Switchgrass

This could be the replacement for big oil.......

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5183608

The Future of Food

This really scares me, buy organic.............down the road it might just save your life one day. GMO's might of been invented to help poorer areas grow more crops, but I believe profit has become the force behind the development of GMO food.

Poverty Radio

Instead of sports radio, its poverty radio. Instead of talking about the games, they talk about meetings and discussions going on around the world trying to figure ways to improve living conditions. Instead of talking about the stats and how the players performed each day,they talk about the stats of how many water wells were drilled, and how the workers performed that day. And instead of win's and losses its how many people now have cleanwater for the first time in that region. Instead of fantasy football, it's fantasy worker's. Instead of baseball cards, its worker's against poverty cards.

This all sounds a little off, but what I'm trying to point out is that we spend billions of dollars on sports a year. 100's of players make over 10 million a year, 1000's of players make over 1,000,000 a year. The average salary in the United States is under $30,000. What if we salary capped each player at 1,000,0000 in every sport. What if people wouldn't pay more than$10 for a ticket to see a game. What if all the extra money that was spent on sports somehow,someway could be used to pay the salaries of the WWAPL (Worker's Working Against Poverty League). We could still have our sport's cake and eat it too.

Why can't we get excited about listening to the stories of worker's in the field building infrastructure, supplying healthcare, bringing the means for people to help themselves. Following our hero's through news of their whereabouts and what they are doing throughout the year.

We spend countless of hours focusing on games that overall are meaningless to our well being. There is no reason why we can't take a part of that and put it towards life instead of letting it continue towards death. The crazy thing about all this is that the sports world would go on as if nothing happened. Players would still compete at the highest levels, but with just less salaries. The sports fan would even benefit from getting to pay less for tickets. It's a win win situation. No one needs more than a million dollars a year, no matter how hard they work.

Death in the Mirror

This is an excerp from an article called "Death in the Mirror: Real Meaning in Life is to be Found Beyond Life" by Timothy K. Jones:

"Christian faith has always argued that meaning in life will be found beyond life...Despite the richness of this world, the New Testament reminds us that we are on our way to a reality even clearer and more substantial than we presently experience, 'Here we do not have an enduring city,' the writer of Hebrews wrote, 'but we are looking for the city to come' (Heb. 13:14). Or, as Paul put it, 'We look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen' (2 Cor. 4:16,18).

Indeed, we will never live fully if we think we can exhaust the meaning of the moment without reference to the longer stretch...We cannot live rightly until we aim past life. Eternity provides the only goal that makes the ultimate sense of each moment. Awareness of death, and of its opening to a life beyond, has not only framed how I look at life. It has also begun to work a change in how I walk through life. It has, in other words, brought not just new meaning to my moments, but changes to my behavior. As Samuel Johnson reportedly said, 'When a man knows he is going to be hanged in fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.' Our awareness of the transitoriness of this life, find, concentrates my priorities, helps me refashion my daily choices.

To know that life is not a destinationless journey helps me live more completely for a final good, an ultimate end...To know that 'we have such a hope,' as Paul says, makes us 'very bold' (2 Cor. 3:12). God's gracious assurance and promise of eternal care helps us 'incline to our proper center.' Our daily decisions become oriented around something more profound...A conviction about what lies beyond is giving me courage to live more fully and more faithfully...God can take even my frailty and mortality and invest it with eternal significance."

Instruction

I believe GOD has an agenda. I believe this agenda is the only agenda that will allow Heaven to function. It's not that GOD is a tyrant, its just that His agenda is the only way things will and can work in Heaven. It's not a choice because there is no other way. So if there is only one way things can work, this must mean there are instructions.

This must mean its all in one instruction manual. As tough as life is, it would be seemingly impossible to try and figure out the truth from multiple books. How can the most important thing in our life not be written down for all to read under one cover? Each product I buy has the manual under one cover. It never tells me the intricate workings of the product, but it does tell me how to operate it. At work, if something isn't documented I get multiple stories. Along the way my experience can be misleading when I believe I have fixed the issue only to find out 5 hours later I had only band aided the problem.

Life is extremely complex. I'm bombarded with different philosophical ideas and perspectives each day. Even my closest co-workers disagree on ways of dealing with situations and how to fix the same issue. Ultimately how do we know we are living life the way we should? How do I really know? How do I judge what goes through my mind each day? What if my life is supposed to be different when it appears I am doing just fine? What if I'm not even supposed to be living my life the way I am? What if I'm supposed to be living my life for something else? What if I'm supposed to be living my life for someone else, so they can slowly change me into the person I was created to be? How can I know? I can only know if its written down, or the one who knows is somehow giving me the message in some form or another.

What happens if I need to change in order to be able to function correctly in Heaven? There has to be a process. There has to be a manual. There has to be an easy way to get the manual. I'm guessing its right in front of my face. When you purchase a product the creator makes sure the instructions are included with the product. Many of you believe we just came to be through the big bang and evolution theories. Well, I guess that would mean there couldn't possibly be a manual and that means you are on your own to do as you wish and will, it's just as simple as that. But what about those of us that believe we were created. Logic and common sense tell us that like a company including the instructions with its product, GOD would likely do the same, otherwise the product would have to be figured out how to use and repair. I guess thats simple with some products, but I've watched a professor get extremely frustrated trying to put together a diaper changing table and we even had the instructions. He had even already put it together before and from what I heard became extremely frustrated. We all can agree things get complicated when dealing with those seemingly easiest of tasks. What would happen if we had to reinvent the wheel each time building houses, cars, airplanes, computers, a magnetic particle separator. If a company created it there is always a manual. I believe GOD made man in His image. How could GOD not include the manual with the most complex product on earth?

If you believe GOD created us, then you have to believe he left us some instructions. Whatever we believe, we need to continually challenge and test its strength. One day we come to know the truth. What will you say when GOD says it was written down your whole life right in front of your face? You even had people tell you the truth, but you wouldn't listen for whatever reason. Will you be able to say I'm sorry I was wrong. What if GOD forgives you and says that isn't the problem that you decided to live your life the way you wanted, but that the problem is all your life He was trying to tell you that you needed to be a certain way at this moment in order for you to function correctly in Heaven. That as you dwelt on your physical and material well being throughout your whole life, the change He needed and tried to make in you was a spiritual birth that would slowly renew your mind on earth to prepare you and be ready for a life of eternity in Heaven. The Bible says man focuses on the outer appearance, but GOD focuses on the heart.

Typosquatting

I was a victim of typosquatting today as I typed in www.gmail.com. I'm not sure how I mispelled it, but I did and a typosqautter got me. Below is an explanation, if you haven't already been struck by this evil that is now among us on the internet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typosquatting

Team

My thought of the day came to me about what makes up a good team? The most talented team cannot win unless everyone works together. If a player doesn't function correctly in his position, the team eventually will suffer and the victory's are few. In many cases, the most talented players never win a World Series or a Super Bowl. Time and time again we see players who are focused on themselves spouting off to the media about how they aren't happy with other players, the coach, even how they want to be traded. It's everyone else's fault.

I might be reaching out on a limb with this one, but I'm paralleling a sports team with Heaven. GOD is recruiting everyone to Heaven. He's looking for souls that will listen to the coach. He's looking for souls that want to play with His game plan. He's not looking for talent, or performance, but obedience. He needs the team to be one. He needs the team to enjoy, respect and love each other. And most importantly He needs everyone to want and do anything for the coach. He needs everyone to abandon themselves to the game plan, passionately believing and honestly loving that it is the best and the only way that everything will work out for the best.

Maybe I've gone way overboard with this one, but think about if your a coach, or owner of a company. Who do you want playing, or working for you? Isn't everything I just said exactly the same characteristics you would want in your team? Everyone thinks that creativity and individualism is destroyed by conformity, but conformity to a point, or a solid foundation has to be obtained in order for individualism and creativity to be able to exist in the first place, otherwise we just have chaos.

Battle of Wills

I constantly hear the phrase from people, "if GOD is all loving He will accept me for who I am because I'm an overall good person." It's your will vs GOD's will. Your will says GOD's will should accept your will and GOD's will says you should want and accept His will. We base ourstatement "if GOD is all loving He will accept me for who I am because I'm an overall good person" on the presumption that GOD's will wants and accepts our will. Everyone has their own will, we are constantly making decisions to allow our will, or let another's will impose on us. Marriage, work, family, the decision to purchase a product from another store, everyday interaction with people requires us to make a decision that will either go towards or against our will. So why does everyone think that GOD is going to say when we get to Heaven that we can just go ahead and fulfill our will any way that we shall please, or that its going to be a give and take relationship, or that we will just magically want, accept, and do His will? It seems to me that people think our life on earth is going to parallel eternity.

What does the Bible say in regards to how GOD is going to please us in Heaven? What does GOD say about what He wants us to do for Him? I've compiled some scripture below that I think is relevant:

Deuteronomy 13:18 "The LORD your God will be merciful only if you obey him and keep all the commands I am giving you today, doing what is pleasing to him.

1Kings 11:33 For Solomon has abandoned me and worshiped Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians; Chemosh,the god of Moab; and Molech, the god of the Ammonites. He has not followed my ways and done what is pleasing in my sight. He has not obeyed my laws and regulations as his father, David, did.

2Ki 16:2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years. He did not do what was pleasing in the sight of the LORD his God, as his ancestor David had done.

2Ki 17:9 The people of Israel had also secretly done many things that were not pleasing to the
LORD their God. They built pagan shrines for themselves in all their towns, from the smallest outpost to the largest walled city.

2Chronicles 14:2 For Asa did what was pleasing and good in the sight of the LORD his God.

2Ch 31:20 In this way, King Hezekiah handled the distribution throughout all Judah, doing what was pleasing and good in the sight of the LORD his God.

Ro 12:2 - Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.

Romans 15:16 - a special messenger from Christ Jesus to you Gentiles. I bring you the Good News and offer you up as a fragrant sacrifice to God so that you might be pure and pleasing to him by the Holy Spirit.

Hebrews 11:5 It was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying – "suddenly he disappeared because God took him." But before he was taken up, he was approved as pleasing to God.

Heb 13:16 - Don't forget to do good and to share what you have with those in need, for such sacrifices are very pleasing to God.

Heb 13:20 And now, may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, equip you with all you need for doing his will. May he produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ, all that is pleasing to him. Jesus is the great Shepherd of the sheep by an everlasting covenant,signed with his blood. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 5:10 Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord.

I searched the word pleasing in an online Bible. This is a sample of the 74 entries I found with the word pleasing and all 74 of them referred to pleasing GOD, not us. I understand we all believe in something a little different, but only one belief system can be correct. I write these posts to make people think. I hope I am not imposing my will against another, I am just writing posts like these to challenge the world's belief systems and also to strengthen, or reveal holes in my own. The older I get the more excited I am for my death. Don't get me wrong, I'm not looking forward to it at all, its going to be the scariest moment of my life. I am so fearful of it, because I believe I will be in front of GOD reading word for word exactly everything I did in life. I am ashamed of so many things I have done, but I know GOD forgives me as long as I believe that His son Jesus Christ died for my sins/my wrongdoings against GOD's will.

I wonder why GOD created us to have such a hard time in figuring out His will for our life and even then when we do how hard it is to stay focused. Maybe because we are constantly seeking happiness through our own will and need to be disappointed, because only then do we look for something else. So this brings up the question why did GOD even create us to have a will if He is constantly disappointed with our decisions. I think GOD is looking for roommates who adore and truly love Him, and as we all know true love can't be forced. True love is wanting to do nothing for oneself and only wanting to please the one with whom your in love. I believe GOD needs and wants us to be in true love with Him. He's doing His best to gain our attention, to attract us, and most importantly can only hope for us to fall in true love with Him as He is already with us.

A Third of the Angels

I posted this on March 22nd, 2007. Our feelings and desires have been on my mind lately. Just how does one's mind develop emotions; wants, feelings, desires. Are we destined to have those emotions from birth? Or through the events of our upbringing, what people did and said to us, and our decisions on what to pursue, did these things form our feelings and desires?

Lately, my thoughts just keep going back to what I wrote on March 22nd about having a roommate. I don't know anyone who would disagree about what I wrote. Let me know if you disagree........

"Ever since I read Revelations 12, I've been fascinated by verses 3 and 4 where it makes the reference of a third of the angels being kicked out of heaven. Throughout the Bible we read about a spiritual war going on between GOD and Satan. Some of us can agree that not all of our desires are born within ourselves, we know they can come from an outside source. I have always wrestled with which desires are inspired from Satan, which ones from GOD, and which ones from myself.

But what I want to comment on isn't which desires are coming from where, but the fact a third of the angels were kicked out of heaven. I still can't get over how the angels weren't content with Heaven, that they still wanted to what appears create or have there own way with doing things that went against GOD's sovereignty in His kingdom. Kind of reminds me of me at work wanting to do things my own way even though I was hired and am getting paid to do things works way.

Think of someone you see every day. They really get on your nerves because they completely have no respect for your outlook on life. They joke about things around you that are completely irritating. You have to listen to their selection of music all day from their cubicle. You have asked them to turn it down, but they claim they can't hear it that low. They are loud and obnoxious. But even though they have all these traits that make you angry, they still aren't doing anything wrong in everyone's eyes at work. Some people actually enjoy the music, they enjoy the jokes and what is loud and obnoxious to you isn't loud and obnoxious to them. Basically its just a difference of opinion with this person, not what is right and what is wrong. But every day you feel a huge relief immediately when leaving their presence.

So I wonder would GOD kick a third of the angels out just because of personality conflict? One thing I just can't stop thinking about is that everyone I know eventually moves away from roommates that they are having a personality conflict with, its just a matter of time before one or the other can't take it anymore. So is GOD trying to groom us to be roommmates in Heaven?And from the way He created us and under the circumstances of what Adam and Eve did in the garden, the grooming has to be done through a relationship with Him on earth?

I know this all sounds completely ridiculous. But, man is made in GOD's image. There are many people I just don't get along with, but its just a personality confict, niether of us are right or wrong. Could I ever get along with that person as a roommate if either I or they never changed? Don't see how that would be possible. So how does one come to the conclusion that GOD needs to change for them, or put up with something that is completely annoying to Him in Heaven? I know many of you are saying GOD is completely above this petty analogy, GOD is love, love perseveres through all things. I agree completely, but no matter how much I go back and forth, a third of the angels were still kicked out of Heaven.

Reference: Angels are often referred to as "stars" and "sons of God" (Job 1:6, 2:1, Isa 14:12, Rev. 1:20, 9:1, 12:4,9)."

9 little ways to go green

• Take your refrigerator's temperature... it should be between 37 and 40 degrees
• Moving your fridge out of the sun, or away from a range can save you money and energy... any 1 degree temperature change above 70 degrees makes your fridge use 2.5 times more energy
• Use your dishwasher... if you have one, especially an Energy Star one, it saves 5,000 gallons of water and roughly 230 hours each year!
• Fix a leaky faucet and toilet
• Change your shower head to one that uses less water ... for example 1.5 gallons per minute vs. one that fills a gallon in 20 seconds.
• Put extra rugs in your entry way and USE them to wipe your feet -- this means less pathogens, cleaner air quality, and thus, less chemical cleaning and less frequent vacuuming.
• Put a sweater on in the winter and keep your heat turned down
• Use the sun to heat your home... open shades when it's sunny and close them when the sun sets
• and, of course, use energy efficient light bulbs!

Edward O. Wilson

Last night I went to hear Edward O. Wilson speak at MSU. This man is considered to be one of the leading scientist in the world. He spoke on the urgency for us to come together and do something about the destruction of our planet. His focus was on informing the audience the details of science that at least have never been discussed to me from anyone:

• Estimated by experts that only 10% of the species on earth have been found.
• We have found 1.8 million species. In 1988 we had found 1.3.
• In one human, the ratio of bacteria to every one cell in the body is 100 to 1.
• There are 3 billion chemical based pairs that make up one human body and each body is unique.
  

If the human genome were a book it would span from New York to Dallas and within each inch, a hundred letters from each base pair would need to be read off! I was going to entitle this post mind boggling because those are the only words that come to me, it just doesn't seem possible that all of this could just come together from chance through evolution.

The fact that we are all unique. This means the 3 billion long line of code has to first evolve from chance and then takes on a mind of its own when it comes together to create each new baby.

500 different kinds of bacteria live in our mouth and throat which do a number of things including keeping pathogens out. How many are in the digestive system? There are 20,000 species of nematodes that have been found and an estimated 480,000 that are still waiting to be found. Edward said that it has been proven that certain species of nematodes populate certain regions and are believed to be all woven together somehow serving a purpose.

The main point of his speech was that there are so many things in this world that we don't know, and we are destroying them one by one as we build our civilization on earth. We must find ways to preserve the ecosystem or else we might be the next to go just like the latest species that has become extinct.

A friend of mine who also attended the lecture posted below on October 23rd:

http://adamandsara.blogspot.com/

Why do bad people prosper?

For God to provide the general blessings of life only to the righteous would in effect be coercive in manipulating men's decision to strive for righteousness.

Why do the innocent suffer?

Evil exists because given the choice, men chose evil. Men also are responsible in their failure to release God to act through the means given them. These repeated choices for evil empower and authorize a corporate effect of evil into the world that spills over into the lives of the innocent.

We are all under a curse as a result of our sin and the sins of our forefathers, which we share in (Ex. 20:5; Num. 14:18; Dt. 7:9; Ezek. 18:14-20; Rom. 5:12, 18-19).

Why does evil exist?

This has been taken from an IBC 7/91 lecture at University of the Nations by Mel Hanna.

"In the book of Job, Satan charged God with coercing or buying Job's faithfulness through blessings--a charge which God defended Himself against (showing that it indeed would have been wrong for Him to have bought Job's obedience).

God is therefore limited in the degree to which He can interfere with the free will of man. God has limited Himself in this way, so that man can truly have free will. Free will in man is necessary in order for man to be able to love.

Love requires a free will agent in order to exist. It cannot be coerced or programmed into a being and still be love. Man has to be able to chose evil for the choice to love to be meaningful.
God is love, and it is unthinkable that He would have created a world where love could not exist.

Why does evil exist? Because, given the choice to do good or to do evil, men with a free will continually choose evil.

When God acts in our lives, it is because He has been legitimately released to act. When we pray, we are releasing God to act. He can enter into our lives when we open the door for Him to enter. Our free will remains intact in those instances, because He is coming at our invitation.

Satan and his demons also must be released to act. They are released to interfere in our lives when we choose evil--when we seek after other gods, when we proclaim evil words, when we perform sinful acts, or acts against GOD's love.

Attitude

Yesterday was a bad day, i guess that's pretty evident. I often wonder if I'm pissing people off just as much as they are pissing me off? It's possible, but I don't think so, wow, what if I'm wrong about that, what if I am pissing people off just as much as they are pissing me off. What if they are blogging at this very moment about how much people piss them off and they are absolute angels and don't deserve such terrible treatment in the world. But they are the blind ones, not me. I'm the good one.

Hmmmm, "I'm the good one". This makes me think about some discussions I have gotten into with friends. The discussion is what makes one good, or bad. We end up comparing ourselves to some legalistic standard pulled out of our butts. And then we go on feeling good about ourselves for awhile until the conversation arises again. Since the conversation keeps coming up then we haven't justified our actions enough, because we can't, so we keep having to try and convince ourselves by tweaking that legalistic standard we pulled out of our butts.

The Bible says in Psalm 14:1-3 that not one of us is good. I guess you could take it as the author was speaking of a certain group of people from that time. But I ask you the question what group of people do you know today that are good? But just remember that legalistic standard you pulled out of your butt is from your butt.

Tired

I'm really tired today.

Work has really sucked lately. I feel like nobody cares around me, actually I don't feel, I know. And that attitude is slowly seaping into my work ethic. It's hard to care when everyone around you doesn't. It's hard to care when everyone around you says one thing and does the other.
So even though I'm really tired today and work sucks, it's pretty much all because of the people around me. So don't let everyone around you dictate your days. People suck. People always have been and always will. You just got to love them like GOD loves you every day. If you think GOD doesn't think you suck, think again. Just remember GOD doesn't care if you suck, if he did why would we still be here killing each other, raping each other, letting 1000's a day starve or die from bad drinking water, selling each other addictive drugs, ripping each other off for a good profit, well the list goes on.........did i mention I'm really tired today and work sucks.

Yeah, i'm kind of negative, but a friend once told me who I respect that I should let her be pissy and negative, because that's the way she is feeling and there's nothing wrong with that and I told her she was wrong. Now I understand what she was feeling and I was wrong.
So anywho, where am I going with this post. I think what I'm trying to say is, don't let the people around u dictate your attitude and motivation to make your surroundings a better place. Just remember to love people like GOD loves us.......blindly. Because if GOD didn't forgive us and watched everything we did in absolute horror, trust me this world would be like Sodom and Gomorrah in a second. All I have to say is I'm so grateful that he didn't finish what he started, because then I would of ceased to exist. So next time you are directly effected by people that suck just remember they and you are on borrowed time and GOD needs you to love those people and be the difference to those people in a world that doesn't care about anything but its own self indulgence.

The Sport of Poverty

I consistantly find myself at www.espn.com every morning looking for news and highlight reels from the previous day. ESPN's front page gives in my opinion the best layout of the w.w.w. with top news stories and commentaries.

Lately I have been wishing that I had the motivation to seek out each morning like I do with ESPN on what is going on in the world of poverty, persecution and oppression around the world. It would be nice if there was a website like ESPN that sparked my interest so that I would go to it every morning.

Wouldn't it be great if our government chose to put billions of dollars into an organization that could produce information like ESPN on poverty, persecution and oppression around the world. I bet it would be more effective than putting the billions of dollars into the war in Iraq.

If you find a website or a group of websites that could feed my interest in poverty, persecution and oppression around the world like ESPN does for the sportsworld, please let me know....

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.

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.

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?/