Surely it’s better to have sex with a few people you care for and select the person that’s right for you?

Well, sexually transmitted diseases indicate there is always potential risk and harm. This can be circumvented partially but not perfectly with protections. There is always risk! This is a physical reality and nothing to do with God or what he wants.

Then secondly, you will have given yourself sexual partner comparisons which as I previously explained in a blog, put you in second place for true excellence in sex.

Finally, sex with many partners reduces intimacy as you progress to each new partner. Each partner reduces your ability to be really intimate with the next. Since sex is more than a physical act, this often ends with at least one partner feeling used and abused. God doesn’t want that for us. He doesn’t want us cheating ourselves in this way! Sometimes, it can get so bad that emptiness takes its place in our life and we feel like we will never be fulfilled. God doesn’t want that for us either!

Surely with birth control that has been introduced, and since the biblical writings were established so long ago, God’s laws are no longer valid?

Birth control helps plan families, but cannot help with sex. With one partner, the level of protection needed is less, and sex is great! With multiple partners, we cannot necessarily trust the others, so everyone has to be protected and the trust is not complete. Controls also sometimes fail! In marriage that is not a disaster. Outside, marriage, you decide!

I think Gods laws are for our good, whether we agree or not.

I guess this subject has been beaten to death and so it is now time to move on to more important things! Let’s get it straight, God doesn’t tell us what to do in order to push us into His mould. I believe he wants us to develop into wonderful people, each with our own special and unique personality. To do this we need to understand that the God who created us really does know what’s best for us! It’s hardly surprising, right?

Optimal sex! Why does God say it needs to be in a marriage and preferably with the spouse of your youth?

1. Surely that’s a really stupid way to enjoy a great experience?
2. Surely it’s better to have sex with a few people you care for and select the person that’s right for you?
3. Surely birth control has been introduced since the sacred writings were written so God’s laws are no longer valid?

Hmm! Let’s see...what would be the best of best experiences. Wouldn’t it be to find the exact right person for yourself, and when you have that first sexual experience, to know that the person loves you totally and will be with you for the rest of your life? To be a perfect match, you need to know that you would be immersed in an intimate relationship with the person forever and respect them and they would always respect you. They would always stand by you. That there is no chance they would ever turn to another person instead of you. This is probably what most of us want even if we don’t say it to others.

What does God want for us? Exactly this! Nothing less! In fact he wants to have more than this, because he wants an additional supernatural experience of love to build us and our partner together with spiritual forces as well, and make the relationship even better and more perfect.

So let’s look at the questions again.

I trust you are aware that you bond in a special way to the first person you have a loving intimate sexual experience with! A way that you never can repeat with anyone else again! The first time is exactly that and cannot be repeated! It doesn’t matter how many others you make love too, that first will always be there in your memory and you will start to compare any others (favourable or otherwise) to that first experience. One partner means never having to compare! Comparisons hurt! If you have multiple partners, you will either know that you gave the precious gift of your virginity to someone who shouldn’t have got it (if your first partner compares negatively) or that you are in a negative situation right now(if they compare positively). Either way you have just given yourself second best!  You can’t win!

So, this explains why God wants one person to be your partner (and wants to help select the right person), but it doesn’t explain why God wants a marriage. Why get legally bound to another in this way?

In most countries if you stay with a person long enough you get status of what is called a “common law” wife or husband. So you are legally bound anyhow. Why do governments do this? To protect the couple and ensure they treat each other right for the involvement and input they put into the relationship. It’s a fact that without a legal agreement, a satisfactory relationship is always one where one or other partner could be looking to escape and the other is always worried about it. That’s not really full loving! Then there are children. Once they come along, this means that there is a new life to be nurtured and they can get hurt if the relationship breaks down. There is no way a child living between two families is able to have as optimal a life as living with two loving parents in the same home. That’s why the governments put laws into place to try and assist protect innocents from harm and to try and keep parents together,or at least responsible to each other for that precious life.

This is what governments do, not God. God wants so much more for us! Christian marriage is a commitment of the wife and husband to God first, and each other second. The husband is not the head of the family and neither is the wife. They both agree legally that God is! Our government has hijacked this agreement to splice this agreement into our country’s legal system, but the real Christian marriage is one where God is the one in control of the family. The reason this is so good is because we as humans don’t have the ability to see into the future and so we don’t know what is best for us. It’s much better to have God doing this for us, since he has not only this ability, but also the ability to re-structure the future for us.

Now, along with this comes the legal cover God wants, mainly for the wife. Guy’s are “eye-candy” people and less on the relationship side of life. Curves and beautiful bodies attract men’s eyes like magnets attract iron. Ever heard of the “seven year itch”? That’s common talk for the period that men start to get interested in looking around for relationships outside their immediate partner. Being legally bound helps guys stay the course.  God knows this, and that’s why marriage has always been a legal agreement as well! Now guys, God hasn’t got a trap set for you either! He knows that true love and intimacy far exceed the short thrill of an affair. Why do so many men that divorce their wives re-marry another? Maybe this is because relationships are more than sex? God actually wants your first relationship to get past the itch years and settle into deep intimacy and love. If God is in control, he can remove the need for the itch and keep us focussed on solid values that will do the most for us in the long term. That’s why he wants a three way marriage, you, your spouse and Him! A Christian marriage! Two way marriages are good but lack the guidance of God. Like a ship with many instead of one captain, the rocks become a real danger!

So to have excellent sex, God wants us to develop deep intimacy with our spouse. Then our sex is splendiferous! Also it’s important to know any type of sexual relationship between married partners is OK, provided both partners are happy to go in that direction and both agree that God would be okay with the activity as well. If you have an “agape” love for your partner, you will not take them into areas they are not comfortable to go. If they have “agape” love for you they are willing to try things to please you. This balance under God’s blessing is what God wants! God does not want other living beings to be involved (human or otherwise) since this is not going to produce the respect and intimacy between you that will build your lives. Within a Christian marriage sex is very, very, good! It’s worth waiting for!

We will investigate question 3 in a later blog. Have a splendiferous day!

I want to clear up the misconception that God sets out hundreds of rules and regulations that we must follow “or else!” So many people think that if they don’t do hundreds of things the way God wants, he gets some big stick or thunderbolt and blasts away at us.

“Nonsense!”

God doesn’t ask you to do anything more that respect and acknowledge who he is, build a relationship with him and allow him the freedom to help you improve your life and gain self respect. To do this he wants you to get to know about His son, Jesus, who he sent to live among us humans to be an example and lead us towards truth. Then when we know about this guy and get to understand he is God on Earth, God allows a supernatural change to occur in us. Not one with fireworks and lights and sensual highs, but rather it is experienced as life changing presence in our life that comes to us, is with us and supports us through our darkest hours. This Jesus takes the stupid and painful things we have done to others and ourselves as his fault, and gives us in return an “agape” love that builds us up and we respond in love to him in return.  Sort of like having a person pleading “Guilty” and accepting a prison sentence for a crime we have done, and then telling us we can live in his house, use his clothes and money while he pays for our bad behaviour. Rather “out there” on the scale of love, but really appreciated! You need to understand that no rules do it for God! He wants our “agape” love and gives us only good things in return for some lousy responses we have given him. He never gives us “pay back” while we are on this Earth! (That is not to say that the consequences of our actions don’t follow us around!)

So, if you think you have to follow all the rules before you can know Jesus, or if some well meaning, but poorly informed Christian says you “have to”, they are wrong! Gods rules are more like rules that a loving mother gives to a small child. Rules like “Don’t put you hand up there since the pot is hot and will burn you!”

God tells us what will hurt us and we can decide if we want to pull the boiling pot off the stove or not. That’s our choice! The consequences don’t please God any more than a mother would be pleased if a young child got scalded for life for deliberately ignoring her warning. Like the mother, God will try and keep us from doing things that damage us, and help us deal with the consequences when we do damage ourselves. Our success is in understanding His love and responding to His help! That keeps us out of trouble! So let us understand that biblical rules are for the growth of Christians and not to cause God to love us. He already does that! He does it even if ywe aren’t Christian and if we don’t love ourselves!

Patrick Swayze died yesterday.

It get's me reflecting. . .what is a measure of a man's life. Success? Popularity? or contribution to society?

The sad fact is that no matter how good his dancing, if he hasn't made right with God he has a lousy prognosis for the future. If he has made right it's fantastic. What we do is not as important as our relationship with God. Then, once we have this fundamental right, what we do has rewards based on our contribution to society within God's leading.

A gift for acting and dancing would need to be used to improve society and promote God. I'm sorry Patrick, but as much as I enjoyed being entertained, I cannot say I remember you for what you did for society in alignment with God's will.

I hope somehow that we who are less popular, may be more successful. We pray for his family and those left behind and I pray that somehow he made a decision for the God who rules the time after death. It would be real pity not to see him again.

How we can tell if a thought is impure?

Here is one way! Imagine our thoughts are flashed onto a screen in front of the very people that we are thinking about. Would they be shocked and think less of us? If so, that’s one test of what is meant by impure thoughts! To have peace within ourselves we need to be comfortable with others knowing what we are thinking. Perhaps you may think that’s a bit far out there! Extreme in fact! The mind of Christ that the bible talks about helps us get to the point where this is actually possible. It gives us a great comfort with ourselves and ensures our thoughts are guided in the right direction building an unusual peace and satisfaction in our hearts.

There are of course a few times we do need to conceal our thoughts. One correct time to conceal our thoughts is when we would be revealing truth that could hurt the other person and not build them up, when confidences given would be compromised, or where God tells us to not reveal what we know. These occasions are never about us, and always about what is best for the other person. If the occasion is about protecting ourselves then we are not doing right in concealing the thoughts.

Now, to get back to impure thoughts and acts; indulging and wanting these will only make us “harden”, often getting angry with others for judging us (even if they don’t), or helping us hate ourselves and feel inferior to those around us. Having sexual experiences without the intimacy God wants for us, doesn’t fulfill us for long, and leaves an empty pit in our hearts. Trying to deaden this hurt but running away from it, or running away from others, or ignoring it, creates further problems for us. Pain or the failure to “feel” can spread like a disease in our life, hurting us. Often we blame others for this when it happens. Maybe we believe it’s the sexual partner or partners who were not sufficiently intimate or caring. “It’s your fault!” we say. We fail to see that it started in our own decisions. We get into situations that we find almost impossible to get out of. They hurt us and make us think less of ourselves than we should. The claws of that sensual demon dig in deep and hold us from escaping. Where is the help we need?

These are totally incorrect statements! If they were true, there wouldn’t be any Christians within a few years. Christians are as sexual as anyone! So why do Christians seem to disapprove of so much stuff that goes on in the world around us?

So many times we find the media showing that Christians are either, against sexual freedom, or participating in sexual perversions. Think of how much emphasis is given to any person of leadership in the Christian environment that is guilty of an inappropriate sexual activity. Then try and think how many times you hear of people outside the Christian environment getting the same amount of coverage.

Is the shock factor the same in both cases? Probably not! Guess which story would sell the most newspapers or get the most viewership on TV? So, if you make your money out of tickling people’s interest in a subject, which message would you push? Can you see that our culture forces us to view certain things in a distorted way? Is this the way we should get told about what happens? Do we have a balanced opinion?

Most people agree we can have, but it’s rather difficult when the media themselves tend to be unbalanced in this regard. Let’s be honest, the media cannot change! They have to make profits or they don’t have a job. We can!

So, should we disapprove of sexual perversions? Yes! In fact the Bible says people who give themselves over to sensuality become “harden” to others and then;

Key to an understanding of this statement is in understanding the difference between intimacy and sensual gratification.

Intimacy is much more than just sex! No person who masturbates considers themselves as getting intimate with their hands. They know the sexual act is a sensual experience that will give them arousal and pleasure for a short time, and then loneliness will return. Loneliness is not addressed with sex, but with a relationship with another person. Let’s get it straight, I am not saying masturbation is wrong! It’s great under the correct circumstances! It helps relieve sexual urges and can lower impulses that can cause problems, but it’s definitely not the optimal sexual experience that God wants for those he loves. Since God loves us all, it’s not the optimal experience for anyone! So how do we get this optimal sexual experience? Over the next few blogs, I hope that we can investigate how we can have optimal sex!

Many people have delved into pornography and sexual experience in sensual and inappropriate ways. Some still do, and they resent it because they now know what it does to them. Many may still have to hand over this part of their lives to God so that they can have it overhauled and improved then handed back with more impact and fulfillment than they think possible. Before understanding God’s plan, these unfortunate people immersed themselves in whatever desire grabbed their mind at the time. Maybe they get into doing sexual acts, or maybe, being embarrassed or scared of consequences, they only allowed lots of inappropriate sexual thoughts to spin around their heads as they go about their daily business. “That’s normal!” many would say. Is it? Why?

Do we say it's normal simply because that's what people around us are doing? That argument could have been used by the Nazi's as they killed innocent people in the last war. Was that normal? If it's doing and agreeing with those around us because everyone appears to be doing it we will be on shakey ground.
Can we perhaps agree that there is an absolute right and wrong. If that is the case, it's likely God knows the answer. (see earlier blog on this). I have trusted him and found out personally this is true for me. What about you? Tomorrow I will start looking into this interesting subject. Have a great day! 

Okay, so another anti God argument is that the bible talks of 7 days of creation and there is no way the earth was created in a day.

I guess we probably all know that creating something as complex as the earth in a day is probably implausible. But, then we with human brains for thousands of years also considered that creating something out of nothing was implausible, and we proved that to be true just a few years ago. This universe was created from nothing at a single point that developed into space and time as we know it. Some things are just counter intuitive! The more we learn the more true some of these counter intuitive aspects seem to become. Let us rather say it’s unlikely the Earth was created in a day, but if you are God it could be possible! Isn’t this a more reasonable statement!

Okay, so personally I don’t believe the earth was created by God in 7 physical 24 hour days, but I am open to being convinced otherwise. I do however also know the early Jews and Christians didn’t believe the earth was created in 7 days. They probably had more reason to believe in physical days since they had no scientific preconceptions. They didn’t believe it was an actual week! They took it to be huge periods of time and believed they were in the last days described by that biblical text. That’s why they were waiting for a “messiah!”

It was the English translation understanding that gave us a level of confidence that that text in Genesis was talking of a 24hour day. So, let us just go to where the first translation into common English occurred. This was started in 1604 and finished in 1611 by 47 people working for King Henry of England. There was an earlier Wycliff bible in English, but this King James version was the most popular and stayed that way.

You can understand that in those years the translators would have fully believed that God constructed the earth in a day. The word for “day” that was translated from Hebrew, was “yome” which can mean “day” or it can mean “period”. In the first century when Jesus walked the Earth, both Christians and Jews understood this to be period and not a physical day. They also knew the word meaning was structured to allow this! However, our King James translators selected the 24hour day option and rejected the “period” meaning of the word as they did their work in the 1600’s. Once selected, this became embedded in our culture and we have never wanted to go back on this again. Why not? Perhaps we should? It is after all the same word as used in the phrase “Day of the Lord” which is generally agreed to be interpreted nowadays to mean a period of time, and not a 24 hour period.

Another aspect that actually ties together science and the bible quite effectively is the first sentence in the first writing of the Bible. It says “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.”

This firstly shows a beginning to time and space that science collaborates. Secondly, take a look at the words “The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep” Try explaining those words which were written before science existed without resorting to our modern knowledge and you are lost. It was a mystery for thousands of years. Christians believed it, but didn’t understand it. Nowadays with the help of science we know that the earth, in its early days of creation, was part of a dust cloud in space with vast distances between dust particles. A bit like a dust smog, with water, ice as well light gases such as hydrogen and helium in it. The best description of this nebula and the swirling dust cloud that became our earth would be “formless and void”. The scientists believe the nebula had large amounts of ice and water in it as well. This could be the reference to the waters and surface of the deep. Science helps us understand the Bible (if we take this approach that is).

Let’s get it straight, you don’t need to believe the explanation given previously, only please understand that science and the Bible are quite compatible and it is acceptable to believe both and not be crazy, sub-intelligent, or out of our mind. In fact, to reject the Bible on the grounds of science is perhaps more crazy, sub-intelligent, and mindless than to accept it. We should perhaps move away from classifying others by their acceptance or rejection of science in relation to the Bible. Those texts are written to show us the way to live successfully, and to develop a soft heart. They are not there to cause arguments on scientific principles. God is outside and above these arguments and science.

Rather, lets understanding how he can help us live successfully alive on this earth and afterwards once we die. That’s what the bible is really about!

So I am okay with people who believe in 7 days of creation or those that say it occurred in millions of years and I feel the bible doesn't contradict either, but it has a different focus. God wants us to have a relationship with him and us to know he loves us. Now thats what I consider important, what about you?

I have lots of people around me saying God doesn’t exist and science is proving it! While this is not very important, it is rather insulting in the way that many people approach it. I don’t like insulting or being insulted so let’s see what we can do about it. Many people say God is a man made construct put together by weak people to help them comfort themselves.

Let’s investigate this!

Firstly, let us throw out the concept that science disproves God! That is such a weak and poor argument nowadays. Only people who live in the past or don’t follow mainstream science believe that this to be true.  To get it straight, every true and honest scientist has to admit it is possible, but not provable, that God exists. To do otherwise is to raise science to the level of a religion and start to express scientific statements as faith statements. Things like “Evolution disproves God” are faith statements, not scientific statements.  True scientists should not be doing that! Also, science over the last few years has done more to prove concepts that support a God existing, than to disprove these concepts. Not everyone knows about some of these advances, so let’s look at a few areas where these changes have occurred.

Up to a few years ago, scientists of the past could point to the fact that there was no beginning to time. Since the Bible says the universe started at a point in time, many scientists openly mocked the sacred texts a few years ago. This got to be quite popular with the media who enjoyed the upset it caused. (It sold more newspapers!) Then along came sophisticated telescopes, and suddenly the scientists themselves discovered the universe was expanding out from a point from which it began. Wow! This was a bit of a setback since they were smart enough to figure out if you go backwards in time, it means that everything comes together at a single point in space and time. Then the calculations showed that if this was the case, then the weight of all that matter would compress in on itself to the extent that it would simply disappear into a single point in space. Black holes are about the closest we can come to this type of thinking. Normal rules of time and space change at this point of origin. The currently accepted view is that everything we know as time, space and matter comes out of this single pinhole of nothing that created space. Science now says there was a beginning and that it had to come from outside our known universe.

I wonder how many folk know that Canada is the source of todays holiday, both in Canada, and in the U.S.A. America borrowed the idea from us canadians who started it in the 1870's , and America started it in 1882.

An extra day of rest at the end of summer is most welcome! Time to clear away those remaining few items before the leaves start falling, and school comes calling. In Canada, it's the last long weekend before those of us that pilot boats need to be licenced.

This is also a good day to speculate on what we have done for the summer, what impact we have had on the world during the warmer months. In winter we look forward to the freedom of warm weather, but I wonder what we did with those comfortable hours this year? Looking back, I see a mission trip, great time with my son, a daughter who was home for a short while, friends, helping some great young people move through challenges facing them, and lot's of cutting of grass.

I also bought a Djembe (African hand drum) and started using it at our church in the worship music time. My respect for those African drummers increased significantly this summer. We all think we can tap out a rhythm with our hands but when it comes to actually doing it, it appears to be significantly more difficult. A bit like how our intensions for doing things in the summer often exceed our performance of them when summer comes. Fortunately, God is not performance based in his expectations of us, and simply wants us to have a deeper relationship with him.

That I acheived this summer! How about you?

Ok,I get asked a lot about how science disproves God. . .and I always say (and I am a man of science for many years now) that it doesn’t!

On the other hand many religious people say science proves God. . .and I personally don’t think he will allow that either!

God wants us to decide to love him because he loves us, and he wants us to do this by FAITH, not PROOF. So, the world is not built to prove spiritual things, but it is built to point out that spiritual things exist so we can do the faith two step. [i.e. acknowledging God, then asking him to run our lives for us!]

Okay, that said, there is sheer ignorance out in the world around how much the bible does agree with science, and how much science agrees with the bible. Now, let's agree there is no need for agreement, but is kind cool when it occurs.

Science is actually a way of getting knowledge from something called the “scientific method” and then adding it to the information already available in the form of research. This is so that the discoveries can be applied to our needs. This “scientific method” involves observing measurable things, applying reasoning, collecting data and producing reproducible experiments to build confidence in the truth of these tests. Other people do the same tests and say whether they agree or not. Then consensus says what truth is (for that point in time), until everyone is proved right or wrong, and then we move on to the next piece of research.

Notice the piece about “observable things”. God addresses stuff outside the “observable things”, and points out the observable is only part of what God addresses. In fact he says the observable is only a small and temporary part of the whole. (Tough for those of us who think it’s everything!)

The Bible starts with the words “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”. So, it says who did it rather than how ,and science has spent a huge amount of time proving how it was created rather than addressing who did it (which is outside of what science can “legally” comment on).

This is only one example of these "science vs God" arguments. Over the next weeks, at various times as I get inspired, I may try to address some more of the creation aspects as they relate to science for those of us who have difficulty aligning God and modern science.

Before I start this ruminating[that’s my big word for today J ), I want to consider what "truth" is (since that is what we need to focus on when we are discussing this science and the bible). Truth has three dimensions. . .

1.       What you and me consider truth ourselves. . .

2.       what others or the group considers to be truth. . .

3.       and what is the actual truth.

These three truths are sometimes the same, only God knows number 3, and we have access in various forms to points 1 and 2, which many of us consider to be the same as the 3^rd type. Unfortunately we can never really know the 3^rd type (unless we have connection with God who does (and can listen 100% accurately to God. Something we cannot do!)

Okay, if this seems complicated, it’s because it is. Who says the simplest answer is always correct? That’s also a belief that we can probably throw away. Science and biblical investigations seem to show increasing complexity rather than simplicity in life. We are also complex not simple.

So next time someone says science disproves the bible, let’s ask them what their definition of truth is. Also perhaps we need to consider what our definition of truth is. Do we have truth? How do we know? If we don’t, perhaps we want to decide to start the adventure of getting closer and closer to finding out about truth daily. That’s one of my goals, what about you?

Welcome to another wonderful day!

Ever had a decision that you had to make, that you know the person you are trying to help is going to take badly, and which if you love em, you have to make in a way that you get the blast of their anger?

I hope not, but believe me, they happen and will likely happen to you!  These are times where we get tested. Can we love enough to be rejected and still love? Maybe the person will never respect what we have done for them but it's not their acceptance or rejection thats important, it's doing what is best for them.

I guess we can think of Jesus dying for people who abuse his name, what he represents and what he has done.

When you get into that position, think about it. It's a tough place to be when we have to have tough love. What will you do in that situation, buckle and let the other person get hurt, or stand up and take the pain for their gain?

Your choice!

It seems like the hurricane is missing Tijuana and San Deigo. Keep praying! Anyhow, now for today's blog. The day before yesterday I chatted about love, but love needs endurance. We must not give up. True love doesn’t give up! We want to be loved that way. God loves us that way, and God wants us to love others that way. Yes, we will get tired, sometimes we will start to feel strain, but God expects us to get our guidance and strength from Him and not from ourselves so that we can move on. He promises us a peace in difficult circumstances. God said he will leave us his peace which is not like that the peace talked about here on earth, but rather that is out of this world! He said “Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.^[1] He is not talking of the quiet after an argument, or the ceasing of hostility between countries. His peace permeates everything we do. It’s an internal peace that fills our minds and bodies and allows happiness and contentment in all circumstances. Strange! But true! You can have someone screaming at you and still be peaceful! You sometimes see this modeled by wise oriental masters in movies. That’s a movie, what God is offering is the real thing! We just have to know how to get it.

To go off topic for a second, have you considered all the lies we accept as we accept principles the movies depict. That television show “Mythbusters” unveils many of the physical lies movies put out, but let me show you just how much we accept the subliminal lies shown to us on movies and television. You are aware that people do try and get you to want “stuff” using movies and television? I hope you know that. That’s why companies spend millions just to show you advertisements you barely watch. Why do they do that? I somehow don’t think they would waste money on what doesn’t work do you? It’s interesting that most people say they aren’t affected, but facts prove this to be a lie!

So, let’s get back to that true “love” thing. I want you to think of the three most successful marriages you know of. Not any marriages, marriages where you have actually met and spent time with the people over a period of a few years, and where the people have got married to and stayed married to the first person they married. (Maybe you don’t know too many people that have this type of life, if so try, and think of at least one couple or the best marriage you know of).

OK, so let’s use this as a semi-reasonable measure of success of a marriage. These couples represent spouses who love each other sufficiently to stick together through life’s challenges.

Now, get a mental image of how these couples look physically. Ask yourself how many of them have the exceptionally beautiful bodies as depicted by the lovers on television and the movies. Do they approximate Miss America, or Mr Universe? Do they have movie star bodies? How do they measure up to the Julia Roberts and Richard Gere’s, or the Jennifer Lopez and Leonardo De Caprio types?  Probably not too well!

So why do we spend so much time trying to be Miss America or Mr Universe when we are trying to attract the right mate. Why do we look for those attributes rather than the attributes that made those couples you thought of initially, successful? What makes for a successful marriage? Probably like most of the world, we have swallowed all the lies the media have pushed at us! Just so that some corporations can make millions out of us using products like clothing, cosmetics, diets, and beauty products. Have we been taken in?

Let’s get it straight, I am not saying that we should not try and look good or dress well! What I am saying is we need to be careful of accepting lies that will make our lives stressed and unhappy! Marrying the wrong person will certainly do that! It seems like more and more people are marrying the wrong person. The divorce rate goes up as corporations make their profits! Have we been accepting subliminal lies? What can we do to correct this? When will we do this? Are God’s bible values wrong or is the acceptance of these media values wrong? Should people be using subliminal messages to get us hooked or should they be direct and give us the option to decide for ourselves? Which approach is the more honest and fair to us? You decide!

Do bad things happen to good people?

These words have popped up lot's of times in the last week, and now they're here again. Shown by the storm Jimena which is closing in on Mexico's Baja peninsula.

Just three years ago, before I started to go with teenagers to Tijuana to build houses for the poor , this would have been just another news item.

Now?

Well now my heart beats a little faster, my anxiety to climbs a little and my spirit prompts me to pray for them.

Why?

Well I have lived there for a few weeks, painted houses for people who can't afford schooling for their kid's. They don't have money to paint their houses, for indoor plumbing or other things we think of as basics.

So, we built homes for people living in shacks made of anything they can find. Sadly we can't build enough to meet the overwhelming need. 

[Do you know, an adequate house only costs $5000 as our labour is free? So if you have a spare $5000, email me, and I will organize that togther we build a home for a destitute Mexican family with your $5000.] However, to get back to my main discussion. . .

This hurricane is on a path to potentially hurt my Mexican friends. They wouldn't have been friends a few years ago, but they are now! These people have so little. It will be devastating and even life threatening for them, even if they don't get injured!

Bad things can happen to good people! We live in a world where natural forces play out their random roles, but let's remember the way we react to them is in our control.

What is our attitude to the hurricanes that come into our lives? Do we board up our lives, hide inside ourselves, ignore others and try to get everything for ourselves?

Alternatively, do we try to become part of our community, helping others, having them help us, together taking on the evil together?

Do we care enough for others to forget about ourselves in the need to ensure others are also safe?
Do you know that somehow in caring for others, God does a work in us that changes us and gets us cared for. It's a weird side effect, but great! We gain when we aren't looking too, and we loose if we hold everything to ourselves and reject the needs of others. "Loving our neighbour" means stepping away from focussing on loving ourselves!

One of the most strange things is that those who focus on helping others, and loving others, rarely have self esteem issues or lack of self respect. Those that focus on themselves have the greatest likelihood of having these issues. How about you?

Hurricanes seem to bring destruction, but if people support each other, they can actually improve things. We get newness instead of the old broken down structures, and people care for each other in new ways.

It's interesting that it is said that in New Orleans before Katrina the employement was 94%, but afterwards it was 99%. People started to realize their worth!

Why do we wait for hurricanes before we realize our worth? Let's stop concentrating only on our needs!

Hey! have a great day and go do something for someone that doesn't expect it!

Hasta Manjana!