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Become a Fit Witness – Present Your Body to God

“I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1)

While exercise was not a priority in Biblical times, Paul instructs us to “present your bodies a living sacrifice.” Each of us is advised to take care of our body since it is the “temple of the Holy Spirit.”

Here’s a sobering question: do you think we’ll be required to give an accounting to the Lord for the stewardship of our bodies and how well we’ve taken care of them?

That’s a frightening thought for most of us! “You are not your own,” Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6:19. “For you were bought at a price” (the shed blood of Jesus Christ).

Could that mean your body is not yours, but the Lord’s? How well are we caring for the Lord’s property?

The good news is that since your body belongs to the Lord, He has a vested interest in helping you care for it. Your body is not only the temple of His Holy Spirit, it’s what you need to be able to walk around on this earth and spread the good news that Jesus is Lord.

You CAN be a “fit witness” for Christ. The more fit and healthy you are, the greater the probability is that you will be around longer to carry out His will for your life.

The enemy wants you to fail at your task, to fail horribly and leave earth before your time. He doesn’t really care that you’re going to heaven; he just doesn’t want you to take anyone else with you!

If your body is out-of-shape and lacking energy, it’s difficult to do all the Lord is calling you to do. But you and the Lord working together can change that!

“What?!” you ask. “The Lord needs MY help? But He’s omnipotent, all-powerful and in control!” Well, yes–and no. He is all-powerful, but He will not wrestle the cake fork out of your hand or pick up the strings like a grand marionette master and animate your body to take a brisk walk. We are the ones who have to exercise our will to exercise our body and “choose life.”

You don’t have to wait. You can start right now. Would you be willing to choose to do at least one new thing for your health and fitness today? Here are some ideas: take a brisk walk; eat a raw vegetable salad before dinner; have an apple for dessert or a snack instead of a sugar-laden treat; pray before bedtime; write your goals for a healthier lifestyle in a prayer journal.

When you feel about to give in to self-indulgence, turn to the Lord in prayer and praise, and yield to the fruit of the Holy Spirit within you (Galatians 5:23 says that one of those fruit is that of self-control!).

Ask the Lord to help you become the person He has called you to be. You are not alone. Remember, He loves you more than you can possibly imagine, and wants you to succeed in every way. As Paul said under the influence of the Holy Spirit in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

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Bookmark Printing Presents a Great Opportunity to Cash in Your Business Activity

Bookmark printing presents a great scope to achieve the attention of travelers during holiday trips. Several of the tourists move around and carry books to read during journeys and every book has a bookmark in it. Customer influx is automatic if we produce attractive and colorful bookmarks. Most of the bookmarks carry names of hotels and holiday resorts or travel agencies, which get noticed by vacationers. If you are in same kind of business, it is wise to invest in bookmarks printing to get your business well advertised.

You can also use this bookmark as a discount voucher for your hotel or curio shop or any other kind of store, which tourist generally need during the holiday trips. If the bookmark contains a special bargain offer on garments or hats or sunglasses or photography equipment that is available at your store, you can expect a brisk sale during the holiday season. Many travel agencies offer discounts in fares for the site seeing trips and make good profit in this time of the year.

The discount voucher part may be torn out during the purchase of an article, but the remaining part of the bookmark still supports the publicity of your business. You get a continued advertising effect of your brand when you choose the option of bookmark printing.

We should always use this wonderful tool to be in the business and get maximum output in profit value with negligible investment. The holiday season presents a great opportunity to cash in the business activity of several kinds.

Insist on colorful and attractive bookmarks printing and add a commercial value to it to make the best use of this tiny tool of advertising. You are sure to gain business profit from the presence of touring public.

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Export Marketing – How to Develop Products for Export

Before you think of developing a product for export or even adapting an existing one, it is important to make a distinction between a product and a product type. A motor vehicle is product type, but a “Toyota”, a very popular Japanese car, is a product.

New product types are rarely created. An exporter who can come up with a better version of an existing product will succeed as a market for such a product already exists. The manufacturers of Toyota have worked very hard to make their cars so popular although the vehicles are not much different from any others you find on our roads. But think of how much harder they would have to work to come up with a completely new mode of land transportation.

There is business in the re-modeling or re-packaging of existing products, that is, creating new products out of the existing ones. Sometimes only very minor adjustments are required, for example, using a colorless clear bottle for a whiskey that is traditionally sold in an opaque bottle.

If you decide to copy products of another manufacturer you will be running the risk of patent or copyright infringement. But you can avoid the risk and still exploit the success of a new product by making slight modifications in the design of the product you want to copy as long as you do not try to confuse the public into thinking that they are buying the original product.

The Product:

Any new product ideas should take into account the following factors:-

  • An understanding of how buyers conceive a product. This will include physical and non-physical elements such as the product itself, packaging, after sales service, brand name, the image it portrays and the benefits they expect out of using the product.
  • The product must be made to meet the standards and styling of the customer and not the manufacturer. This is the importance of a good market research.
  • Expected Life Cycle of the product. “Product Types” may go on for ever but “Products”, like all living things, progress in definite stages from birth to maturity, then death.
  • Possible patent or copyright infringement which may lead to legal action.

The Product Life Cycle:

  1. Introduction: The product is launched and, if it finds buyers, sales rise slowly,
  2. Growth: The product is becoming accepted and if it catches on, there is a period of rapid growth in sales. If it fails to catch on it should be withdrawn at this stage for possible modification or to try a different market.
  3. Maturity: Sales growth reaches the apex and starts to slow down,
  4. Stagnation: Sales level off and further expenditure on sales promotion become uneconomical.
  5. Decline: Sales start to decline as demand for the product goes down

When stagnation starts, research should reveal the cause and corrective measures taken before the decline commences. A product may be given a new lease of life by being changed in some way, either substantially or just the way it is presented.

It is important to note here that although it is true that the life cycles of most products follow almost the same pattern, the length of the cycle itself varies greatly. For example, the life cycle of fashion dresses is relatively short compared to that of capital goods which, in some cases, may be as long as 20 years. Life cycles of particular products or product types may vary from country to country.

Once the product life cycle is understood, the planning of when to introduce a new product or make changes on the existing product can be done more accurately.

Festus Muga

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