonest company and I definitely will not trust any of their reviews in the future.
Why waste your time?
p.s. Go to Imo's or Stefanina's for the best St. Louis style pizza available. Avoid Cecil Whittakers if you care about good service and good pizza!
http://imospizza.com/
https://www.stefspizza.com/
Celery is stout!
I always thought celery was pretty bland. The fibrous and watery flavor just didn't appeal to me. I know it is very healthy to eat so today I added two large stalks to my juice. I also put in a granny smith apple, a handful of spring mix, some strawberries, and some blueberries.
I get my smoothie all blended up and take my first big gulp, and I taste CELERY. Nothing but CELERY. My smoothie has a nice purple and red fruity color to it. The texture of the smoothie is nice and smooth, not gritty at all. The flavor pure CELERY. Apparently CELERY has a stronger flavor than I ever gave it credit for.
Celery, you have won this battle, but you won't win the war my friend!
This one is going to be rough to drink down. I'll probably taste CELERY for about 4 hours.
My advice, use celery in your smoothie, but limit it to 1 stalk or a partial stalk.
Here is to our health! Happy drinking!
Doors are being opened!
God is opening doors around me for this book. When you are thinking you may reference someone else's work in your book, you have to send them a formal permission request for the citation or quote. I have had to send some already for this book, and they have all came back with permission for the citations. Normally you have to do negotiations just to get permission and they can always say No, of course. That has not happened with this project. Praise God! He is always in control!
Getting back on the wagon.
Last night my wife and I decided to have a cheat/junk meal and we headed to Sonic! One footlong chili and cheese coney later I decided I absolutely had to have some ice cream. So to finish myself off, we headed to Dairy Queen. I decided to go with a large Dairy Queen soft-serve. Served in a cup sans any toppings of any kind. I am trying to make great food choices, or at least better bad choices. So rather than have the sundae, I went with just the plain ice cream.
About 30 minutes later, I felt absolutely terrible. The footlong coney dog with chili and cheese tasted fantastic. The ice cream was wonderful. Both hit me like a ton of bricks!
I felt like I couldn't breathe, and I felt like I didn't want to move. I ended up hitting the rack about 1 hour earlier than normal. I woke up this morning absolutely ravenous! That is what happens though when you eat food that doesn't properly nourish your body. Your stomach is filled up with junk food, but your body craves nutrition. Once your body processes that junk it is craves nutrients even more so you become hungrier than before. It is a vicious cycle folks!
To get back on the wagon this morning, I drank a delicious smoothie with the following ingredients:
1. Pineapple
2. Bunny-Luv Organic baby carrots
3. Granny Smith apple - the whole thing!
4. Some organic field greens
5. A couple of Sunset Mini cucumbers
With some prune juice for added sweetness.
Cheers!
Chapter 1 for my new book is a wrap!
I sent it to the pastor that will be doing my technical review. I expect that review to take a few weeks, but in the meantime I will get started on chapter 2! I am very excited!
The first chapter is always the hardest part. I have also gotten permission from the groups that own the rights to NIV, NASB, and the King James Bible (public domain). I will be trying to pull together a cover in the next few weeks and then I will share it with you. Only 10 more chapters to go and a lot of work! It should be fun!
Day 12 - Hungry and hopeful!
I am feeling great and enjoying my diet. I am adding 3 pieces of bacon this morning because I will be working out and I feel like I need some protein.
My ingredients for this shake are shown in the image to the left. I also added about 4 ounces of prune juice for sweetness.
Bunny-Luv Organic baby carrots - delicious, with a wonderful snap, and slightly sweet.
Sunset Mini cucumbers - cool, crisp, and so refreshing.
Wholesome Garden Organic Spring Mix - you have to have those greens! Delicious and so simple to use.
Granny smith apple - I love their bite. Always juicy, fresh, and sour. Wonderful apples and not just for baking!
Day 11 on my whole food smoothie plan.
My weight is down about 5 lbs. in 11 days! Good incentive to keep pushing forward!
The beard is coming off!
*Update - I had to use my head shaver to get the beard short enough to
shave off. I knew that already, but was trying to be lazy. Ha! Who has
time to look for the shaver? Luckily my wife saved the day again and
brought it to me when she saw how much I was struggling. Skipped breakfast today
Not hungry this morning, so I am fasting for breakfast. I will make a smoothie for lunch.
How am I tracking my smoothie/whole foods plan? What tools am I using to be successful?
As you know, I am replacing 1 meal each day with a whole food smoothie. The smoothie is a mixture of fruits and vegetables only. All organic, healthy, and as fresh as I can make them.
I use my incredible Dash blender to blend my smoothie up to refreshing perfection!
The Dash blender is just as powerful as the more advertised brands, but it costs about 1/3 as much!
Buy Dash Today!
The other aspect of this "diet" if you want to call it that, is my tracking software. I almost always carry my Samsung Note 4 phone with me (Love it!), so I wanted software that would run on the Android operating system.
The software I am using is called Goal Tracker. It is really great! It even gives me a little alarm to remind me that even though bacon and eggs sounds great, that I need to drink my smoothie.
Check out Goal Tracker here! You can come along with me on my journey to better health, smaller clothing, and a healthier life!
Cheers!
Day 6 Breakfast smoothie!
Lunch day 5 - too many vegetables!
Too many vegetables and not enough fruit in this batch. I drank it down anyway. Here is to my health!
Breakfast Day 4!
Apples, broccoli, grapes, carrots, little pineapple, blackberries, and a few prunes! Yummy!
Our God is an AWESOME God!
Katy Perry has been quoted as saying “I don’t believe in a heaven or a hell or an old man sitting on a throne. I believe in a higher power bigger than me because that keeps me accountable,”
It is interesting how she thinks of Jesus. Like many of us that grew up in church, she probably saw all of the paintings of Jesus and the artist renderings of the kind man with long hair. The man who looked so gentle, kind of like a Biblical Mr. Rogers. The man that sometimes had a dove on his shoulder, or in his hand. The man that is holding a little lamb in some artist renderings. Our buddy, our friend. We shrink Jesus with these images of him. We belittle his Awesome might.
Yes he is a loving, caring God. He does have those attributes, however he is the most Awesome and Powerful King. He is the most high Priest. His power is awesome, and it is limitless. The Apostle John (A Disciple,1 of the original 12) who was called "the Disciple Jesus loved" was a true friend to the Earthly Jesus. John traveled with Jesus, John ate with Jesus, and they were friends. Think about your best friend. You probably get excited to see them. You probably have inside jokes. You definitely do not fear them, or should not fear them if it is a healthy relationship. John had that with Jesus. Later in John's life he was exiled to Patmos for teaching the Word of Christ, for being a Christ follower. Jesus revealed the future to John on Patmos. John wrote this revealing down in what was to become the book of Revelation. When Jesus revealed himself, in his glory to John, John tells us that he fell at his feet like a dead man. So awesome and powerful was this image. That John was terrified in his presence. John had known this man when he walked the Earth. John had walked beside and behind Jesus when Jesus walked in humility as a man, and hid his glory to accomplish his Father's work. Yet, in his glorified presence he was terrified almost to the point of death. He fell at His feet as though he were a dead man. Jesus is the most high King and he is the Judge of God. His judgement is perfect just as he is perfect. My pastor made a good point that sometimes our image of Jesus is smaller than it should be. The larger we make our image of Jesus, the more we realize who he is and what he has done for us, the smaller our problems become. Big GOD, small problems. Small God, BIG problems. Our problems are temporary and fleeting. Jesus does not want us to be afraid. We can handle anything, because Christ strengthens us.
(Revelation 1:12-18 - NASB)
12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands; 13 and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like [a]a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash. 14 His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. 15 His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. 16 In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun [b]shining in its strength.
17 When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, 18 and the living One; and I [c]was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
Stay strong in your faith, and recognize Jesus Christ for who he is.
Thanks for reading!
New Year but not a New resolution.
Last year I had a lot of success losing weight and keeping it off by eating only real foods, and avoiding excess starches. Right at about 30 lbs, my weight loss stalled, so I am trying something new.
I am having 1 whole food juice each morning for breakfast and nothing else. If I am absolutely starving, then I will eat 1 can of tuna in water or 1 can of sardines packed in pure olive oil. I do that for convenience though, any lean and natural source of protein (egg yolk and 3 whites, lean chicken, etc...) would also work.
I use my Super powerful Dash blender to pulverize/atomize the whole fruits and vegetables into a smooth, refreshing, and nutrient dense smoothie!
The Dash blender is just as powerful as those other powerful blenders on the market but it costs about 1/3 as much.
I will be skipping 1 meal per day for the next 30 days, and then I will be moving to two smoothie meals per day after that until I reach my idea weight. Throughout my journey I will tell you about my smoothies, my successes, and my failures, so stay tuned! Thanks!
New book is hard work, but so worth it!
Worked hard on my latest book today. This book requires a great deal of research and concentration. It has to be as good as I can make it. I'm not ready to release the title yet, but I will soon. God willing!
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By Justin McNeal After months of trying to make Draft2Digital work for me as a self-published author, I’ve reached the end of my rope. Let...
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I grew the beard for about 4.5 weeks. The wife doesn't like it and it is kind of scratchy so I am taking it off today. Some people ha... -
I am not a prophet. I would never claim to be one, nor would I ever claim to be even fractionally as great as them. A few nights ago, I had...