I have used all of the above and based on flavor, I do prefer the texture and flavor of TruVia.  The problem with plant-based alternative sweeteners is that the cost is much higher than chemically derived sweeteners.  Is the price a factor in your choosing? 

So what is your choice?  Based on flavor, price, texture, and what you perceive as being healthier, which one do you have on your table?  Does price, health risks, or flavor rule any or all of them out for you?  Do you have any recipes that work well with these sweeteners?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bracing for the Fake Sugar Rush

By Anne Marie Chaker

At the Whole Foods Market in Silver Spring, Md., the self-serve coffee counter offers four types of milk and nearly every imaginable alternative to granulated sugar. There’s unrefined sugar, evaporated cane juice, agave nectar — and a no-calorie sugar substitute called Truvia.

The green packets are tucked behind the cash register; if you want it, you have to ask. That’s because they have a way of disappearing. “People take a lot more than they need,” says Liz Burkhart, a Whole Foods spokeswoman.

Truvia’s maker, agricultural giant Cargill Inc., of Minneapolis, is aware that consumers often stock up on Truvia packets at coffee bars and in restaurants. Zanna McFerson, vice president and business director for Cargill Health and Nutrition, says Cargill is developing a dispenser that would limit the number of packets a consumer can take at once.

One reason Truvia is so appealing is its position as a “natural” alternative to aspartame, saccharin and other chemically derived sugar substitutes. Fans say they think Truvia’s taste and texture are closer to sugar than those of older entries. It’s true that Truvia pours out of the packet in convincing crystal-like granules, not in a powder. And when sprinkled on top of foods such as cereal, Truvia crunches.

[More from WSJ.com: Famous Hoteliers Get Wake-Up Call ]

Some detractors, though, complain of a Truvia aftertaste, especially when it is used in coffee. And many customers blanch at the price. A 40-count box of Truvia packets retails for $4.29 at the Giant Foods supermarket in Silver Spring, compared with $2.99 for a 50-count box of Splenda.

Few consumer products have been a greater marketing challenge than no-calorie sweeteners. Companies have devoted teams of scientists to trying to develop better-tasting sugar-substitutes. “I don’t think anyone’s cracked the code,” says Allen Adamson, managing director of the New York office of brand-consulting firm Landor Associates. Consumers resist, whether complaining about taste or worrying about safety.

Taste “used to be the only thing [marketers] had to worry about,” Mr. Adamson says. “Does it taste good? Is there an aftertaste?” Now, he says, “the new challenge is to alleviate the lingering concerns . . . . Did they really test it on enough rats over a long enough period of time?”

Cargill makes Truvia from the stevia plant, a member of the chrysanthemum family and native to parts of South America. Leaves are harvested, dried and steeped in water to release the sweeteners found in Truvia’s key ingredient, rebiana. Truvia also contains erythritol, a calorie-free sugar alcohol that diffuses the sweet taste across the palate and helps make the crystals.

Cargill, working with Coca-Cola Co., won Food and Drug Administration approval for Truvia in 2008. Since then, sales have overtaken long-established rivals including Sweet’N Low (pink packets with the sweetening agent saccharin) and Equal (light-blue packets with aspartame). Truvia is now the No. 2 branded sugar substitute, behind only Splenda (yellow packets with sucralose), according to retail-sales data for the year that ended Oct. 30, 2011 from SymphonyIRI Group, a Chicago market-research firm. (Its numbers don’t reflect sales at Wal-Mart, nor at warehouse clubs, food-service companies and other suppliers to restaurants, an important channel for sugar substitutes.)

Truvia’s premium price may have something to do with why coffee shops find it hard to keep the product in stock. Mary Finnegan, a Truvia customer in Edina, Minn., says, “I might throw a couple in my purse” whenever it’s available.

Cargill’s Ms. McFerson says Truvia has a “clean, sweet taste.” And it costs more because it’s more expensive to produce a plant-derived product. “We’ll always be more expensive because rather than making something in one place, you’re growing plants and working with farmers all through the supply chain,” she says.

Ruby Washington, a government program manager for the District of Columbia, first heard about Truvia at a church potluck and bought it for her husband, Henry, who had learned that he is a near-diabetic. Although he cringed at the taste of other sugar substitutes, Ms. Washington told him this one would be different. She says, “I told him it must be OK because they say it’s natural.”

“Natural,” a largely unregulated word, casts a powerful spell over marketers, too. Since Truvia hit the market in 2008, it has shown up in more than 30 products, from Coca-Cola’s Glacéau Vitamin Water Zero to Kraft Foods’ Crystal Light Pure. So far, stevia-based sweeteners have proved most compatible with citrus and other light-flavored drinks. PepsiCo’s Trop50, a reduced-calorie juice drink brand, is sweetened with PureVia, a stevia-based sweetener from Merisant, the Chicago marketer of Equal.

Merisant prices PureVia below Truvia. Paul Block, Merisant chief executive, says the PureVia customer wants a natural sweetener but doesn’t want to pay “crazy” Truvia prices.

“We’re not going after Truvia customers,” Mr. Block says. “We’re going after sugar users who can’t afford Truvia.” Stevia has helped energize the sugar substitute business. “It’s on fire,” he adds. “When [consumers] see things that are ‘natural’ and ‘pure,’ that is a very fertile area for growth.

Truvia says there are hundreds of new Truvia-sweetened products in the works. Tillamook, a dairy-farm cooperative based in Tillamook, Ore., is launching a Truvia-sweetened “light” yogurt in January. Marketing materials trumpet that it is “naturally sweetened.”

“That’s huge,” says Jay Allison, vice president of sales and marketing at Tillamook. “We know we’re not a Yoplait or a Dannon, but we wanted to have a great light yogurt. So we said let’s not use anything artificial.”

Ever since the FDA banned cyclamates in the 1960s due to links to bladder cancer in laboratory animals, sugar substitutes have faced skepticism. In 1977, foods containing saccharin were required to carry a warning label based on results of laboratory studies involving high doses of the artificial sweetener. In 2000, Congress enacted legislation eliminating the label warning.

The door remained open to rivals, though, and a new one hit the market in 2000, when Johnson & Johnson’s McNeil Nutritionals unit came in with Splenda. Splenda’s sweetening ingredient is sucralose, a chemical alteration of the sugar molecule. In a bid to keep Splenda’s signature yellow packets exciting, last year McNeil launched the Splenda Essentials line, which has added fiber and vitamins. A spokeswoman declined to comment on whether the company plans to introduce a stevia-based sweetener.

To get Truvia approved, Cargill focused its safety research on what it perceived to be stevia’s best-testing component — Rebaudioside A. “We did a lot of research so that we could say to consumers, ‘You have this worry-free way to consume sweetness,’ ” Ms. McFerson says.

But some concerns linger. Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest points to studies in which animal and bacterial cells were administered a stevia component closely related to Rebaudioside A and showed genetic damage, which raises the prospect that it may cause cancer, CSPI said. (Other cell studies didn’t show the same genetic damage, Mr. Jacobson says.)

He noted his concerns in an Aug. 4, 2008 letter to the FDA citing the studies. Cargill says those studies predated its development of Truvia. “The literature has been fraught with lots of issues with respect to purity of the material,” says Amy Boileau, associate director for scientific and regulatory affairs at Cargill.

Mr. Jacobson would like to see further testing. “Natural does not automatically mean safe,” he says.

As a shining angel of light,
He will slip in unaware,
Bringing darkness to your heart-house,
Filling each room with despair

He’ll tell you that you’re unworthy
To seek your Saviour’s face,
And make you doubt Christ’s finished work,
“Salvation through faith by grace.

He’ll bring to mind forgiven sins,
Dragging each one to and fro;
Until you cower at the feet
Of this unmerciful foe

He’ll tell you…works and works alone
Will redeem your precious soul
When Christ shed His own precious blood,
Gave His life to make you whole

He’ll hammer you til faith grows faint
And then leave you in despair,
To weak to call upon the Lord,
To seek His dear face in prayer

Beware!  Beloved Christian friend,
Give this foe no time nor space;
Lest he rob you of happiness,
The assurance of God’s grace

“For by grace you are saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God–not of works, lest any man should boast.”   Ephesians 2:8-9

Beulah Kitzmiller

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 

The Christmas Song

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire,
Jack Frost nipping at your nose,
Yuletide carols being sung by a chior,
And folks dressed up like Eskimos.

If there’s one song that has the “”Christmas Spirit” it’s this one. It makes us think of a scene from a Norman Rockwell painting. Or maybe we imagine carolers coming to our doors while we offer them some tasty, homemade apple cider fresh off the stove. We attend parties at friend’s houses and services at church. Let’s not forget about being all bundled up on Christmas morning with our families while the most beautiful snowflakes fall to the ground.

And then in the midst of our Christmas illusions, our children storm into the room yelling “”Mom!” or “”Dad!” because someone hit them or because one of them use the other’s pellet gun without asking or because one of the neighbors took the basketball away that they had or because they fell off the zip line. Oh, for the love of all that is good and right in the world, can we not stay in our little piece of Christmas paradise just a tad bit longer?

That’s life, isn’t it? No matter how perfect we try to paint the canvas of our lives, there will always be something extra put on it that wasn’t in our minds when we dreamed it. Something that cramps our perfect picture. Something that breaks our heart.

A relationship that ended.
A loved one who died prematurely.
The betrayal of a friend.

Did you know that God isn’t surprised by the interruptions in our lives? In fact, nothing surprises Him. Don’t mistake bad things happening in your life as Him not being in control. No, this is not about His ability but about His sovereignty.

While we may wish that bad things would never happened in our lives, they will happen. Jesus said we’d have trouble (John 16:33), but He also promised that He’d calm us in the midst of it (John 14:16). So, no matter where we are in life, whether we expected to be on the path we are on or not, rest assured, that our God can make broken things beautiful.

Friend, we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who’ve been called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). Press on and trust in the One who will never let you down.

How have you seen God in control in the midst of life’s interruptions?

So what do you dream about?   I have tried to avoid dreams because the prophet Joel said that old men would dream dreams.  I don’t want to be put into the “old man” category so I don’t want to admit my dreams.  However, reality tells me that we all dream.  All of us dream but most don’t remember them.  But why or how do we dream?
Many of our dreams are just simply our mind processing our thoughts.  Because of the many things happening in our minds throughout our day, when we sleep, our mind can then process them without interference.  I believe dreams are also a way for our minds to heal.  It filters out those things that shouldn’t be going around in our mind.  Think of it this way, when we are asleep, our mind flushes everything that has been in our mind.  If we have the Word of God within us, then what doesn’t belong to Him will simply be caught in the filter and discarded.  What flows back into our subconscious should be things that are of Him. 
I have had a few disturbing dreams in my lifetime.  These are dreams that shook me from within.  There have been a few that were not from God or even myself but a torment from the adversary.   With these dreams, our course of action is to take those thoughts into captivity.  We are told to take captive any thoughts that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God.  Anything that is not His truth is coming against His knowledge. 
I have also had dreams that I believe were God speaking directly to me.  One such dream I had a few months ago.  After a long day, I came home totally exhausted.  After getting ready for bed, I was so tired that I didn’t take time to spend in prayer.  However, there were several things that were heavy on my mind.  I was tired of even bringing them to His attention.  As I laid my head on my pillow, I remember just whispering a simple statement to God.  All I said was, Father, you know my heart.  You know my hurts.  You know what I’ve been asking you for.  You know what I desire.  After saying that, I fell right asleep.  During the night, I had a dream.  In the dream, I was in a concert with one of my favorite groups.   The lead singer came out and sat on a stool and asked if he could sing a song they had never sung before.  As he began to sing, I immediately recognized the song as the exact prayer I was praying before I fell asleep, except in the song, he said “I know your heart.  I know your fears.  I know your desires.”   When I woke up, I knew the dream was from God.  I received the assurance I needed.  Even now, when I’m uncertain about when God will answer or unsure of what is happening, I remind myself of that dream.  That dream has given me the confidence I needed through many times of questioning. 
So what do you dream about?   I encourage you to recognize when God speaks to you through a dream.  Be aware of God-dreams and know the difference of when it’s from Him, when it’s simply a pizza induced dream, or when the enemy is trying to rob sleep and peace from you.  And by all means, know that He does hear and know you heart, your hurts, and your desires.  And know that He has given His angels watch over you while you sleep.  Not a little cherub but a mighty angel that is covering you while you rest.   
Grace and peace by with you all….   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sUkWTphxKs&feature=youtube_gdata_player

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is a call to all the dead and disappointed
The ones who feel like they are done.
This is a word to all the ones who feel forgotten
you are not

We’re alive, alive, alive, and we’re SINGING!!!!

Whatever is holding you back…disappointment, fear, dispair, abandonment, hurt, grief, whatever….you are not forgotten. You are alive! Now sing about it!!!!!!!!
Here is a video of a group called Brothers McClurg and their song ALIVE. Please watch it and let God fill you up.

If you have not yet read the book “Personality Plus” by Florence Littauer; you have, by now, certainly heard of the 4 personality profiles she refers to in the book as a basis for learning how to relate and interact with others: choleric, melancholy, sanguine, and phlegmatic.  In hearing these words in the conversation of many, from CEOs to pastors, and especially among members of Generation Y, I’ve experienced a steady, subtle agitation when approached with the concept.  Upon further study, and with no desire to judge Florence or any other psychologist, (Christian or otherwise) I would like to humbly present my case against the use of psychometrics (psychological measurement of knowledge, attitudes, and personality through instruments such as questionnaires, tests, and personality assessments) to label men and women as a certain “personality type.”
Let’s start at the beginning, which is most likely much earlier than you might’ve expected.  Sometime around 400 BC, the Greek physician Hippocrates developed a medical theory from an ancient medical concept called Humorism.  Tracing it’s origins to ancient Egypt or Mesopotamia, humorism is a now discredited theory of the makeup and workings of the human body adopted and held by most Greek, Roman, and European physicians until the advent of modern medical research in the nineteenth century.  The theory held that the human body was filled with four substances, called four humors, which are in perfect balance when a person is healthy.  When a person suffered from a surplus or imbalance of one fluid, then his or her physical health and personality would be affected.

The four humors were:
Black bile, Yellow bile, Blood, and Phlegm

This ancient belief in “humors” has now, through the use of modern science and medicine become quite “humorous”. (sorry couldn’t resist)  Just take a look at these two definitions of phlegm in the Merriam-Webster dictionary:
Phlegm: ________________________________________________
1. thick, sticky, stringy mucus secreted by the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract, as during a cold or other respiratory infection.
2. one of the four humors of ancient and medieval physiology, thought to cause sluggishness, apathy, and evenness of temper.
________________________________________________________
We now know that the body responds to infection or sickness with God-given “healing mechanisms” that produce more fluid(s) to help remove sickness.  At times, fluids can also decrease as a result of sickness or disease.  Humorism incorrectly stated that an excess or lack of these fluids preceded disease or sickness, and personality traits!
Around 200 AD, enter: Claudius Galenus, a prominent Roman physician and philosopher, who’s understanding of anatomy and medicine was largely influenced by the theory of humorism as advanced by Hippocrates.  “Galen” as he is now known, was the first to develop “temperamental categories” or “psychological types”.  He named them sanguine, melancholic, choleric, and phlegmatic.
Early 1900’s, enter: Carl Gustav Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist who was the originator of Analytical Psychology. Analytical psychology was a method rooted in Galen’s theories which studied unconscious forces and motivations underlying individuals behavior, to employ the unconscious mind as the source of healing and development in the individual.  Jung published his theories in his 1921 book “Psychological Types.”
1962, enter:  Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers, original developers of the personality assessment test: “The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator” (MBTI).  The test, first published in 1962, was a questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions. These preferences were taken from the theories proposed by Carl Jung.  If you’ve taken a personality assessment test, it was most likely the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator questionnaire.
Meet CPP Inc.
CPP, Inc. is the leading publisher and provider of products and services for individual and organizational psychological development.  CPP published the definitive reference source for the MBTI titled “The Manual”.  As the MBTI exam began to gain ground in our culture, some employers began to use the assessment when hiring new employees, hoping it might be a predictor of which potential employees might be best suited for the job.  The use of the MBTI as a predictor of job success has not been supported in studies, and its use for the purpose is now expressly discouraged in “The Manual”.  Many academic psychologists have criticized the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator instrument, claiming that it “lacks convincing validity data”, and studies have shown the statistical validity and reliability to be low.
The MBTI Manual also states that the assessment test is “designed to implement a theory”, the theory of personality types.
Theory: _______________________________________________
a: a hypothesis assumed for the sake of argument or investigation
b: an unproved assumption
______________________________________________________
Now that I’ve puked up all the information… let’s get to the point.
I believe it’s crystal clear that the “personality type theory” is rooted in ancient, inaccurate, medical and psychological beliefs systems.  However… it is undeniable that a person’s personality can be measured through assessment tests like the MBTI (or simple observation and discernment for that matter).  While we may be able to observe and measure a person’s personality traits through these tests, my argument is against labeling a person as a certain personality.  Labeling a person can give the impression that their personality is fixed.  If we falsely believe that personality tests are scientifically proven and objective, many will believe the results emphatically, and believe there current personality is permanent.
Personality is defined as “the visible aspect of one’s character as it impresses others”, or “the sum total of the physical, mental, emotional, and social characteristics of an individual”.
Either of these definitions make it very clear that our personality is merely the outward expression of our inward man.  At best, measuring our personality and taking the results to God in prayer could provide insight into what areas of our life we may need to grow spiritually.  Here is just one of many scriptures calling us to greater character and newness of mind as we strive to become like Christ.  From Ephesians:
________________________________________________________
 “If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”   ____________________
Carl Jung actually stated that personality traits are akin to “right-handedness” or “left-handedness”.  Meaning, if you’re born right handed, through practice and continued use, you can become proficient in using your left hand.  Personality can, and does change.  As a matter of fact, studies show that between 39% and 76% of those tested fall into different personality types upon retesting some weeks or years later.   For the sake of the length of this post I will not go into examples of positive and negative aspects of the different personalities.  I will challenge you to take what you know of your personality, (whether or not you have been “labeled”), and measure it against the revealed character of Christ that we see in His Word.
Take the test if you’d like.  Maybe even once a year.  But watch yourself closely and guard against using the results as an excuse to settle into a mode of living and relating to others that may be less than what Christ has clearly called us to as His followers.  As His followers, we must remember that the world is watching us, and in every situation we must give them Christ.  If Christ in any given situation stretches outside the bounds of what I believe my personality has to offer, I must go to the prayer closet and receive an infilling of the Holy Spirit and power to become more like Him in every way.
Lord may it be so in my life.
.

Throughout the Balm of Gilead, it has been my desire to present to you Jesus, the only One who can make you whole.  It has been my aim to walk together with you as we become whole through finding the Truth of the Living Word.  As I was reading this scripture, I found that it has been God’s desire since before the very beginnings of the earth.  God has desired that we be made whole and holy. 
I find something else in that scripture…He had settled on us as the focus of His love.  As I read that, some very important truths began to leap out at me.  Let me break that part of the scripture down and explain to you what He has shown me.

1.  He…the God of the universe.  The creator of heaven and earth.  The maker of all that is seen and not seen.  It is important first to recognize Him because the Bible also says that anyone who comes to Him must first believe that He is.   If you do not believe that first, then nothing else He says after that means anything.  This is why atheists refuse to believe anything God says.  In order to be saved, you must first believe that there is a God.  Then you must believe He wants to save you.  Then you have to believe that He has the power to save you.  Do you believe???

2.  had settled…in the mind of God, He determined it at a previous time.  When an account is settled, it is finished.  No need to go back and pull it up again.  God settled it in His mind.  Think of it this way, God finished thinking about who or why He should love.  There was no more discussion.  He settled it in His mind and we should settle it in ours. 

3.  On us…there was nothing else He focused on but you and me.  Nothing else in creation meant more to Him than we did. If you look around and see the vast expanse of the universe and then out of this cosmic beauty God would settle on a seemingly small part of His creation.  You my friend are who God has settled on.  No wonder His Word says that no thing would be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ.   When we think about all that He could want and yet He chose to be with us, it’s pretty humbling but it also gives us a great security.  If God be for us, tell me who can stand against us?
 
4.  the focus…many guys are accused of ignoring everything else when a football game is on.  They can zero in on that game and nothing around them matters.  While God can certainly keep His attention on anything and everything at the same time, He is also able to focus on the one part of His creation that He desires.  It’s as if God is putting you in His sights and can’t see anything else.  Of course God sees everything but He has a focus that is determined on you! 

of His love…oh how I love Jesus, because He first loved me.  Friend, have you ever been the direct object of someone’s love?  Have you ever been the focus of an overwhelming love?  Maybe not in the natural but you HAVE been the direct recipient of an overwhelming love.  A love that will not let you go.  A love that spans space and time and before you were even thought of in the human sense, loved you enough to lay aside the privilege of deity to make sure you could have an intimate relationship with Him.  If in the natural you have had someone that totally loved you without condition or regret, consider yourself blessed.  Take that love and multiply it by a billion and you haven’t even scratched the surface of God’s love for you.  Don’t believe the lies….He chose to love you and He still loves you. 
And what was the purpose of this love that He has settled in His mind to pour onto you?  It was so that through His over abundant love for you and I, that we should be whole and holy.  You have lack of nothing.  You aren’t missing pieces.  There isn’t anything you need because the Lord is my shepherd, I lack for nothing!  He has made you holy, not by the righteous acts that you have done but through the atonement of Jesus Christ.  Through the blood of Christ, we now wear robes of righteousness. 
Ephesians 1.6 sums up this thought for me.  Why did He to it?  It was because of the glory of His grace.  How did He did it?  He did it by making us accepted in the Beloved.  God knew every sin you would commit before you were ever born and yet He still chose to accept you.  How could you ever deny that love?  Don’t discount it or throw it away.  Hear God’s heart for you!

THAT’S GOOD NEWS

to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
Ephesians 1.6