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Getting somewhere requires effort, it takes
faith to push on, it's easy to screw up,
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Friday, September 10, 2010
Tough love marriage guidelines! ....Tough love marriage guidelines! ....
Some tough
statistics
Divorces to Marriage ratio
USA
about 50%
Canada
about 48%
UK
about 54%
The USA statistics indicate the following detail
SO in these countries about half the marriages end in divorce today!
Here is another statistic
| Year | Marriage rate (per 1,000 population aged 15 to 64 years) | | 1980 | 10.2 | | | 1990 | 9.2 | | | 1995 | 8.2 | | | 2000 | 8.5 | | | 2001 | 8.0 | | | 2002 | 8.0 | | | 2003 | 7.9 | | | 2004 | 7.9 | | | 2005 | 7.8 | | | 2006 | 7.6 | | | 2007 | 7.6 | |
So less people are choosing to get married as well. Why?
I don’t know but I have a guess or two.
Maybe the fact
that birth control has reduced the need to be responsible for our actions?
Maybe the fact we are getting more
and more selfish and less and less willing to submit to others?
(Marriage is mutual submission of two people
to each other and ultimately to God [if Christian]).
Women became hunters of men when birth control
gave them control over their bodies.
Today, in North America, women of about 30yrs of age that have not
yet found a life partner and that want to have children become like cougars looking for prey. Being male I have been in the
wrong side of that hunt!
Guys adopt a couldn’t care there many fish in the pond attitude
towards relationships and since we seem to wired to have multiple relationships without the depth that women look for,
its an easy thing to do!
But what does God say?
How does he view the divorce
statistics?
How should Christians act? So that I am not guilty of being misconstrued, I will simply quote the
good book. . .
1 Corinthians 7 is the main chapter in this regard written by Paul. Some choice
statements are
The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her
husband. The wife's body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband's body does not
belong to him alone but also to his wife. Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may
devote yourselves to prayer.
Hmm, how many marriages stick to this one?
To the married
I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. But if she does, she must remain unmarried
or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.
I guess the statistics above
point out this is just ignored!
To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife
who is not a believer and she is willing to live with
him, he must not divorce her. And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must
not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified
through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.
Totally
unpopular words again right? I guess we know better, right?
But if the unbeliever
leaves, let him do so. A believing man or woman is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace. How
do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?
And we treat this one like an escape clause!
Perhaps our nations are degenerating because we are failing to try and
live up to God’s advice?
We think we are so smart and that we have “new” conditions
that change the basic rules, but God created our minds, social structures and environments. Perhaps he actually does
know better, in which case we are slowly falling into a pit that has evil pointed stakes at the bottom. Perhaps we are lying
down on the comfortable covering of the pit that has been carefully constructed to hide those stakes. We see soft comfortable
grass and don’t see what is coming.
I work with young people and when I see the devastation that divorce causes
in their soft innocent lives it makes me want to scream.
Not at the parents, but at that evil spirit
Satan who devastates and damages families.
If you are in a family undergoing this pain, or perhaps are the injured or damaging
party, know this. . .
God loves you and wants the best for you! Come back to him and those Christians who love and
will help you. It’s never to late while we have breath!
Children, don’t make your parents mistakes, love them and pray for them!
Fri, September 10, 2010 | link
Thursday, September 9, 2010
How about it? Who would have though Christians could react against themselves?...
Koran burning ignores Jesus teachings
Ottawa Citizen
I was glad that Daphne Picklyk makes that statement that has been echoed around the whole of North America since
members of the Dove World Outreach Center in Florida said they were planning to burn the Koran.
She points out. . .
“Their Christian community is surely
aware of Jesus' teachings:
"Love your enemies, do good to those who hate
you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you." (Luke 6: 27-28).
The Koran is the Holy Book for many millions of Muslims, just as the
Bible is for Christians. How would the members of this Christian group feel if the tables were turned because of the actions
of some extremist Christians (such as themselves)?”[1]
This
is what distinguishes Christians from Moslems. We are loving towards those who are not loving towards us!
THAT is what the bible teaches.
WE
SHOULD BE HAVING A LOVE A MOSLEM DAY!
Not this stupid hateful action!
What message are
those misguided Christians sending? Is it one Jesus would send? Not likely!
Why didn’t Jesus go out and burn effigies of the Greek and Roman God’s
of his day? (Moslem faith is so very new it didn’t even exist at that time!)
He chose to die rather than fight! He could fight! He could have destroyed everything in his path! He didn’t!
I really wish Christians could
understand that God attracts people to himself because of the selfless love, that “agape” love that is
shown to them. If we are to be Godlike, we need to have “agape” love.
To those Florida misguided souls I say, get to know some Moslems!
I do, I really appreciate them
as people. I know they are misguided in their religion, almost programmed, but really, you need to know they are not all extremist.
Most of the Moslem friends I have are great people who are very tolerant of others.
So I just want to say I stand with the Catholic Archbishop of Mumbai who said,
“On behalf of all Christian leaders of Mumbai and the community here, we disassociate ourselves
from the planned programme and condemn it as contrary to the teachings of Jesus Christ.''
I agree with the articles point it made
where it indicates, “In a strong show of solidarity, leaders of the Christian and Muslim communities have condemned
the irresponsible statements made by Pastor Terry Jones in the US, who has threatened to organise a " Burn a
Koran Campaign,' on the anniversary of 9/11.[2] “
I want
to remember how the world felt pain for and started to love Americans due to the incident.
I want to remember
the anguish I felt for the loved ones of those who died and were trapped in the towers as I watched them tumble down!
I want to pray for their families, the families of the millions of non-christians around the
world who like those moslem extremists berate, put down and mock Christians like myself every day.
I want to pray
they would experience true wonderful love and join me with all the others in heaven.
I want to know that the love of Christian is a controlled love
that overcomes evil and does not join with it in hate!
Pastor Terry Jones you are deluded! I can say this is my
judgment since you are a Christian and we of the church are required to Judge you. Read your bible, we are not to judge non-Christians
until the great judgment day! We are required to love them, right?
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Everything is permissible for me- but not everything is beneficial... Today we
look into 1 Corinthians 6:12 and 13(NIV)
“12"Everything
is permissible for me"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"—but
I will not be mastered by anything”
These words are written with
the example of sexually immoral behavior but a bigger principle is being uncovered in these words.
So much of what we do on a daily basis is not strictly forbidden but is either immoral or wrong. Sometimes we know
we are doing things that will damage ourselves physically but we do it (or don’t do it) ignoring the consequences
don’t we?
Think about that extra piece of pie that we stuff into ourselves when we have
already had sufficient!
Or, how about that failure to do that exercise that we know our body needs to
remain healthy!
In simple terms we lie to ourselves about the situation so we can be slack, so
that we can increase the pleasure of the moment at the expense of the future.
All of us do this at
times don’t we?
Now for non-Christians, this is just a value decision and they don’t
perceive anything more. With us we have to consider the following:
Our physical bodies are bought with a price and we hand them to Jesus when we accept him. Our bodies are not meant for immoral or unrightfully pleasuring of ourselves but for our Father God, and Jesus’
Holy Spirit is for our body. It is temple in which God resides on this earth!
By our Fathers power
he raised Jesus from the dead and in the same way he will raise us from the dead.
Do
we actually realize that God’s Holy Spirit lives in our bodies!
Do you understand there are TWO persons living in that skin of yours?
How often do you consider that Holy Spirit is with you in everything you are doing as a Christian?
We would
never walk into the parliament buildings and pee on the carpets would we? How come we walk around in the presence of God and
deface our own bodies with bad living practices?
We are not our own after we give ourselves to our loving God, we are paid
for with blood. Paid for in drops of living blood! We are then flooded
with Holy Spirit so our bodies are a home of God. Let’s keep that home in the best shape we can!
So,
today, let’s think about what we put into our mouths and how we exercise, and how we speak and try and make it glorifying
our wonderful God.
Have a great day!
Everything is permissible for me- but not everything is beneficial!
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Do you know Christians will judge the world?Do you know Christians will judge the world?
1 Co 6:2 Do you not
know that the saints will judge the world?
Hey this seems a bit harsh doesn’t it?
One group of people getting to judge others! Where is that judgement by peers that our modern courts seem to like? Where
is the jury concept?
Then to add to this confusion, we know Jesus said in
Matt 7:1&2
Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same
way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
The bible seems screwed up! It doesn’t seem to be able to make up it’s mind right?
Wrong! There
is a need to read what is written real carefully. Read the bit Jesus said again and notice it says “with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.“
It doesn’t say don’t judge, but it sure says be real careful
doing it and make sure, make very sure that you are not guilty of exactly the same thing!
In fact Paul says in 1 corinthians 2:15 & 16,
The
spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment:
"For who has known the mind of the Lord
that
he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
Maybe we can get a bit of an idea what Judging is from this?
Paul says we make judgments about everything, but with the mind of Christ! Hmm! What does that mean?
It means we have God’s spirit in us and must allow God within us to guide and lead us in judgment, not our own desires
or reactions. Earlier Paul says;
1 Corinthians 2:10 &
11 The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's
spirit within him?
This links God’s Spirit and man’s spirit.
Can I suggest it
is saying that God’s Spirit searches out things that we then in our spirit get to know? This then allow us to search
out these things in ourselves. This is so that before we judge others, we look into the things of God changing ourselves so
our Judgment is really that of God through us, but only after he has cleaned out our selfish, nasty and ignorant habits and
impulses.
How do you and I know we have God’s mind on a subject? How do we know what we think is not our thoughts lying to us?
Well the
one place we can know it is not our thoughts lying to us is by checking out what God says in our bible. It says there. . .
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (New International Version)All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking,
correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
So I guess checking out what God says about something is a first step.
God wants us to Judge at the end of time, at the final judgment of everyone in this world. Then together
with Jesus, Christians will judge each other and those that are not Christian.
At that time very thought
and emotion we have had while alive will be known by everyone judging.
Our minds will be opened to everyone. Everything we have ever thought, felt or done.
It will be a judgment
of peers! It will be absolutely just! Only those with God’s mind will be involved!
So what
about now?
Well lets try and avoid judging since it means we are judging ourselves as we judge others
and I for one don’t want to set up heavy judgments for myself.
Then, Christians are told to judge the words and actions of other Christians. Why? So the people that
have yet to understand Jesus see truth in the church not falsehood. (Something we somehow seem to lack today right?).
Lastly, we are not to judge but love those who are not yet followers of the truth! Jesus came to us while we were outside
the truth! He loved us then despite our flaws and nasty habits and activities. He expects us to do the same. Let’s go love someone today!
Monday, September 6, 2010
How do I communicate to Gods Spirit?...
Bow, stubborn knees!
...
William Shakespeare
No one kneels in front of anyone else today except when we propose marriage to another right? Very few at
any rate!
We have moved to that place of pride where we cannot be in submission to another, right?
I was watching a John Wayne movie last night in which
he is a rich ranch owner giving others work, and in it he gives advice to a guy who has difficulty working for him
because of his pride. He says something “I work for those who buy the meat and you work for me, so we all work for
someone!”
I think we approach life with the attitude that even those
we work for don’t own our lives and should be careful of what they ask of us. This is a health approach but it is one
of self reliance and self fulfillment, things our psychologists tell us we need to have in our lives. Again they are right,
but it’s how we go about it that’s got to be evaluated.
When we sell our services to an employer, do we give him or her what they have bought, our brains, muscle and energy
for the eight hours of work each day they have paid for. How much of the time that is there’s do we spend on our own
activities? How much on there’s? How truthful are we with them?
It is difficult for us to “bow” to anyone isn’t it? We resist internally even if we do so externally,
right?
So with this as a backdrop let’s consider spiritual
communication, that’s talking to unseen spirits!
There
are many who laugh at those who do this, but often those people in life threatening situations call out “Oh God!”
Why?
Pascal
the great French mathematician, philosopher and scientist said “There is a
God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made
known through Jesus”
Yes! A SCIENTIST said that! Whether we admit it or not,
man’s heart is built to reach out and search for God. To do this we need to know how to communicate spiritually.
In Matthew 6 of the New Testament of the bible Jesus gives some good advice. Here are
some excerpts :
“When you pray, do not be like those
who only pretend to be holy.”
What does “holy”
mean? Websters 1913 dictionary says it means “Spiritually whole or sound; of unimpaired innocence and virtue; free from
sinful affections; pure in heart; godly; pious; irreproachable; guiltless; acceptable to God.”
I think translated to modern English the above might say “When you talk spiritually,
don’t be false in what you say, making yourself out to be better than you are!”
Or simply, “BE GENUINE!” that’s principle number one!
Next it says
“When you pray, go into your room.
Close the door and pray to your Father, who can't be seen. He will reward you. Your Father sees what is done secretly.”
This is perhaps summed
up as “GET INTIMATELY PERSONAL!” the second principle. It’s your heart God wants to have
opened to him, you are there to get into a personal and intimate relationship with him. If you love someone very much and
want to get really really close to them, like husbands and wives do, we strip of our clothes and get naked right?
To get close to God, to get real intimate we have to strip of our inhibitions
and talk to him directly from our hearts. Husbands and wives who keep their clothes on while they make love would not be considered
as having a good interpersonal relationship right?
Spiritually if you are
worried about how you look to God instead of coming to him in love and focussing on him, we screw up? What if a wife or husband
refused to get undressed for their spouse? What would it say? Would the other trust them fully?
SO, how fully do you trust God?
Next it is important to get clean! James in chapter five says “confess your sins
to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”
Oooh! Now we are reaching deep right? Tell someone else
what we have done wrong! That’s called being accountable! Another Christian concept. We need to find someone who is
a Christian who can be trusted and tell them what is deep within our hearts as things we have done wrong. Why? Well God knows
it takes a huge amount of courage to do this, and by doing it you move forward a huge step, that step of getting real with
our failures. So Principle 3 is “ADMIT WHERE WE FAIL”.
This is supported by Proverbs 28:13 where it says “He who conceals his sins does
not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.”
We don’t only tell others, we open our mouths and tell God as well! Those are the two steps of admitting we
aren’t perfect and opening up what we do wrong!
Next
principle is “DON’T BABBLE!”
Matthew 6:7 "When you pray, do not keep talking on and on the way ungodly people do. They think they will be heard
because they talk a lot. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need even before you ask him.
God wants us to think about what we say BEFORE we say it.
He wants it to be simple, honest and to the point! We need to understand God doesn’t need us to reveal what we are doing
or need or want, he knows ALL that ALREADY!
So why are we praying?
It’s got to do with principle one and two. God wants a relationship with us that is genuine and intimately personal.
Do we talk to those we love deeply about things they already know? Sure! We like to open up subjects to get their perspective
right? We sometimes just want to hear their voice right? God wants that intimacy with us! Only we can give that to Him. That’s
our gift to God! Isn’t amazing we have something as personal as this that God wants? That’s
the God who created everything we see, hear, smell, touch and taste! The same one! Yeah! What an awesome privilege we have!
Now although we do this intimately and in private, we must
never loose sight of the fact that we are part of a community that does this. Jesus taught us to pray in private, “Our
Father” not “My Father”. This principle is to “KNOW WE ARE PART OF GOD’S COMMUNITY”
as we pray. Principle number 5!
Principle six is one I have written a lot about previously, it is to “FOGIVE
THOSE WHO HAVE DONE NASTY THINGS TO US”. See Matthew 6:14 to get this principle from Jesus words.
There are more spiritually connection principles but if
we simply apply the six above we are making considerable progress in spiritual prayer.
Hey, how about we try it now?
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Rift in Evil
By Ken
X Briggs - Published: September, 2010
- Format: Perfect Bound Softcover(B/W)
- Pages: 208
Size:
6x9 - ISBN: 9781450250894
Available from Barnes and Noble, Amazon, iUniverse. |
Credit cards are acceptable on sites having Ken's books: 
:)
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Click
on XML Click here =>  to be told of new blogs
| Ken's book covers are displayed below. . . | |  This
suspense thriller centers on Kiara, a beautiful young woman pursued by a murderous group of people, who relentlessly and ruthlessly
hunt her and her sisters. Kiara has no idea why she is being targeted! When Kiara and her family turn to the law for help,
this fails. Her pursuers’ powers reach deeply into the political and law enforcement world. Family support for her dwindles
when they too have to flee her pursuers. Can Kiara escape the clutches of both the law and dishonest big business? With the
media broadcasting that Kiara and friends are dangerous and subversive, can Kiara clear her name and bring her pursuers to
justice?
| | | | | To purchase Kiara's Pursuer ebook
@ $1.99 kindle version click here, To contact the author contact Author@KenXBriggs.com | | | | | | | | The town of Zinaville is dropped into a spiral of evil causing a young man and a beautiful but abused woman
to launch into an investigation that unveils an evil conspiracy. A horrific mining accident results in Joshua
Robyn's father being killed. Joshua struggles both with himself and his townsfolk as he tries to make sense of an incomprehensible
situation. Is it an accident or a murder? Why is there a seeming link to evil? Why is his work environment suddenly threatening?
What is the conspiracy about and what are they trying to do? As action moves dramatically from exotic African grasslands to
the heart of North America's cities, the plot unfolds and the pace quickens. Will there be time? Why is a beautiful abused
young woman in the center of this plot? Evil tendrils tighten on their lives and the interplay between the visible
and invisible world shows opposing forces at work. Will there be a rift in evil? Will they be able to stop the
evil in time? | | - Published: September, 2010
- Format: Perfect
Bound Softcover(B/W)
- Pages: 208
Size: 6x9 - ISBN: 9781450250894
Available
from Barnes and Noble, Amazon, iUniverse. Chapters | | | | |
| Frugal Eating Advice |
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| Good advice for students living on limited $'s. Click on the image! |
May you be blessed today!
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