Tuesday, September 25, 2007

ODRAM





On Sept. 9th at 6:30AM i began riding my bicycle attempting 151 miles in the ODRAM (One Day Ride Across Michigan) from Montague to Bay City. I previously had only ridden 117 miles in one day. Right around the 120 mile marker I noticed my buttocks started to ache something fierce. The last 10 miles sharp pains would catch my attention quite frequently. I finished at 7:22.

I promised our SAG that if he wanted to do the ODRAM next year I would join him, but otherwise I can't see any reason for putting myself through that again. My ODRAM riding partner did the 24 hour challenge in Grand Rapids. I never thought I would do the ODRAM. I have never even thought about doing the 24 hour challenge. It's now a thought.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

GOD's Likes & Dislikes

Since GOD has given us freewill His likes and dislikes will most likely be different than our own. Why would He want people liking something He dislikes? I don't understand this? I guess He just didn't want a bunch of GOD clones running around. What fun would that be? Although, if i was the creator of the human i sure wouldn't want them running around killing each other based on hate and selfish reasons. But i guess not even GOD can have His cake and eat it too. In time I believe we will all end up coming to find out the complete truth to every little detail of each of our existances. We'll have every one of our questions answered. Did Barry Bonds use steroids? What happened to Jimmy Hoffa? Was there an Atlantis? Was everything basically created from a pool of goop like evolution says?

Ok, I went off on a tangent, back to GOD's likes and dislikes? So if I desire something and another human desires something and we fullfill those desires together not hurting anyone in the process, but ourselves, does that mean GOD is going to like/dislike that behavior? Or does He just not care whether He agrees/disagrees with something, He just accepts it for what it is, because He did give us freewill? But say GOD doesn't just accept it for what it is and either likes/dislikes every single little detail of our lives. If GOD doesn't like it, could He still think its ok, because He gave us a brain and freewill, He obviously didn't create us to be robots.

I highly doubt that GOD created the world to be a free for all anything goes type place.I can't imagine GOD wants/likes/agrees with starvation, disease, drug abuse, verbal/physical abuse, substance addiction, war, rape, murder, hate, etc. So does that mean GOD only cares about the big things and the little things are left up to us? But then how can one know all of this? GOD didn't leave a detailed instruction manual to follow. I guess because He didn't want us all to be robots, but if He had I bet the world would be a better place. But then you know not everyone would follow the instructions. Are the circles I'm going in with every paragraph completely frustrating you yet? It's an honor for me to have you still reading.

Finally, not much of one, but a conclusion.... In the end we die alone. Whether we believe in the afterlife or not, our existance will be determined according to the instructions/rules of the afterlife, not on our belief system. We just have to hope that our belief system matches up with the instructions/rules of the afterlife. From what I see there are a bunch of different instructions out there about the afterlife. But whether we believe in one, all, none, or even choose not to make a decison, we have a belief. Believing is such a beautiful thing, its the most free thing in this world. In the end its our deciding factor on our actions in life. In the end its the only thing that is purely our own decision. And how fitting that the most free thing in this world is the only thing we take and what I believe will be the deciding factor of our destiny/fate into the unknown.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Does Porn hurt a Marriage?

"One of the first things porn, or any lust for that matter does when we engage in it, is disconnect us from our wives, or any true intimacy for that matter. This happens because of two little words called guilt and shame. The Bible says that to even look at another woman with lust is adultery (Matt. 5:28). I believe this is because the same chemical and psychological processes are at work when we lust as when we actually have sex. One inescapable result of engaging in porn and lust is that a wall is immediately built between our wives and us; whether we feel it, acknowledge it or not. When this type of cheating continues, we quickly replace "intimacy" with "intensity" as our definition of what makes "good sex."



Since our wife's primary language of intimacy is relational, and we are disconnected, we are not able to connect in this manner. Further, because our primary language of intimacy is sexual and we are now in a spiral toward more and more intense sexual pleasure through porn and lust, a vicious cycle begins. We seek more and more "intense" sexual experiences--for which the internet is a perfect delivery mechanism for awhile--which we cannot get from our wives because we are disconnected from them emotionally and spiritually. The vast majority of men are not even aware this has happened. Disconnected becomes normal.

Congratulations... we are on our way toward sexual addiction.

As men we must be focused on sexual purity, not allowing any of our sexual energy be wasted on anyone but our wives. After all, the Bible tells us that our sexuality is first of all God's (Rom. 12:1), then our wife's (1 Cor. 7:4) and lastly ours. And we must be focused on meeting her needs for intimacy which are relational. For this is God's plan (Ecc. 9:9). As we do this, we will find that our sexual desire will redirect to our wives and grow significantly. It may take a month or two but it will happen. Try it. You may be surprised how well this works."

~Stuart Vogelman http://www.fatherville.com/Articles/Spiritual_Dads/Porn:_Does_It_Hurt_A_Marriage?/