The Darkest England And The Way Back In

What can I say about my May book? It is awesome! Gary Bishop, the author of this book works in ministry in Openshaw Manchester England on the Eden project with some of England's poorest! This book includes many stories he has encountered with the poor in this areathat I can not begin to summerise because they are simply too powerful. He tells what life is like for many of the poor in the western world (not just in England, but it can be applied to other countries like America as well). He discussed issues like limmited transportation, captive debt, illiteracy, drop outs from school, drug and alcohol addictions being a strong part of these people's lives, & the best way to minister to these people is to physically relocate ourselves to their world. We may not understand addictions or whatnot but we need to best understand these people's lives to help them & not live on outerlying districts & simply commute in. I found this book very relatable to many people I work with and daily encounter in my community in the midwest USA, & see the truth to the points and vivid stories. This is a book for all, but if you do not live in England, you may only find it through an inter-library loan from huge libraries, or to have it imported from the UK via amazon.co.uk or ebay.co.uk for a copy in the Americas. This book has not been published in countries outside the United Kingdom, however it is well worth the effort to locate a copy to read, and will not be a disappointment! My rating: An excellent full 5 stars :)

RAYE

RESPECT your Body!!

Something I have been thinking about for a few weeks now:

"Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have recieved from God?You are not your own, you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your bodies" -1 Corinthians 6: 19-20

MOST Christians believe it is bad to do drugs, get drunk, smoke, have casual sex, etc because it is not treating the body like a temple of God... but for most, it stops there! I am coming to see respecting the body as a temple of God to mean far more than that. To trully respect the body, we need 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night, regular exersise, and a healthy diet. Many Christians I know, and myself sometimes included, fall very short in this- It is not "fun" or whatever excuse we make for eating that particular item of junk food or whatever it may be... Or it may feel like too much work to respect our bodies. But these excuses offer us no benefit! We are harming the temple of God and hindering ourselves when we do these things are we not? Does not obesity, bad eating, lack of sleep and exersise, among other things seriously harm our bodies in other ways (aside from how drugs etc could harm our bodies?!). I've thought a lot on this and do feel quite guilty! Perhaps we all need to respect our bodiesmore in these ways if we are to trully believe our bodies are a temple of God... and if we choose not to, we can not be near as critical as those on rugs, smoking, having casual sex, drinking excessive alcohol etc... Because in the end the outcome is quite the same... We are all causing EQUAL harm to our bodies... Maybe we should all just take better care of ourselves, not because we should or HAVE to, but because we want to bring glory to God by honouring him with our bodies! :)

RAYE