1. Rice and black beans
2. Everything bagels, pancake mix, & 2 bananas
3. Pancake mix & bananas
4. Five pounds of potatoes
5. Ramen noodles and kool aid

We found it was definitely doable, tho’ not incredibly tasty. We estimated that we spend between $15-25 per day on food. Almost ten times what most people live on.

We looked at these verses:

“He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward him for what he has done.” -Prov. 19:17

“If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.” -Prov. 21:13

“A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.” -Prov 22:9

“Several research reports, both recently published and not yet published, provide evidence of the limits of multitasking. The findings, according to neuroscientists, psychologists and management professors, suggest that many people would be wise to curb their multitasking behavior when working in an office, studying or driving a car….When humans attempt to perform two tasks at once, execution of the first task usually leads to postponement of the second one.”

I think we all know this, though we act like it isn’t so.

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Why do I choose to get my news this way? Well, instead of a network news producer telling me what I should know about world events, a group of 325,000 users decide. Very democratically every person has a vote and decides if a story is good or bad. The more times a story is ‘dugg’ the greater the influence it has on society. Granted this is all affected by the users who tend to be more techno savvy (aka geeks) so some stories may be irrelevant. Thus, the need for more people to give their imput.

For awhile, I have read the stories, submitting myself to everyone else’s opinion on the most newsworthy events and most helpful information of the day. While I enjoyed benefiting from the top stories, I have come to realize my responsibility to lend my voice to the crowd, which at times can be anti-God. The simplest way is to digg or bury stories by voting. Next is to submit stories you think others should hear. Whether network or grassroots (blogs), bringing opinions and ideas to the masses that will start to change thinking is part of bringing light to a dark world. Lastly, joining the people around the digital watercooler and commenting on stories.

Do You Digg?

It would take $40 billion to provide the world with safe drinking water. The US is spending almost $70 billion in research and development of new weapons.

Stage one in responding to homosexuality is that it is completely unnatural and a sinful choice of a sinful person. Just look at biology and nature; everything is against it. Stage two, there is genetic, biological tendencies but in the end it is still a choice. People with this tendency should fight against it. Stage three, homosexuality is natural, therefore it must be embraced and accepted.

Should the Christian proceed all the way to acceptance of homosexuality? To get there, one must rework the biblical passages against it. However, to keep holding on to the notion that there is no biological influence in homosexuality is to rework science. Which bias do you prefer?

I am going to seek the middle way.

On first reading the article, Birds do it, bees do it…, my response was that the scientists are misinterpreting what they’re seeing. What appears to be homosexual acts in animals may just be an incomplete understanding of the animal’s social system. They are reading into it because they already believe homosexuality to be normal and natural. This may be the case. Certainly past scientist observed similar behavior and didn’t jump to this conclusion. In the article, they brush off this notion by saying those scientists “choose to ignore it…[claiming] it is irrelevant to their work, or fear ridicule or the loss of their grants”.

The other way I am responding to the idea of gay animals is to realize that it is just another effect of The Fall. Adam and Eve’s sin caused them to die. It also brought death to the rest of the plant and animal kingdom which they were in charge of. Adam had to work to get plants to grow because now they died where before they didn’t. Mankind’s mind also fell into depravity affecting his reason and logic. Disease and defects, physical and mental, began to affect all bodies. If man now has a tendency for violence, so do animals–man-killing predators and the like. If man now has a tendency for sexual aberrations, so do animals. Sin has far-reaching side-effects.

While Bockman may look on these “new” findings with joy and enthusiasm, as a Christian we must mourn when we see the depths to which natural paradise has fallen. We should mourn this wherever we see it, in man as well as in nature. Pollution, extinction, severe weather, natural disasters, mutations, birth defects, retardation. The whole world is not as it should be.

“There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land…Because of this the land mourns, and all who live in it waste away.” (Hosea 4:1,3).

“For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers together until now.” (Romans 8:22)

But there is hope for the land; the same hope that we have.

“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in the Son and through him to reconcile all things to himself by making peace through the blood of his cross – through him, whether things on earth or things in heaven.” (Colossians 1:19-20)

But, when you meet a gay person. Don’t think that they are broken and need to be fixed, unless you think of yourself the same way. God allows each of us to bear our own sinful tendencies, some are just more culturally accepted than others (greed, covetousness, pride, lust, idolatry, not keeping Sabbath…). Be a Good Samaritan and love them. If they are hungry, give them something to eat; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; if they need a friend, be their friend.  Leave the judging to God, your job is to love.

Much talk has revolved around the issue of global warming and it is almost taken for a fact that industrialization affects our planet (and thereby our neighbors) in drastic ways. I have just finished Michael Crichton’s book, State of Fear, in which he dramatically deals with environmental fundamentalism, political posturing, and pseudo-science. He raises questions concerning the conclusions made around the whole global warming issue and believes we know surprisingly little to make such bold claims. In the last chapter, his characters present some thoughts on how to get some hard facts from the science in a field which is astonishingly complex. So, how does this relate to how we live out our Christian lives?

“The biggest cause of environmental destruction is poverty. Starving people can’t worry about pollution. They worry about food. Half a billion people are starving in the world right now. More than half a billion without clean water.”

As a Christian it is our responsibility to show love to our neighbor by offering food to the hungry. Half the world — nearly three billion people — live on less than two dollars a day. What can you give? I would suggest a simple start. Sponsor a child with Compassion International for $32/month. By working to end poverty you may also save the planet.