I just shared this with someone - figured that others could benefit:
You should mos def be careful of the counsel that you receive from people. A lot of these people responding to your post are not believers and they don't care about what the word of God says at all.
There are two kinds of people in God's economy, believers and unbelievers. Saved and unsaved. Lovers of God and haters of God. There is no middle ground.
You are in one category and your boyfriend is in the other.
To be blunt, I don't think that it is wise for you to even be in this relationship. The end goal of relationships for the christian should be MARRIAGE. If someone doesn't meet the FIRST item on the list of "qualities of a potential spouse", which is TO BE A BELIEVER, then they are to be immediately disqualified as a potential spouse.
As a believer, your end goal in life is not to get married and have children with some guy, but rather to glorify God with your life and your obedience.
Marrying an unbeliever is disobedience. I do not think that it is wise to be disobedient and hope that good will result from your disobedience. Such an action would be sin in hope that God's grace to you would increase. Read romans 6 (shall we sin that grace may abound? by no means!). Christians are supposed to turn from sin and seek to honor God in obedience everyday and in all things.
Read your bible, seek to know the Lord as he has revealed himself in his word - and pray that God would send you an ephesians 5 man who will love you like Christ loves the church.
Patience is a fruit of the spirit. Trust God. His grace is sufficient.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
US Drug Problem - legalization?
President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, said that the Mexican Drug Cartel issue only exists because of the huge drug problem that exists in the US.
I think he is 100% correct.
If there were no demand for illegal drugs, no one would see any need to make huge and violent cartels. Barack goes to mexico to give counsel on how they can reduce violence, but before he even gets there, calderon says, there would be no violence if there were no demand.
Drug problems do not discriminate on the basis of race or socioeconomic conditions. Drug addiction is everyone's problem. I wonder what we can do to more effectively combat this issue...the "Just say no" and "I'm not a chicken, you're a turkey" campaigns had a major impact on me. Too bad that the same can't be said for others in my demographic.
I'm at a loss for ideas (i mean - outside of preaching the gospel to people).
Legalization would probably reduce the violence and increase the purity and consistency of drugs sold (decreased prices would result from cheaper shipping costs which would ultimately decrease any desire to cut the drugs with additives --> purer product). An increase in purity would result in less time and money spent on people that overdose on drugs (whenever i go to downtown baltimore, I always see an ambulance carrying away some person that has either overdosed on heroin or been injured while high).
I'm trying to figure out what society would look like with legalized drugs and i'm having a hard time. I do not think that the stigma that being an addict carries would go away. But similar to the porn industry, i think that the legalized-drug industry would thrive (just with smaller profit margins for everyone involved) in the world of secret vices.
We would probably have to expand our treatment programs - but taxes collected from drug sales could probably cover that...
What about the moral dilemma that we arrive at when we think about the fact that people/the government would be profiting from substances that ruin people's lives? (keep in mind that all drugs do not wreak havoc in people's lives in the same way)
What will be the REAL cost of new books for inner-city schools? (you would assume that drugs dollars would also go to education - just like the lottery).
There would still be such a thing as a "controlled substance" (we can't just have people walking around and prescribing abilify to themselves), but i don't think that we would be able to prosecute violations of law against possession of controlled substances as heavily as we do now...
What do you think?
I think he is 100% correct.
If there were no demand for illegal drugs, no one would see any need to make huge and violent cartels. Barack goes to mexico to give counsel on how they can reduce violence, but before he even gets there, calderon says, there would be no violence if there were no demand.
Drug problems do not discriminate on the basis of race or socioeconomic conditions. Drug addiction is everyone's problem. I wonder what we can do to more effectively combat this issue...the "Just say no" and "I'm not a chicken, you're a turkey" campaigns had a major impact on me. Too bad that the same can't be said for others in my demographic.
I'm at a loss for ideas (i mean - outside of preaching the gospel to people).
Legalization would probably reduce the violence and increase the purity and consistency of drugs sold (decreased prices would result from cheaper shipping costs which would ultimately decrease any desire to cut the drugs with additives --> purer product). An increase in purity would result in less time and money spent on people that overdose on drugs (whenever i go to downtown baltimore, I always see an ambulance carrying away some person that has either overdosed on heroin or been injured while high).
I'm trying to figure out what society would look like with legalized drugs and i'm having a hard time. I do not think that the stigma that being an addict carries would go away. But similar to the porn industry, i think that the legalized-drug industry would thrive (just with smaller profit margins for everyone involved) in the world of secret vices.
We would probably have to expand our treatment programs - but taxes collected from drug sales could probably cover that...
What about the moral dilemma that we arrive at when we think about the fact that people/the government would be profiting from substances that ruin people's lives? (keep in mind that all drugs do not wreak havoc in people's lives in the same way)
What will be the REAL cost of new books for inner-city schools? (you would assume that drugs dollars would also go to education - just like the lottery).
There would still be such a thing as a "controlled substance" (we can't just have people walking around and prescribing abilify to themselves), but i don't think that we would be able to prosecute violations of law against possession of controlled substances as heavily as we do now...
What do you think?
Saturday, April 4, 2009
crisis of mortality
The sermon that I was listening to had ended and somehow I still found myself awake. Aside from the faint noise of leaves blowing in the wind outside my window, my house was perfectly silent.
In the midst of the quiet was the steady sound of my heartbeat. As my head lay on my arm, I could feel the blood coursing through my arteries, however, not so much through my veins. Heartbeat-arteries full. Pause-arteries not as full. Heartbeat-arteries full. Pause-arteries not as full. Who knew that blood circulation could be so fascinating?
At no other point in my life have I been more aware of my own mortality. I knew that I was not telling my heart to do what it was doing, but whether I liked it or not, it was going to keep going.
It is almost as though God designed us in this manner so that we would immediately humble ourselves and repent at the advent of any prideful thought that says "I sustain myself". Who are you, oh man, whose breath is in his nostrils, (better said: whose heart beats in his chest) to think such a thing?
This is the text that came to mind:
"For you have rejected your people, the house of Jacob, because they are full of things from the east and of fortune-tellers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of foreigners. Their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures; their land is filled with horses, and there is no end to their chariots. Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made.
So man is humbled, and each one is brought low— do not forgive them!
Enter into the rock and hide in the dust from before the terror of the LORD, and from the splendor of his majesty.
The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day. For the LORD of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up—and it shall be brought low; against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up; and against all the oaks of Bashan; against all the lofty mountains, and against all the uplifted hills; against every high tower, and against every fortified wall; against all the ships of Tarshish, and against all the beautiful craft.
In the midst of the quiet was the steady sound of my heartbeat. As my head lay on my arm, I could feel the blood coursing through my arteries, however, not so much through my veins. Heartbeat-arteries full. Pause-arteries not as full. Heartbeat-arteries full. Pause-arteries not as full. Who knew that blood circulation could be so fascinating?
At no other point in my life have I been more aware of my own mortality. I knew that I was not telling my heart to do what it was doing, but whether I liked it or not, it was going to keep going.
It is almost as though God designed us in this manner so that we would immediately humble ourselves and repent at the advent of any prideful thought that says "I sustain myself". Who are you, oh man, whose breath is in his nostrils, (better said: whose heart beats in his chest) to think such a thing?
This is the text that came to mind:
"For you have rejected your people, the house of Jacob, because they are full of things from the east and of fortune-tellers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of foreigners. Their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures; their land is filled with horses, and there is no end to their chariots. Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made.
So man is humbled, and each one is brought low— do not forgive them!
Enter into the rock and hide in the dust from before the terror of the LORD, and from the splendor of his majesty.
The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day. For the LORD of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up—and it shall be brought low; against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up; and against all the oaks of Bashan; against all the lofty mountains, and against all the uplifted hills; against every high tower, and against every fortified wall; against all the ships of Tarshish, and against all the beautiful craft.
And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day. And the idols shall utterly pass away. And people shall enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth.
In that day mankind will cast away their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats, to enter the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth.
Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he?"
Isaiah 2:6-22 ESV
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