Sex and things of such nature

Good - now that I've got your attention...Sad that I got it that way eh? In youth on Friday we talked about sex because unfortunately in the world we live in today, every young person is confronted by sex, probably more so than any other thing, and they need to know how to deal with it.

I read a funny article on google about how the church in the past used to deal with the issue of sex, and in the 19th century they would advertise it as dirty and disgusting. This has obviously not worked as young people today are so confused about what is right and what is wrong and feel like they can't talk to anyone about it because of the shame.

It shouldn't be this way. Sex is described in the Bible as a beautiful gift from God for our wedding days. In fact in the world today, sex is a far cry from that very description. It has been so cheapened into a pleasure act, focusing completely on ourselves and what we can get from it. It is in our faces all the time, in every advertisement, movie, the internet, music, the worlds attention and sole goal seems to be sex, and I believe this is why the world is so messed up sexually.

There is a very strong positive correlation with the rise in rape/child abuse cases and our moral standards dropping in the last 50 years. What we see women wear, and the acts we can watch on television, would not have been even imaginable 50 years ago - now its normal. Even in music, every song is about being sexy. With all this temptation in place is there any wonder men and women can no longer slake their lust.

Perhaps this is why God gave us the rule no sex before marriage. Not because he is a kill joy, but because He knew that bad things would happen like rape/unwaned pregnancy/HIV etc. So what can we do about it? Obviously we should wait until we're married. If we feed our mind (especially boys) with sexual things from the media, we will be tempted to act upon it. If we are 'fooling around' with our partners, it gets harder to stop. The Bible says flee from temptation, it is the only way. Pray to God to give you the strength to be brave enough to get away from the temptation. If there is something that really tempts you, get rid off it. Have nothing else to do with it. The Bible also tells us to cut off the things that cause us to sin. Find a friend who you really trust, to keep you accountable in everything you do. Have a plan.

Ok, so how far is too far then? I hate this question. Christians (as with alcohol/other stuff) are always asking where are the lines? Someone draw me the lines, so I can get my toes right up to the edge, so that I don't miss out on any fun. NO! that is not the Gospel! John 10:10 says Christ came to give us life and life in it's fullest! Surely then we wouldn't be asking these questions because living for God would be the thing that fulfils.

Andy Hickford once joked - Sex is made for the marriage bed, and lets face it, it can be the marriage kitchen, marriage car, marriage couch, just as long as its within marriage! But its so true! i think God is a romantic. I love the idea of my virginity being the one thing I can give my wife than no one else can. What is too far ur still asking me? Check your heart, your motives. Everything you do physically to your partner should be a sign of affection and love toward them, and the moment it becomes about you and what pleasure you can get from it, then that is selfishness and the Bible describes that as sin.

So you can't really do much then until you are married if that is the case. I urge you, keep sex until marriage, ask God to help, because this will only deepen your relationship with your spouse more than you can ever imagine.

Australia avenge 2003 defeat

There was bitter disappointment for England yesterday as they failed in their bid to become the first team to retain the rugby world cup. Fair play to the South Africans however for playing a good final and an overall great tournament, but one can only wonder what would have happened if 'that' try had been given.

The ball was set down. Cueto's leg was blatently lifted in the air while the ball was set down before he want into touch. I don't think even a South African would argue it should have been a try, so what can be said about it? Well the 4th official was none other than a scorned Aussie from 4 years ago.

Despite all of this, nothing should be taken away from a professional South African performance. They squeezed the life out of England, and never gave Jonny those much talked about drop goal chances. In the overall tournament South Africa have been the best team, never making a meal of any of their games, and in the one game where Fiji layed down the gauntlet, they were unfazed, and ran away with it.

It has probably been the best world cup ever, where the unexpected usually happened. One of the main culprits of this was Ireland. We had such hopes for Ireland this year after a promising 6 nations campaign. Some thought that we would exert revenge on France for that last minute try. But our boys really didn't answer Ireland's call. Harsh criticism perhaps, but after almost losing to minnows Georgia, and weak performances against France and the Argies, it is fair. It is so disappointing because with all the upsets, if Ireland had lived up to their billing, this really could have been their year.

In fact out of all the 6 nations, England were expected to be the most disappointing and indeed it started off that way, but they grew into this tournament and you have to applaud their never say die work ethic. I like to stick up for England as everybody else in Ireland seems to have a petty vendetta against them!

There were some great performances from the other sides this year. The pacific islands in fiji tonga and samoa showed that they were no push overs (and in fact if they were to unite would be a formidable team). France beat the All blacks, England beat the Aussies and the French, but the team of the tournament has to go to Argentina. Beating Ireland, Scotland and France twice, they really put their mark on World rugby, and they played with style as well. We can only hope they gain entry into the Tri or Six nations, because they would be well worth their place and would make things very interesting indeed.

Hospitality of the Irish

Ireland have recently won the Lonely Planet's award for most friendly place to visit in the world yay! If you want to read more about it check out...

http://travel.independent.co.uk/news_and_advice/article3067237.ece

An Oscar, now a Nobel - Why Al Gore should be US President

I have been enjoying seasons of the west wing of late, and it's been interesting getting to see how an idealistic American government should work. And it's with this new found interest I find myself writing this article.

Al Gore was Bill Clintons vice-President, and when Clinton's term ended, Gore joined the race to be the next US President, along with George W. Bush in 2000. He subsequently lost that election in the most bizarre fashion. He actually secured more than half a million public votes than President Bush, but it's electoral votes (like seats in parliament) that wins elections, and Bush received 4 more than Gore. It was the closest race in history, decided by a margin of just 537 votes in Florida (out of a possible 300 million!), which causeed further contraversy. Gore was initally declared winner, then Bush, then the case was taken to the Supreme Court to decide, and as we know it today - George Bush took the presidency.

Al Gore was the president that should be. He was branded boring by a lot of people, but this can not be further from the truth. Amongst other things - he passed a bill in 1979 that inevitably brought the expansion of the internet. With Clinton, they forged the best days the American economy had ever seen. He has made donations to the poor, he has one an oscar for his documentary film on climate change called 'An Inconvenient Truth' and he has won a Nobel Prize also for his work on climate change. He is only the second person ever to win an Oscar and a Nobel

Ok, so given all that, still why should Al gore be president? Well set aside his obvious experience, we are living in a day and age were we need to start thinking about the generations after us, and looking after our planet before it is too late. The G8 have brought out plans to cut carbon emissions over a certain period, but so far America under Bush have said no. Given that the US is the worlds largest supplier of greenhouse gas this has to change, and Gore will be the man to do it. He has the moral obligation to do it, and it's time for a moral leader of the western world.

Problems - he has today said that he so far has no plans to run for the 2008 US Presidency, but then again being president and with the way American politics works, he would only end up having to give compromise after compromise with the things he believes in. A newspaper article put it 'His cause is a higher one, the unwilling hero implies, that is better served by the public advocacy his celebrity makes possible, than by political office with its constraints and inevitable compromises'. So for now, I guess we will probably have to make do with Hilary Clinton! I leave it with a quote from Gore himself

"The range of things we're talking about now will come to seem so small. "This [climate change] is not a political issue but a moral and spiritual challenge."

Cliques

Tonight I talked about cliques in youth fellowship. A clique is an informal and restricted social group formed by people who share common interests or patterns of behaviour or in other words a group of people who know each other well and are into the same things.

There are so many social groups around it's hard to keep up. You have spides, chavs, skaters, hoods, goths, emos, surfers, nerds, cool people, even Christian and non-christian? People want to join these group because there is a deep longing to belong in them. The thing everybody seems to want is to be socially accepted by their peers and they will do anything to achieve this. People will change the way they look, what music they listen to, who they hang out with just to impress their mates, but I get the feeling there are things that they keep in the closet in fear of rebuke.

Everybody likes to hang out with their friends, and in reality who really goes and hangs out with people they don't know? It's too uncomfortable. Most people don't even realise they're cliquey as they probably just view it as hanging with friends, but to others who have yet to find a group or are new to a group, they find it isolating. I am reminded of the days when I went to CU in school. So often my friends said they didn't like CU because they felt unwelcome and judged by the cliques there, despite huge efforts to change this impression, but how can you? People will hang out with their friends!

Jesus faced cliques in His day too. He had huge opposition from the Pharisees. Another example is the story of the good samaritan. A Jew left robbed and desolate was helped by a man part of a social group that just could not tolerate the jews. Could you see that happening today? The problem is everybody thinks their way of life is the only way, and their ideals and styles are better than everyone elses.

In a survey done in youth group, it was seen that everybody at one stage had felt isolated by people, and on the flipside they had also deliberately isolated other people because of fear of what others may think. Galatians 6:1-3 Describes how we should treat people. If someone is struggling in their faith, we should help them lovingly and not patronisingly. We should help each other with our problems without superiority.

We need to be loving of everybody in our churches, so that when people who come in can see Christ through our community despite race or social group and want to be a part of that. Each one of us should be able to feel like they can be totally themselves in the church without worrying about being judged or cast aside

remerchandising

you know when you've worked too long in a business when you start taking pictures of your work. Today a remerchandised the drinks section, and for once I actually enjoyed my work. Even my boss was like "chris you've been itching to do this since you got here" So here's a little snipet of my work, hope it doesn't make you dizzy.