Sex Without Marriage, A Real Problem

A Pyramid of Childhood Loss

When Children Lose a Parent, Chronic Illnesses Increase

Is promiscuity the biggest problem facing us in the beginning of the 21st Century? I think it is very close to being the #1. social, ethical and financial problem happening in our lifetime. It has even brought notoriety to the trapped miners in Chili. Here is part of the story in The U.K. Telegraph.

Trouble Above as well as Below Ground

Several men have been revealed to have children by different women, and competing claims for their affections. And amid talk of lucrative compensation claims, film and book deals and media buy-ups, love and money are destined for an awkward clash.

For Yonni Barrios, the conflict is perhaps most striking. Beneath ground, he has played one of the starring roles in the remarkable story as "Dr House", as his fellow miners call him in honour of their favourite US television medical show. Several years ago, he completed a short medical training course to care for his ill grandmother. And so, via video conference and written instructions from medics at the surface, he has taken blood samples and administered drugs and creams for high blood pressure, diabetes, fibrosis, skin infections and mouth sores.

But even as the 50-year-old was centre-stage 2,300 feet underground, his tangled domestic arrangements provided an extra spectacle above ground. For his wife and a woman who claimed to be the lover he has promised to marry only discovered that each other existed when both turned up at the vigil site with pictures of the trapped man. Since dramatically coming to blows in a cat-fight in a canteen at the site, both women have disappeared from public view. But Mr Barrios is clearly going to have to placate at least one of them when he rejoins the world this week.

As a kid I often heard an old Southern Gospel song that had the words, "There's an all seeing eye watching you!" prominently sung over and over. These men in Chili evidently thought no one was watching them but now they know differently. As St. Paul said, "Be sure because your sin will find you out."

Here is what sin is doing to us now in the USA. Some 40% of all births are coming from single mothers. This throws over 90% of the mothers into immediate and long term crisis of poverty, stress, mental and emotional fragility with depression and anxiety as almost certain passengers.

With this many mothers and babies going on Medicaid for life, the very safety and security of that entire threatened. There is not enough money in Fort Knox to take care of that level of dependency. The babies born to single mothers very often fail to thrive educationally, physically, mentally and emotionally. Nothing threatens the economic, spiritual and educational welfare of America like promiscuity, yet many politicians and educators continue to promote this destructive lifestyle.

Until the pendulum swings back to a solid Judeo-Christian morality and marriage is seen as between one man and one woman for a lifetime the crisis will not pass.

I Believe in Teachers Praying in School

After being interviewed by the school administration, the prospective teacher said:

'Let me see if I've got this right..
'You want me to go into that room with all those kids, correct their disruptive behavior, observe them for signs of abuse, monitor their dress habits, censor their T-shirt messages, and instill in them a love for learning.

'You want me to check their backpacks for weapons, wage war on drugs and sexually transmitted diseases, and raise their sense of self esteem and personal pride.

'You want me to teach them patriotism and good citizenship, sportsmanship and fair play, and how to register to vote, balance a checkbook, and apply for a job.

'You want me to check their heads for lice, recognize signs of antisocial behavior, and make sure that they all pass the final exams.

'You also want me to provide them with an equal education regardless of their handicaps, and communicate regularly with their parents in English, Spanish or any other language, by letter, telephone, newsletter, and report card.

'You want me to do all this with a piece of chalk, a blackboard, a bulletin board, a few books, a big smile, and a starting salary that qualifies me for food stamps.

'You want me to do all this and then you tell me. . . I CAN'T PRAY?

Is Prayer Natural or Supernatural?

NEW YORK, Oct 26 (Reuters Health) -- Prayer may reduce the number of complications experienced by hospitalized heart patients, researchers report.

"This suggests that prayer may be an effective adjunct to standard medical care," Dr. William Harris of Saint Luke's Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, and colleagues report in the October 25th issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Heart patients who were prayed for by others, but were not aware of being the object of prayers, had an 11% reduction in medical complications or the need for surgery or medication while in hospital, according to the investigators.

The authors examined the medical charts of nearly 1,000 heart patients, following their health histories between hospital admission and discharge.

All patients in the study received standard medical care. But unbeknownst to the patients, Harris and colleagues provided the first names of about half the patients to 15 teams of five self-identified, practicing Christians. These individuals prayed daily for the healthy recovery of selected patients for a period of 4 weeks. The remaining patients were not prayed for as part of the study.

The authors report that the prayed-for patients had significantly lower complication rates than those not prayed for in the study.

The research team effectively ruled out patient bias as a possible factor behind the benefits associated with prayer, since both patients and hospital staff "were completely (unaware of)... the very existence of the trial."

Indeed, they say they have no "mechanistic explanation" as to how the prayers of strangers might have helped speed patient healing. The odds that chance might explain the findings are about 1 in 25, according to the authors.

Instead, they refer to the theories of those who believe that "natural or supernatural" causes may be behind the 'healing power of prayer.' Believers in the 'natural causes' theory propose that some as-yet-undiscovered natural force is "'generated' by the intercessors and 'received' by the patients," according to the researchers. On the other hand, those subscribing to a supernatural explanation point to the existence of God or some force "beyond the ken of science."

Other, smaller studies have provided conflicting results regarding the power of prayer. However, the largest -- a 1988 trial involving 339 San Francisco patients -- found results remarkably similar to those of the current study. The combined results have led Harris and his colleagues to suggest that experts "explore the role of prayer as an adjunct to standard medical care."

The research team effectively ruled out patient bias as a possible factor behind the benefits associated with prayer, since both patients and hospital staff "were completely (unaware of)... the very existence of the trial."

Indeed, they say they have no "mechanistic explanation" as to how the prayers of strangers might have helped speed patient healing. The odds that chance might explain the findings are about 1 in 25, according to the authors.

Instead, they refer to the theories of those who believe that "natural or supernatural" causes may be behind the 'healing power of prayer.' Believers in the 'natural causes' theory propose that some as-yet-undiscovered natural force is "'generated' by the intercessors and 'received' by the patients," according to the researchers. On the other hand, those subscribing to a supernatural explanation point to the existence of God or some force "beyond the ken of science."

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C.S. Lewis tells of a woman he knew who did not believe in ghosts and then she saw one. Asked if her personal experience had changed her mind she replied, "No! I still do not believe in the supernatural".

Dreams and Visions

I attended a workshop way back in 1975 where an Episcopal Pastor held up a Bible with holes cut on almost every page. Why would he do that? What was his goal?

The answer is coming later.

I am reproducing a story that comes in a newsletter called Joel News from Holland. It is ma monthly message that reports what God is doing around the world. Take a look at it.

Dear reader,

In Tehran, the capital of Iran, thousands of Muslims have become Jesus followers over the last months. They gather illegally in house churches. This is reported by Iranian pastor Mahim Mousapour, living in exile in Germany. Iranian friends have told her that Jesus appeared to people in dreams, and in a number of cases sick people were surprisingly healed.

The new believers in Iran take courage and speak about their faith more publicly. Mousapour estimates that in Tehran alone there are now more than 100,000 Christians. At the same time, the oppression is increasing. Muslims who confess Jesus are arrested and tortured without any reason. Some of them are missing without a trace.

Over the past months many readers ordered the DVD 'More Than Dreams' with real stories of Muslims who met Jesus in dreams and visions. One of these is Khosrow, an Iranian teenager, who described his experience vividly as "waves of electricity flowed through my body over and over again. I wept for the first time since I was a child and joy filled my heart."

We still have a number of DVDs left and your donation will help us support the work in the Middle East. More information:

http://www.joelnews.org/presents.htm

Be blessed and be a blessing!

Marc van der Woude
joelnews.org

This is an exciting story that shows some of what God is up to in the Muslim world. It is very encouraging and tells me that God is inviting Himself into the societies controlled by Islam.

Now, back to my story about the Pastor who held up a Bible riddled with holes. He was showing what the Bible would be like if we deleted every passage that mentioned the supernatural in healing, dreams, visions, prophesies, etc. It would shrink by least 1/3.

The move in America and Western Europe is to aggressively attack and oppressively hold down the Supernatural aspects of Christianity. When we Christians lay down and go along with the secularists we are agreeing with a greatly reduced Biblical message.

Christianity and Healing

It is no fluke that Jesus was called the Great Physician, and it is no accident of history that every charity hospital in the world can be traced back to Judeo-Christian teachings, philosophy and traditions. Some historians trace the western emphasis on health and healing to famous Greek leaders such as Galen or Hippocrates. However, the primary impetus for the strong healing tradition in the West comes from Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus is said to have "Gone about doing good, healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, casting out evil spirits, and raising the dead."

I am a Clinical Counselor by training, but I am deeply interested in the healing ministries of churches. To use the words healing and counseling or therapy is redundant. They each find roots in the same Greek term. To do therapy is to heal, and to heal is a therapeutic act. Each has the same motivation and purpose and is the highest expression of the Christian life. In fact, it is so important that the term salvation also comes from that same root word.

Jesus was called "The Great Physician" yet few churches today have healing ministries or even refer to healing except when they send someone to a Doctor. Why have so many Pastors and churches stopped doing what Jesus did and said to do? I think a major reason comes from the "Secular Humanist World View" that dominates us,including our Pastors and Seminaries.

A Secular Humanist World View believes that: "The universe operates on a uniformity of natural causes is a totally closed system". If I believed that all of life can be explained by natural causes then I too would refuse to pray for the sick, try to evangelize or have hope that God's love can change people.

Why do you think so few of our churches actively pursue healing with prayer?