Billionaire Bull Novogratz: Bitcoin Will be the ‘Biggest Bubble of Our Lifetimes’ [And That’s Okay]

Billionaire investor and hedge fund manager Mike Novogratz has made the claim that ‘bitcoin will be the biggest bubble of our lifetimes.’

Speaking at a conference in New York on Tuesday, Novogratz explained that there is a lot of fraud in something that’s ‘exciting’ as the crypto market, reportsCNBC, adding:

I think this [crypto] is going to be the biggest bubble of our lifetimes by a long shot. To be fair, this is a bubble and there’s a lot of fraud mixed in. We look at tons of projects. And some get funded, and they literally look like Ponzi’s.

However, unlike critics who have said dismissed the digital currency as a speculative bubble, the former Fortress manager wasn’t using his bubble comment as a negative connotation. In October, during an interview, Novogratz was asked whether bitcoin’s gains constituted a bubble. Even though he replied in the affirmative, he added that this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, adding:

Historically, manias or bubbles happen around things that fundamentally change the way we live. If it’s the railroad bubble or the Internet bubble, it really changed the way we live.

He added that in 10 to 15 years the blockchain and decentralised systems would be in use everywhere, claiming that this bubble is ‘going to be the great manias of all time.’

Since October, bitcoin has not onlyscaled the $10,000 milestone, but it’s continuing upward trajectory has pushed it up to its current value of $11,147, according to CoinMarketCap, pushing its market total to $185.7 billion for the first time.

The comments from Novogratz, who has compared to bitcoin to digital gold, come at a time when he recently stated that bitcoin could ‘easily‘ reach $40,000 by the end of 2018. Furthermore, he was reported yesterday as saying that the digital currency market cap will reach $2 trillion at the end of next year. At present, it’s worth an impressive $339.1 billion, making it more valuable than Visa and theBank of America. Slowly, but surely, it’s steadily gaining on the market cap of JPMorgan Chase, at $343 billion, who’s CEO called bitcoin ‘a fraud‘ in September.

However, while Novogratz believes that the cryptocurrency will reach $40,000 by the end of 2018. he doesn’t think that the journey will be smooth sailing.

He added:

There will be wild crashes in it because you’re going to get to levels so far ahead of where the technology’s at. It makes investing really, really exciting, but difficult.

Since the beginning of the year, bitcoin’s value has, so far, increased by more than 1,000 percent.

The Power of a Smile – How Smiling Can Change Your Life and Change the World (Part 2)

Smiling is such a key ingredient for establishing healthy and genuine friendships. When someone is smiling at you it indicates that they like you. When someone likes you what do you think of them? Yep, normally you’re thinking “wow, I like this person!” Smiling also offers encouragement to the person that you are talking to. Think about it, if someone is smiling at you while you are talking to them, you feel as though they are totally into what you are saying, encouraging you to keep going!

When you’re smiling, no doubt you’re having a much better time than when you’re not! Smiling simply makes you feel better!

Research has shown that smiling releases serotonin – a neurotransmitter that produces feelings of happiness and wellbeing. It’s like a circle of happiness. Smile and you feel happy, you feel happy and you smile! Even when you’re not feeling great, try smiling, genuinely, and see how you feel!

Smiling is crucial when it comes to first impressions. Smiling when you first meet someone will indicate to the other person that you are genuinely happy to see them and that you are a positive person. These impressions will be lasting on the other person so definitely not one to miss!

Business deals can be made simply through smiling. One of the first things that sales people quickly learn is to smile. Who would you rather buy something from? The sales rep that looks bored, down, angry, frustrated or whatever it may be, or from the sales rep that is simply smiling and happy to see you? The messages that they convey in conversation will link back to how they are feeling. A smiling person would be much more enthusiastic for the product and instil positive feelings in the buyer.

Even telesales have got a hold on this. Now sales reps that are on the other side of the phone are encouraged to smile when they talk as the smile is conveyed in how the person is talking! It can’t be that hard, can it?

A number of people will say that they find it hard to smile due to circumstances in their life. Research has shown that our thoughts and feelings influence our behaviours. As this is the case, I encourage you to close your eyes and think of the moments that have made you laugh and smile. How does this make you feel? These visualization exercises are great for helping you smile.

Further research has now flipped the above completely on its head and suggested that ourbehaviours can actually influence our thoughts and feelings! As this is the case, I encourage you to JUST DO IT! Simply forcing a smile will give you the benefits of the above. Stand up straight, work on your posture, smile to the world and ‘fake it till you make it’! It WILL work!

INTEGRITY AND HONESTY IN A RELATIONSHIP

At the beginning, everything was clear as day and clearly open between the first man, Adam and his wife, Eve. Though, they both saw each other’s nakedness, shame, humiliation and embarrassment, yet were not ashamed.

Today, some people are embarrassed about their partners because of the pieces of information they have gotten about them. If you will have a fruitful relationship, there should not be any secret or lies. You must be open at all times. For your relationship to be fruitful, you must pursue truth.

God was the Center of the first man and woman’s relationship, and He covered them with His glory. So, they had no shame and saw each other’s secret.

The reason people lie about their true status or full status is simply because they want to gain advantage and put their partners in the dark. So, a lady who has had past abortion will not want to disclose it to her partner. You should be honest and truthful because something challenging may be waiting for you in the future which will then be as a result of the fear of being jilted. It is easier to reveal secrets that won’t hurt or that will benefit you than otherwise. Both parties must be committed to truth and the Lord Jesus Christ, because He is the Truth. John 8:32.

Honesty is the foundation of any meaningful relationship. It is being truthful, sincere and far away from deceit. Integrity is being whole and indivisible. Some people are so different in different seasons and situations. So, you need to see them in these different seasons and situations before you decide on love as to marriage.

When there is honesty in a relationship, it will be easy for you to trust each other. When someone is committed to truth, you can trust him or her.

When you are in a relationship, you need to ask yourself if you can stand-in for your partner or not? Else, if you marry, you will regret ever doing so.

Truth is conformity to fact and reality. When you are honest to each other, you will be able trust each other and know the whole truth about each other. Trust is firm believe in someone or something.

Honesty is something you do on a consistent basis. Where there is trust, there is growth. Relationship cannot grow in situations where there are suspicions. Both of you must be committed to telling each other the truth at all times. You must be honest in your speech and actions. Avoid systematic or deliberate avoidance of truth. You simply weave a tangled web when you practice deceit. Telling lies is stressful, because you need to always remember what you said last. You always want to cover lies and become inconsistent.

Therefore, when you are in a relationship, don’t compromise the virtue of honesty. Avoid emotional deceit too. You can always consider someone for a relationship if he or she is first of all true to himself or herself, then also true to you.

Honesty is a reflection of good character. Someone who is not honest does not have good characters. When you rehearse and meditate on God’s word and allow it to live inside you, it will be quickly generated and be your response when lies come to you in order to sieve them out.

When you are in a relationship, it is about the pursuit of truth in all aspects of life, so as to know if you are compatible or not and if you can walk together.

For others to be truthful to you, you have to first be truthful to yourself; and to be truthful to yourself, you need to first discover yourself. People compromise their values because of untruthfulness to self. Tell yourself the truth always. Ask yourself what you want and why you want what you want. You should know your motives. If your motives are wrong your actions will always be wrong. Your actions will always be coloured by your motives.

When you live in dishonesty because you don’t tell yourself the truth, you become enslaved and get into captivity and live a stressful life. It is only in an atmosphere of freedom that you can experience growth.

Some people start to conform to their partners’ demands in order to please their spouses even in a relationship and therefore stop being themselves.

When a relationship breaks, what is painful is whether you have lost your identity or can you regain who you are. If all you are doing in a relationship is to stop being yourself, please your partner and try to become someone else; it becomes a syndrome of unworthiness, that is, inferiority complex.

If there is something you cannot continue in marriage, don’t start it in a relationship. Don’t start what you cannot continue in marriage when you are in a courtship. When you are not true and honest with yourself, you compromise your standards. Ephesians 4:25 (NLT).

HONESTY

Without integrity and honesty in a relationship, the relationship will disintegrate. True intimacy is only possible when there is truth and honesty. Intimacy is about gradual relationship built on truth. You feel more pains when you break up a relationship not because you break up, but because you fail to tell yourself truth about yourself and had avoided certain truths about your partner. You keep quite because you are afraid of hurting him or her, because truth is bitter and really hurts. But lies hurt more.

You must always give people opportunity to ask questions and express themselves in order to be honest and tell you the truth always. Sin will thrive in secrecy, so always allow your spouse to express himself or herself.

Relationship is about the pursuit of truth. Truth about the past, present and future. Where there is no truth, there can be no honesty. And where there is no honesty, there can be no integrity which is a foundation of good relationship.

Truth is synonymous to light. When truth is revealed, you should pause and find out if you can go on or not. Don’t struggle with it. When you struggle, you build on lies. Constant communication is crucial to the discovery of truth in a relationship. If you have not discussed it, you are not in a relationship.

Proverbs 11:20 (MSG); Proverbs 14:2.

God cannot stand deceivers. An honest life is a respect before God and people will always see you in the light of God. When you hide truth, you don’t just hurt your partner; but you hurt yourself as well and deprive yourself many good things. If you hide the truth, you deprive yourself the opportunity of meeting your needs in a relationship.

When you don’t give people opportunity to ask questions, you give them opportunity to crack their brain on philosophies on how to reason out things. Save them all of these and answer their questions.

WHAT HONESTY DOES IN A RELATIONSHIP?

  1.  Honesty ensures time is not wasted in a relationship and you don’t have a heart break.

  2.  It keeps you from stress (stress-free) because you are not using your time scheming.

  3.  It builds trust and focus in a relationship.

Marriage is stressful enough, therefore, apply wisdom in deciding so as not to add more stress.

Don’t tell a woman “I love you” if you don’t mean it. May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you.

The Power of a Smile – How Smiling Can Change Your Life and Change the World

A smile has special powers. You can calm fear, insecurity, hurt and anxiety not only in yourself, but in those that are experiencing those feelings. The next time someone is feeling sad, scared, nervous, whatever it may be, smile with them and see how this makes them feel!



Have you ever been in a sour mood and then someone has come along with a huge smile, some laughter or in a really good mood? Perhaps a baby that just looked up at you and smiled? How did this make you feel? When the person you are talking to or the people that surround you are smiling, you won’t be able to help but smile!

A smile is a contagious thing. Give to the world and the world will give back to you. Smile at the world and the world will smile back at you. You will brighten the days of those around and make a difference in their lives… simply by smiling!Wrinkles, wrinkles, wrinkles! Something that we all don’t want to have, however it is something that comes to us all leaving permanent marks of our emotional feelings throughout life. Smiling throughout life will NOT mean you won’t get wrinkles… I wish it did! It WILL however mean that you will have permanent marks of happiness and when you speak with those later in life, you will automatically be smiling!

You also use fewer muscles to smile than you do for frowning. Hopefully you’re smiling now as you read this, but if not, smile now! … Now that you have tried smiling, try and frown. Which one do you think is easier? I would definitely say smiling is the easier of the two, and therefore stretching your muscles and skin less throughout life to grow old sexily!

God's Purpose For Christians

What Does The Bible Teach About The Christian Way of Life?

• There is no Christian life apart from faith in Jesus Christ:
• There is no Christian life apart from the power of God the Holy Spirit:
• There is no Christian life apart from the knowledge of the Word of God:

What is the Christian's purpose on earth? Every believer in Jesus Christ should ask himself this question, "after salvation, what?" If you say, "to work for Jesus," then you don't have very much knowledge of the Word of God.

Eternal salvation becomes an accomplished fact at the moment of faith in Jesus Christ. Heaven is absolutely guaranteed for anyone who believes in Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. But the quality of the believer's life on earth depends on him carrying out the plan of God after salvation. Impact and blessings in time and eternity depend on fulfilling God's plan in time. Therefore, the question becomes emphatic. What is God's plan for the Christian after the point of personal faith in Christ? God freely gives "all things" after providing salvation (Romans 8:32). What are these things that God provides?

The simplest answer is this: He provides Bible doctrine for His people to learn. The Bible reveals God's purpose and plan. Only through growing in knowledge concerning God can anyone appreciate, love, and worship Him. As Christians we are commanded to "change our thinking" with divine viewpoint thinking so God's gracious purpose can be fulfilled in and through our lives. (Romans 12:2; Eph 1:18; 4:22-24).

God's purpose for the Christian calls for spiritual growth. II Peter 3:18, "But grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ....." II Timothy 2:15, "Study to show yourself approved of God, a workman who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." 

The Christian is kept alive on earth to fulfill his destiny, which is to become a spiritually mature believer, a spiritual winner. ".....a mature person to the measure of the maturity which belongs to the fullness of Christ." (Eph 4:13-16). Each believer's life becomes a unique expression of the glory of God in both time and eternity (Rom 8:29-30; 9:23-24), but only the spiritually mature believer's life glorifies God by receiving the highest and best that God has prepared for him (Rom 6:1-2a; I John 1:5-2:6). 

Divine blessings that the Christian can understand and experience and the overt manifestations of the Christian way of life only comes as a result of spiritual growth. And the Bible teaches that the only means of spiritual growth is the believer's consistent RECEPTION (hearing & listening), RETENTION (learning), and RECALL (application) of Bible doctrine in the filling or controlling mininstry of the Holy Spirit through all the circumstances of life.

Bible doctrine is the content of the Word of God which God designed to be communicated to the believer in Jesus Christ so that it will become the measure of his thinking, and the source of his mental attitude (Rom 12:3; II Tim 3:16-17; Phil 2:5; Heb 4:16;). The importance of Bible doctrine can never be overestimated. In fact, God places His own Word above everything else, even His own name: Psalm 138:2 tells us that "God has magnified (lifted up) His Word above His name."

His Word reveals His nature and His essence. Only the Scriptures allow us to get a glimpse of God's absolute character and to love the revealed member of the Godhead, Jesus Christ (John 1:18). The Bible is absolute truth, the thinking of Jesus Christ (Phil 2:5). I Peter 1:8 tells us that "Though we have not seen Him, we love Him." But this only occurs when we begin to understand His thinking and His viewpoint.

Understanding God's Word is the root of all Christian virtue. It causes the transformation of the believer's life, beginning with the inner person, the soul (Rom 12:2). The Christian's persistent learning and application of Bible doctrine in the filling or controlling ministry of the Holy Spirit enlarges his capacities for life, for love, for service, for blessings, and for happiness (II Corinthians 9:7-8). God's "greater grace" fills up the mature believer's greater capacities "to all the fullness of God." (James 4:6; Eph 3:19). In blessing the believer, God is glorified (Eph 1:3).

Therefore, the Christian life has a very high and elevated purpose here on earth. To bring glory to Jesus Christ and be a testimony to everyone around. And this is only possible when the believer places himself under the consistent learning and application of Bible doctrine in the filling or controlling ministry of the Holy Spirit. If every believer would make his objective to accomplish this, most of the problems within our communities, cities, states and our nation would begin to deteriorate. They would not cease, because Satan will remain the ruler of this world until Jesus Christ returns to set up His Kingdom, but the problems would become more manageable.

Therefore, I challenge you to place your faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, if you haven't already; then to place yourself under the consistent ministry of the Word of God, either under a pastor-teacher who teaches the Word, or by listening to Bible tapes. But keep as your number one priority in the Christian life, the learning of Bible doctrine in the filling of the Holy Spirit. It is only when you do this that you can fulfill the purpose of God in your life.