Stephen Ind

It was not so much a conscious decision as something which happened over time. Look I might cut it tomorrow and really plan to when going on an overseas trip soon. I got arrested at an airport in the US. I got into some trouble and the police took me aside and interrogated me. Things were still going okayish until they saw a photograph of me with a beard on my drivers license then I ended up in jail.

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I was really upset with the authorities. At one point I felt that they were treating me like a terrorist and I was so upset I said I am going to start to act like one. Anyhow that passed but perhaps there is a feeling of going against the idea of profiling people. People with beards might be considered Muslim so there was a little of going against that.

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It also costs money to shave. The reason that I had a beard on my driver's license was that I had been living "rough" for a while. When doing that shaving isn't really possible.

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I was also getting a little upset at people thinking that I might be homosexual. I can be quite soft spoken at times, I am not married and have not really had a girlfriend, I had tried to become a monk, I tried not to ogle girls as this is immoral, I did not really take up some hints from girls and I think this made people think I was homosexual. So the beard might also have been an attempted statement against this. I suppose I am going to have all the bearded homosexuals telling me I am wrong.

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It seemed at one time that, (I could well be wrong in this) that a few women were attracted to my looks and when I had some stubble they remarked how I would look better without this. I was battling a bit to keep my mind on an even keel with the interest and thought perhaps growing a beard might be a bit of a turn-off. I have found out that, that is not necessarily universal.

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I have also been thinking about how manliness is under attack through homosexuality and also through women saying how bad men are and also appealing to men's lower nature and men's own bad behaviour and perhaps over time I felt that I wanted to try to make a statement for men. To be manly but godly too.

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It is also just natural so it can also been as an expression of who I am.

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Sorry that this is so jumbled. Some thoughts on this beard.

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People sometimes tease me that I look like Jesus. I am not sure that this is a good thing but it does make me think that I should try to act more like Jesus and can be an opening to talk about God or to raise one's mind to God which I hope is a plus.

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Hope there is not too much vanity in all this.

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God bless!

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We should not have children out of wedlock but that is not where the problem really lies. We should not have sex outside of marriage and even that is not really the source of the problem, we should not look lustfully at a woman (or a man). Christ has told us that looking lustfully at a woman is the same as having adultery with her.

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Society really fails to support the reality of what Christ has said. Fornication and adultery is accepted as is divorce and remarriage. Pornography is spread mostly unhindered. The idea of sex being for marriage and open to children is seen as completely foreign. The correct view of sex excludes the use of artificial contraception.

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So with the breakdown of all these concepts it is no surprise that children are conceived out of wedlock and really far, far, far worse are those children which are aborted. Frighteningly the pill is often the cause of unknowing abortions as conception occurs but the child is killed by not allowing it to grow. The pill causes the woman's body to reject the fertilized egg which is a full person.

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So one should not focus on the child who is born out of wedlock - that child is truly a gift of God, no matter how conceived, but we must take on the whole outlook on sex which God presents to us. It is really a very beautiful thing which is integral to a full and beautiful life.

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We have many built-in appetites which are there in order that we do care for ourselves. These appetites are good, God desires that we do take care of ourselves. A major problem comes in when we allow these appetites to start to take control of us and we no longer respect the rights of others. Of course, Christ calls us to even a greater love than this and that is to give up our own rights in order to help others. So for example, giving freely of what we own to others and as the highest example of this, to the laying down of our life for others.

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While striving to lay down our lives for others we must not belittle the rights which God has given us of looking after ourselves and those close to us. These rights cannot be taken away but they can be laid down by the possessor. This is what Christ desires of us to love others freely.

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That is an interesting question. From what I understand it is possible for God to have simply forgiven us our sin. Or at the very least, after the Son, the second person of the Trinity, became man the smallest suffering of his would have been of infinite value and so would have been able to redeem us.

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Why then did Christ suffer the Cross? The Cross makes clear to us two things: the seriousness of sin and the love of God for us. We cannot take our sin lightly as Christ has died for our sins. Secondly we know that God must love us dearly for he has laid down his life for us.

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Apart from this there is also the idea of making man making fitting reparation for the offense which he has committed against God. From what I understand the argument goes something like this. The offense given by an action is dependent on the person offended. Man's offense against God, who is the source of all creation and is infinite, is infinitely large. Man is not infinite and so cannot make true reparation of himself. Christ, though, who is both man and God, is able to truly make reparation for man to God. Jesus' reparation is truly the act of man as Jesus is man and yet the reparation is infinite for Jesus is also God.

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What I find really beautiful about this is that God allows us to truly take part in this reparation. It is not merely something he forces on us or gives to us without our participation but something he offers us and which we can, with the strength that he gives us, take up. This means that we can truly love God and through Christ we can truly be sons of God, not in name only but in reality.

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I hope this give you some ways to understand the love of God which is shown to us through Cross.

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God bless you!

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I really do believe in prayers because I believe God exists and created us and that he cares for us. He is Our Father. In his care for us he wants us to ask him for things and to praise him and to express our love for him not that he gains by this but that we do. By praying we share in a real way in the good that God does due to our prayers. God is giving us a chance to really do good and to share in the work he has done of reuniting man with himself.

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I have also experienced peace and comfort as well as help through prayer and thankfully I have grown to love prayer. However, even if these consolations of prayer should be removed it is faith in God which is the real root of prayer.

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The greatness of prayer and its necessity is shown no where more clearly than in Jesus, the God-man, who himself taught us to pray (The Our Father) and in his humanity prayed to the Father.

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