Blagging for England

Defining terms:

I have  had many people contact me over time, and almost the first words they say to me is< ” I am also a puritan at heart”  I was reading in a book by Leonard J Coppes,  “The Ten points of Calvinism, Is five points enough?”  how we all need to understand and use terms the same way as those we are talking to, or while we say and mean one thing, someone else will say exactly verbatim the same words, and they will mean something completely different by it.

so I am after reader participation on this  If you consider yourself to be a puritan at heart also, what basis do you make that assertion and why do you believe that to be true?  There is no right or wrong answer, yet I do have very clear ideas what makes for folk in actual fact being true puritan at hearts and what doesn’t I have known folk who would  have described themself as such, while disagreeing with the puritans on almost everything. That is an oxymoron, and we need to use terms carefully. If we are claiming to be puritans at heart, then we do not want to tarnish the great tetimony they left us and future generations, by actually being anything but, and so misrepresenting them. This is  someting I have felt strongly about for a long time, having seen folk take this name to themself and do the puritan cause much harm and damage by doing so, by their views being anything but puritan like.

So let us define terms, and if  you consider yourself to be a puritan at heart, then please state in the comments why you do so

This song has long resonated with me. As I have always made friends easily, yet, nothing in this world is permanent, and one thing that becomes plainer to me by the day almost, when as ill as I am, and all alone, apart from my two cats, is this world is not my home. I am an alien and a stranger here in more ways than most, and very ltitle to tie me to it. God keeps me here for a purpose that much I know, but very little do I have to make me want to stay here, apart from chronic and severe suffering day in and day out; and the worst of that suffering, even though the illness can be beyond words to describe how bad it can get, is forever the lonliness, and feeling no one I know can understand most things about me, my life, so that I am left feeling like the little alien no one understands.

I love and I laugh, and I love deeply when I do.  Probably one of those folk who loves too much. I think the way my cats thrive with me, especially the oldest one against all reason, shows that. As they get the greatest share of my love day to day.  But at the end of the day, I feel like the little hobo in the song, who makes friends, wherever they go, and always has done,  but, has no real resting place in this world.  Below the lyrics I shall include the video of the song too:

There’s a voice that keeps on calling me
Down the road, that’s where I’ll always be.
Every stop I make, I make a new friend,
Can’t stay for long, just turn around and I’m gone again

Maybe tomorrow, I’ll want to settle down,
Until tomorrow, I’ll just keep moving on.

Down this road that never seems to end,
Where new adventure lies just around the bend.
So if you want to drive me for a while,
Just grab your hat, come travel light, that’s hobo style.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll want to settle down,
Until tomorrow, the whole world is my home.

So if you want to join me for a while,
Just grab your hat, come travel light, that’s hobo style

Maybe tomorrow, I’ll want to settle down,
Until tomorrow, I’ll just keep moving on.

Maybe tomorrow, I’ll want to settle down,
Until tomorrow, I’ll just keep moving on.

There’s a world that’s waiting to unfold,
A brand new tale no-one has ever told.
We’ve journeyed far far and know it wont be long;
We’re almost there, and we’ve paid our fare with our hobo song.

Maybe tomorrow, I’ll want to settle down,
Until tomorrow, I’ll just keep moving on.

So if you want to join me for a while,
Just grab your hat, come travel light, that’s hobo style.

Maybe tomorrow, I’ll find what I call home, Until tomorrow, you know I’m free

It seems to me, that what sets the puritans apart, from the majority, is spiritual maturity, which is sadly lacking in our world today. They didn’t have the comfort and ease that we can so oft easily indulge in today.  And tho they enjoyed the good things in life, in a temperate manner, they times of recreation or leisure was not set apart as separate from the rest of their Christian life. They were Christians all the time. Whether in the home, in the world, in their secular callings at work, at play, as well as in the church. They took the Bible exhortation literally, of whatever we do, do all to the glory of God. But there were no lines of separation in their lives, all of life, was a life of faith, and setting  God before their eyes no matter the time, occasion, place or event. This very firmly, IMO, sets them apart from most today. And it is why we so need their teachings in our world today, because we have much we can learn from them still, and until we do,  and return to the old paths that they trod, I do not believe the church will ever get her glory back.

The puritans sealed their faith as history testifies too, so often with their blood. They were a suffering people, and prepared to suffer even unto death. It is very easy for us to believe we would do the same, when it is unlikely to ever be anything we have to face as a reality. But until the church matures from its current state, over-all at least, you can take those who say they would be glad to pay the cost of their blood or suffering for Christ as just what it is, that of talk. And talk is always, always cheap and easy.   The pruitans were a doing people. Including that of sealing their testimonies with their blood all too often. They had an ongoing, furnace experience. Is this the reason for their maturity, that we lack today? Perhaps it is. These men (and women) were spiritual giants, yet, too often we only experience Spiritual dwarfism today. May the God of Heaven, give us the same heart, spirits, and quest for God, that these men lived out, to leave a testimony that IMO, by mere men, has never been surpassed.

As George Whitefield was to write:

Ministers never write or preach so well as when under the cross; the Spirit of Christ and of glory then rests upon them. It was this, no doubt, that made the Puritans…such burning and shining lights. When cast out by the Black Bartholomew Act [the 1662 Act of uniformity] and driven from their respective charges to preach in barns and fields, in the highways and hedges, they, in an especial manner, wrote and preached as men having authority. Though dead, by their writings they yet speak; a peculiar unction attends them to this very hour.
—-George Whitefield From the Preface of a Reprint of John Bunyan’s works.

Any of you relate to the genie in the bottle of grief?

You can go on for weeks, months, and barely give the source of the grief a thought; you make a deliberate choice to not dwell on it, not think about it, so that you can just get on with your life to the glory of God, as best as you can. But then, its brought to  mind one way or another, and the wound once re-opened is like the genie in the bottle you can’t stop back up.

I was looking to see if the Robo sweep automatic floor cleaner, would be suitable for use in my home. No, I am not excessively lazy, but I am very physically limited, and I can set this little Johnny to work even when bedbound, and it will go for 8 hours before needing recharging! They seem to be hard to find in the UK, though are available to purchase from the US.

However, you know how when surfing, while looking at one thing you come across others. Well I found a couple of these quite bizzare, and the last one, I am sorely tempted to buy for my cats and my amusement, Lord knows we could do with some laughter around here! I’ll save the best till last!

Bizzare object #1

This is apparently loo roll, toilet tissue, whatever you call it in your neck of the woods, for the genius’ among us.

Bizzare object #2

This is apparently, loo roll, toilet tissue, whatever you call it in your neck of the woods for the “filthy rich” where each sheet of paper is  replicating a bank note. Now that’s just bizzare!!

But this has got me hooked, and I am going to get it for my cats and me, as I think its cute and I think it will amuse us at times!

Roly The Laughing Dog, see the video below:

This was related by Joseph Hall, witnessed while he was travelling through Europe.  It has long been noted, and    there are several likewise accounts in Foxes Book of Martyrs, how the methos of torture or cruelty the inquisitors wrought on God’s chosen people, God revenged their blood and suffering, by ironic and almost paradoxical turn of events in the tormenters own lives, often ending in their death, but the act they had commited just a short while before, to one of the martyrs,  their own death so strikingly had resemblance to the act, yet it came directly from the hand of God, that one would have to be blind to deny God’s justice and revenge over the blood of the martyrs and the cruelty inflicted upon them.

Joseph Hall’s account of a similar scenario that he witnessed:

a short but memorable story which the graphier of that town (though of a different religion) reported to more ears than ours. When the last inquisition tyrannized in those parts, and helped to spend the faggots of Ardenne, one of the rst, a confident confessor, being led far to his stake, sung psalms along the way, in a heavenly courage and victorious triumph. The cruel officer, envying his last mirth, and grieving to see him merrier than his tormenters, commanded him silence. He sings still, and desirous to improve his last breath to the best. The view of his approaching glory bred his joy; his joy breaks forth into a cheerful confession. The enraged sherriff causes his tongue to be cut off near the roots. Bloody wretch! It had been good music to have heard his shrieks; but to hear his music was torment. The poor martyr dies in silence, rests in peace. Not many months after, our butcherly officer hath a son born with his tongue hanging down upon his chin, like a deer after a long chase, which never could be gathered up within the bounds of his lips. O the Divine  hand, full of justice, full of revenge.
—Joseph Hall

OKAY, so Scott Brown got elected to the senate. I am very tempted to follow that with a “so what?” and would do so if it was in the UK too.  I am not calling his integrity or sincerity, personally into question, however: What is he likely to achieve, besides some token gestures, by issues that are either defeated, or never even given serious consideration? I’m sorry, but I fail to see why American Christians are in the least excited over this. The greatest victories in Christian history, were not achieved by token gestures, but by real action, and a force to be reckoned with.
Folks today often criticise Calvin and his contemporaries because we see them from our times, and yet they were very much men of their age. But in their age, they achieved, and under such trying, and impoverished conditions, when even writing was done with quill and paper. How do we compare as far as achievements, in our days of comparative luxury and where writing and anything else we want to do in life, can be done almost with the push of a button?
Christians in politics have a notoriously bad history. What we need before Christian politicians IMHO, is revival, ,and then Christians elected into politics, would have a lot more power, as it seems more like a gesture or token as far as what he can achieve to me in the current climate.But then I wonder if Christians are so excited about this in our age, because we are people of our age, where often meaningless, empty gestures or words without action, seems often the path that is trodden?

Brown, Coakley spar over abortion NECN

I am hoping to get to the Admiral Coligni post some time this week, Lord willing, I am also still working on the websites merge, so that this site and 2. Covenanted Reformation, will soon all be @ www.apuritan at heart.com  which is a fair amount of work, and I also have a vet appt early evening,, with both my cats. Neither of them are ill, but the one needs to go today for sure, and I can barely get out of bed,  but will get there if at all possible, unless I am throwing up at the time, which makes travelling by taxi a nightmare.  My wheelchair at least makes it doable, as if relying on my legs ‘twould be impossible.  But all this to say, I have a fair lot on my plate and so this site is not being posted at as often as I would like at the moment. One thing I don’t have is time, health or energy to waste, so shall not be doing so, in my  attempt to redeem the time well.  Even typing is not without cost to me, or painless, so I shall be focusing where there is profit to do so.

Once moved,, I also plan to put my own stamp back on the 3. Crazy Calvinist part of the site, by posting some fun things again,  as I once did, to try and keep it somewhat diverse,  as people can quite easily choose what they wish to read or not.

But this short poem by John Bunyan, is what I give to my readers for now:

Who would true valour see,
Let him come hither,
One here will constant be,
Come wind, come weather.
There’s no discouragment
Shall make him once relent
His first avowed intent
To be a pilgrim.
From Vol 3 of the works of John Bunyan George Offor edition

I rarely post personal stuff on my blog these days, but, I probably have some readers left over from when I used to do so, so I would like you to meet the newest memeber of my family.

First there was me.

Then there was me and Poppy:

And I would like to introduce Meanie– a two year old calico cat, who I have spent the months over the summer having a custody battle over with a neighbour after Meanie decided she wanted to move in–and this involved even having Poppy taken hostage, so that one night when she was missing all night, I feared and truly thought she must have gone out and died somewhere on her own, as she’s 15 in chronic ill health, but when opening my curtains next morning at 10 am it was to see Poppy strolling up the road none the worse for wear.
It’s been a tough and stressful battle to get Meanie, and I had to part with a lot of money to seal the deal, but she was worth every penny. This is Meanie–tho Meanie by name, not by nature

And then there were three.

Here

Please update your bookmarks to the http://www.crazycalvinist.apuritanatheart.com for 3. Crazy Calvinist. The archives from here will follow over as soon as I can get the job done, tho many of them are there already

My readership has changed significantly over the years, the early archives would show why, but this is another post that didn’t carry across on the import yet is an important subject in the world we live in today so I am reposting it for newer readers.

Prozac Pilgrim!-An Allegory of an Allegory

“He finally revealed to his wife and children what was going on his mind, saying, ‘Oh, my dear Wife and Children, I’m suffering from inner turmoil because of a burden that lays heavily upon me. And, what’s worse, I’ve been reliably informed that our city will be burned with fire from Heaven. in that fearful disaster, I with you my Wife and you my sweet Children will come a miserable ruin unless some way of escape—which as yet I do not see–maybe found by which we may be delivered.”

His family members were deeply troubled at this declaration, not because they believed what he told them but because they thought some form of insanity had gotten into his head. Therefore, since it was nearing nightfall, and hoping that sleep would settle his brain, they quickly got him to bed. But the night was as troublesome to him as the day; and, for that reason, instead of sleeping he spent it sighing and weeping. ” [end quote]

A sure, sure sign, that Pilgrim is deranged huh? A sure, sure sign he needs some chemical kosh so he can no longer think, no longer feel, and will be too zombified and none functional in brain power to make any good judgements or choices, and will most likely just ride along on a crest of a wave from day to day, maybe from year to year, depending on how long the chemical kosh gets delivered! What should we suggest? Prozac? Maybe Haldol? Maybe sleeping pills too, so that he can’t search his heart and soul to find the root of his despair, but is incoherently snoozing the night away, under the influence of brain damaging drugs!

[restart quote] “When morning came, they wanted to k now how he was; and he told them, “worse and worse.” [end quote]

Time to call the psyche team in, before he has time to take desperate measures and fix his problem on his own. The nanny state we live in now, has taught us all that someone else can fix the problem we created, right? It is not our fault and WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE!! IT IS A MYTH THAT MANKIND IS HELD ACCOUNTABLE AND WILL REAP WHAT HE SOWS! Right?

[restart quote] “He started talking to them again, but they began to be hardened to his words. They thought they might be able to drive away his insanity by harsh and bad tempered behaviour towards him.” [end quote]

Now ain’t that reality? Someone is hurting and in pain, and in the cruel world we live in, those they love kick them while they’re down, all in the name of love. Is it any wonder there are so many emotionally hurting people out there? But the answer isn’t to have a caring society, one founded on the Word of God, its to zap ‘em with pills and dope ‘em up. that way you can forget about the real person. And only have to connect with the person the pills make. A half asleep, still hurting but has not enough level of consciousness or cognitive ability to find a way out. Oh yeah, good answer!

[restart quote] “Sometimes they would make fun of him, at other times they would criticize him, and sometimes they would simply ignore him.” [End quote]

Ignore the problem it will go away, right? Bury your head in the sand and get OSTRICH DISEASE! As well as the sickness all our societies are run through and through with.

[restart Quote]Because of this, he began to withdraw from them to his bedroom to pray for them, pity and comfort his own misery. He would also walk by himself in the fields, sometimes reading and sometimes praying. He spent his time doing these things for several days. [end quote]

Oh all this time on his own, using his brain and trying to find comfort without the use of psychotropic drugs, is really, really a sign of ole pilgrim needing prozac, or haldol, or maybe if he gets worse, they should just shoot electric volts through his brain in the name of treatment, that will be sure to cure him, right?

Yeah, right! All Pilgrim needed was a happy pill and a psyche to call his own, and he’d have been okay wouldn’t he? No! Pilgrim knew exactly what he needed. He needed the way to Heaven, found only in our Lord, and the truth as founded on the whole word of God. All he needed was a psyche to show him the way, huh? And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. — Jesus Christ (Matthew 15:14) Wrong, a psyche would have led him to the pit, as psychology is absolutely categorically, against the Word of God. And founded in atheism. Freedom from all kinds of things can be found in the Lord. But only based on and as revealed in the Word of God.

John 14

6Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 8

32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

it has been my long experience in the online world, that though tthere are many learned, scholars out there on puritanism, and who are neo-puritans in life and practice, there are also those who claim the name puritan without really holding to or believing or practicing hardly any of the same values that the real puritans of puritan times held to. This picture in light of that, seemed very appropriate as well as humourous.  It’s not funny in a real sense of course; it is sad and lamentable. But irony can sometimes have a humorous edge to it.

We must be diligent in visiting the sick, and helping them to prepare either for a fruitful life, or a happy death. Though this should be the business of all our life and theirs, yet doth it, at such a season, require extraordinary care both of them and us. When time is almost gone, and they must now or never be reconciled to God, oh, how doth it concern them to redeem those hours, and to lay hold on eternal life! And when we see that we are like to have but a few days or hours more to speak to them, in order to their everlasting welfare, who, that is not a block or an infidel, would not be much with them, and do all he can for their salvation in that short space!
Will it not awaken us to compassion, to look on a languishing man, and to think that within a few days his soul be in heaven or hell? Surely it will try the faith and seriousness of ministers, to be much about dying men! They will thus have opportunity to discern whether they themselves are in good earnest about the matters of the life to come. So great is the change that is made by death, that it should awaken us to the greatest sensibility to see a man so near it, and should so excite in us the deepest pangs of compassion, to do the office of inferior angels for the soul, before it departs from the body, that it may be ready for the convoy of superior angels to the “inheritance of the saints in light.” When a man is almost at his journey’s end, and the next step brings him to heaven or hell, it is time for us, while their is hope, to help him if we can.
—Richard Baxter, “The Reformed Pastor” B.O.T. pp. 102

I have often written about our comfortable days today, and how that incites us to want everything for ease and comfort and our own convenience and yet years ago, no cost was too high for the faith of the true religion. The martyrs blood, whether in the hills of Scotland, or the puritans ashes in England, or the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre and umpteen other places and occasions one could cite speak to that being true.

It is sad to see the things that are out there today, which fit into our desire and quest for comfort and anything we gain to be had with the least effort possible. The 100 minute Bible would be a good example

An abridged version of Calvin’s the institutes of the Christian Religion would be another good one:

It has 271 pages as opposed to one of the more popular unabridged versions on sale today of 2 hardback volumes of 1,600 odd of the John T. Mcneil’s Ford Lewis Battle edition.

One can make a case, that if one is dealing with babes in Christ, the 271 page would be a good start for them, without overwhelming them. Or even if you are trying to get someone of false faiths or false religions to pick up as a first copy. But it doesn’t stop there. Research shows and statistics prove, that the greatest majority of evangelical Protestant Christians today, including many among the Reformed Faith have not read Calvin’s institutes in their entirety, and even more concerning is that this includes many reformed pastors.

Yet, if one had to make a list of the 10 most important books to ever be in the world, The Bible should take first place, and Calvin’s institutes unabridged should also be on the short-list. Many people who claim to be Calvinist’s know very little about what Calvin taught. So their claim is a vain one, one I think at times, has a lot to do with pride, because being a Calvinist is sometimes worn like a badge of honour, and a sense of grandiose. Yet these men and women who claim to be Calvinist’s and do not know what Calvin taught, often betray and shame the Reformed faith–not intentionally–but through ignorance. Ignorance very often is a choice.

We all have to make choices every day. One of them being how we will spend our time, once the daily grind of occupational work, and family business is out of the way. Playing computer games, watching garbage on the TV that will not be spiritually helpful and could be quite harmful in the long run by what we are filling our senses with; Now I am not against recreation at all. I want to make that clear. Everyone needs time to wind down, and have some enjoyment, or leisure, but not to the detriment of one’s own soul by indulging in it excessively. Despite popular opinion and folk-lore, the puritans were not against recreation, enjoyment, mirth, or dancing or merry making in general. Oliver Cromwell at his daughter’s wedding is said to have danced till 3 am. But one thing the puritans were big on, is temperance. All things in moderation, and that the main business of all professing believers of faith should be that of eternity.

As Solomon wisely said. There is a time for everything. [Eccles 1]

When any one who has professed faith through their lives, comes to being on their death bed, you often hear of the things they regret about their lives. One never hears though, that they regretted the time they spent on eternal matters, or making their salvation sure. One often hears quite the reverse.- a regret that they wasted so much time.

I have not read the entirety of the Institutes just yet though I have the greater part, but I aim to soon rectify that, and say it to my shame. If you can say the same thing, then I exhort you to also set aside some time, and read it and study it. The institutes is not just a cold book of Theological doctrine; it has over 7000 references to Scripture in it, it is also a tool along side the Bible that will help us all grow in our love for God and our external consequences of that by growing in piety and righteous living. You cannot read them, with a right heart, and remain unchanged or unmoved.

John T. McNeil in the unabridged version above, in his introduction describes it as being one of a “short-list of books that have notably affected the course of history.” Who would not want to read such a book, when written by John Calvin if a Calvinist? He adds that it has: “moulded the beliefs and behaviour of generations of mankind.” Elsewhere he said: that it is “admired as an incomparable exposition of Scriptural truth and a bulwark of evangelical faith.”
It teaches us of “Christian doctrine and social duty.”

The original edition which only had six chapters in it, and was the size of average paperback today was titled: “The institute of the Christian Religion containing almost the whole sum of piety and whatever is necessary to know in Doctrine and Salvation. A work well worth reading by all persons zealous for piety and lately published. A preface to the most Christian King of France in which this book is presented to him as a confession of faith. Author John Calvin, of Noyon Basel.

(Some of the length of original titles of these old books are hysterical by our standards today.)

The King referred to, was a stanch papist and opposer and persecutor of the Protestant faith. And even after the said King’s death in future editions, Calvin still included the original preface written to him in it.
A few short months previously to the Institutes first publication, King Francis of France had tried to ban all printing, but his attempt to do so failed. God was determined that Calvin’s magnus opus would be published, just as he has always kept his own Word from being destroyed. Don’t we have a duty to our own souls, to the heritage that we come from, and a duty to God, to read and study this fine master-piece. Not to gain knowledge and learning for it’s own sake, but so that we will also experience the natural consequence of doing so, of understanding the life of faith better, be more useful in the kingdom, and learn to do our duties as Christian to grow in understanding of the Scriptures and to have more piety and righteous living in our lives because we have read this book.

Six months after publishing the first edition, Calvin began his work in Geneva. The second edition when published had grown from the original six chapters to now seventeen chapters. And in this second edition he quoted the patristic father’s extensively such as Augustine and Origen and others. In this second edition Calvin stated that he saw it as a textbook to be used in the “preparation of candidates in theology for the reading of the divine Word.”
Wouldn’t that describe you and I, as are we not all of the priesthood of believers?

An ignorant Christian, particularly ignorant Calvinist’s are a liability and dangerous to the cause of true religion. To the Biblical doctrine that is contained within the doctrine simply known as Calvinism.

Many people will say they need nothing more than the Word of God to know what to believe. They have the holy Spirit, so they will sit at home with their Bible, studying it, without any outside works to help them understand it. No confessions of faith, commentaries or other books written by godly men. Yet what an arrogant attitude this is. Calvin made reference to Augustine around 400 times in his final edition of the Institutes, which grew each time it was published in his life time, till it now stands at the size we know it now. Calvin didn’t think he was above being taught by the learned men who had gone before him. And yet it was B.B. Warfield who described Calvin as the “theologian of the Holy Spirit.”

Calvin didn’t get his vast wealth of Biblical understanding, by taking short-cuts to everything that the Christian needs to be armed in life for the Spiritual warfare we face daily and the duties we must perform. He got it by years and years of hard laborious study and labour. Even when too ill to work, and was ordered to rest, and told to rest by his friends and associations. He answered with the words: “What, would you have the Lord come, and find me idle”

Yes, recreation and enjoyment and leisure has it’s place. The Christian life however, has no right to have other things above in priority the work of eternity. Whether it is working out our own salvation with fear and trembling, or trying to help others along the way.
He would find abhorrent the 100 minute Bible or abridged version of his Institutes.

There is no place in God’s kingdom for people ignorant of the doctrines of the Bible or the way of life for Christian living. Ignorance very often is a choice. If we have been Christians for many years, and have never read the Institutes, that has been a choice. If we have been Calvinist’s many years and know little of what Calvin taught about almost anything, then that is also is a choice. AND if we have been a Christian many years, and know little of what the Bible teaches in truth, and even less live it out as experimental religion, that is also a choice in many instances. Christ’s kingdom has no place for sloth.

So let us set our eyes on eternity, and head heavenwards, and not indulge and be firmly grounded in the world as we make our pilgrimage through it to a better place. Let us be like Abraham, strangers in a foreign land, and let us not be carried about and tossed in the wind by many strange doctrines. (Heb 13:9). God gave us this treasure, (His Word) entrusted it to us to keep it. Let us not betray that trust; and let us not feel safe and presumptuous without a sure foundation for that assurance and presumption as many seem to do. Those men who were for many years, some of the best known teachers of Calvinism, have betrayed the faith they professed to love by the federal vision heresy. Yet who would have that? None of us is beyond being deceived.

Let us not profess the true religion and build our houses on the sand. Let us be like the text of Hebrews 11 where almost each line starts with “by faith.” And if called to suffer for the truth of God, we shall be prepared and ready to. Whereas now, many of those who think they would stand strong, while not well taught in the ways of faith, and have no excuse or reason not to be, suffering would soon show how they spoke in presumption, because words are easy for anyone. But when in comfortable times, and we are not even prepared to deny ourselves one day a week, to give it to the Lord; not set aside some time each day to put down our toys and recreations, and to pick up God’ Word or study tools, then their proclamations really show how vain they are. Because the life of the Christian, and especially the suffering Christian is all about self-denial. And if we do not do that in the small things, when we are so comfortable it would be easy for us to do so, then it is vanity to think we would do it if ever called to it without comfort and in great need, because we have professed faith.

The statistics show that around 15% of the visible church is made up of true believers. It is not our job to find out which is which, and in fact Paul speaks against doing so in Romans. (Rom 10) But if God sends us plagues or famine, he may just sift out the tares from the wheat. And don’t think it can’t happen in our days because it can. God will deliver his True church, and one of those ways will be to build her up so that it is not so weak and so full of false professors as it is now. And let’s be armed and ready for when that happens, by our faith having a sure foundation and being grounded in the Rock. But that wont’ happen by choosing the life of comfort and ease and not denying our own pleasures to pick up the Word of God or other tools to help us better understand it, and so become better Christians.

Let’s set our eyes on eternity, and keep them there; and not take them off, until we have reached the Christian’s true Home. Let’s set out to heavenwards, and let the world and all that glitters in it, not be the thing that robs us of eternity by our being more dazzled by the world we can see that glitters, rather than the hope of things invisible (Heb 11:27) that are yet to come, yet would make this glittering world, look like a bottomless pit.

I hope to get a series of posts out this week, on Reformation history, and how we can apply that to our lives today. This is the first.

I know when my cat poppy dies, I will feel sadness, yet, I have already let her go in a way even as she lives. The same is true of everything and everyone else I love or are important to me. Several months ago, to a friend, my oft complaint was, what I am I supposed to do if I lose poppy, and “Lady Erskine” is still not back, so I have nothing or no one. I always end up in places or new perceptions our outlooks without remembering how it happened, but I do know the last several months, the question above became moot. Yes, poppy is here, and I enjoy her while she is here, yet in a very real way, she is already lost to me. All we have to do, is acknowledge in our heart and understand the reality of everything and everyone in this life is perishable and temporary, and that one day they will die. If they die as we live, we are already to let them go when we don’t just merely assent to that, but hold it deep in our hearts as a fact that is inevitable and are ready for it even if its the next hour. Poppy disappearing on Saturday night was the manner in which I thought she’d died that was so upsetting. Like I had failed her at the end by not making her feel safe or being there to comfort or protect her. But if she died next week, or even tomorrow, there will be sadness, but I have already let her go, even as I love her while she lives., I’m not sure how God enabled me to do that, but I also know its true of other things I love. By the world’s standards I am dirt poor, and poverty stricken; even by most Christian standards, yet as I was just remarking to a friend, to me, I am rich. Because God has enabled me to live upon the invisible God when I have very little else, and I know that has to be where my joy comes from when as ill as this and so little in this world to take the edge off all my afflictions. But even as the things I love live, and I love them as I live, I have also been enabled to pass a sentence of death upon them, and that’s how I am able to live upon God that is invisible, in the worst of circumstances. I thank God for his amazing grace, as these things have made my life enjoyable again, by living on things invisible. I wouldn’t swap my afflictions for all the riches in the world, because this prison has been turned into a palace, that is paved with Gold, and where God abides with me, and my two cats. The riches that the world offers, would be a poor exchange. I have been richer in the past than now, and yet, I remember that emptiness that torment, that anguish that used to feel like it was destroying me. And now when less rich, and with very little to keep me warm in the worst of circumstances and quite dreadful illness, I am fuller than I have ever been in my entire life. We serve an awesome God. And while every living thing in this life is perishable and temporary, God will never leave us or foresake us.

This quote of Bunyan’s that I have posted before, completely nails it. And if we are ever to suffer rightly, when we suffer extremely, it IS the only way to do it. God got me to that place before I first came across this quote. But as soon as I read it, I knew that is what he had done for me, and by grace worked out in my life.
But, I wouldn’t advise folks to wait to do this, until they are in the place of being given the news you have an incurable illness, and perhaps by that time your life partner and spouse maybe already dead. The time to set about, doing the work below, is while we have things and riches to pass a sentence of death upon, so that when faced with the reality of it, it is already embedded in our heart, and we have already let go and have died to everything we currently cherish. I am blessed that God enabled me when at the point already. But if not for his doing so, I would still be drowning in afflictions, with every day an agony or anguish instead of feasting on the invisible God and being filled and rich and the place I once saw as a prison, would not now be the palace it has become. Yet God abides here, so why wouldn’t it be a palace, as that is whrere Kings abide in any case.

if ever I would suffer rightly, I must first pass a sentence of death upon every thing that can be properly called a thing of this life, even to reckon myself, my wife, my children, my health, my enjoyment, and all, as dead to me, and myself as dead to them. The second was, to live upon God that is invisible, as Paul said in another place; the way not to faint, is to “look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
—John Bunyan

Psalms 73:26 My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.

England is a spiritual wasteland,  even tho we have the great history of reformation and puritanism rooted here. It’s  lamentable to see the sad state of this once fruitful and now barren land, spiritually speaking.  The Reformed faith in England is almost dead or non-existent, or where there are glimmers of it, it is often a watered down Reformed faith from that of the Reformers. Three Reformed Presbyterian Churches,  stand for the whole of England, of those of the puritan and Covenanter tradition.  Where inspired worship is practiced, and uninspired not partaken of.  And the average Christian here, is mostly liberal, ignorant of church and Christian history, and has one foot firmly planted in the world. Now of course, this is a sweeping generalization, but  for the few who remain who belong to the True Religion of the Scriptures, it really is a scattered remnant here in England. Scotland and Ireland is not the same of course. But for England the above is sadly true. And when you think of the great history, the puritanism, the martyrs that lost thier lives and shed their blood and burned at the stake for the liberty of religion we now have, yet seem to treat so casually, it is more than lamentable; it is heart-wrenching.

However, despite what the eye sees and how dimly the candle burns here, we know that God will bring in His Kingdom in his own time; and that the nations sin, cannot thwart his plan for his people or his church. And the blood of those very martyrs, poured forth in such, bloody, cruel, persecuting violence, so many centuries ago, still give  another reason for hope amidst the current spiritual wasteland that I inhabit.

A quote from John G. Paton’s autiobiography:

A glance backwards over the story of the Gospel in the New Hebrides may help to bring my readers into touch with the events that are to follow.  The ever-famous names of Williams and Harris are associated with the earliest efforts to introduce Christianity amongst this group of islands in the South Pacific Seas. John Williams and his young Missionary companion, Harris, under the auspices of the London Missionary Society, landed on Erromanga on the 30th of November, 1839. Alas! within a few minutes of their touching land, both were clubbed to death; and the savages proceeded to cook and feast upon their bodies.  Thus were the New Hebrides baptized with the blood of Martyrs; and Christ thereby told the whole Christian world that He claimed these Islands as his own. His cross must yet be lifted up, where the blood of his saints has been poured forth in His Name! The poor Heathen knew not that they had slain their best friends; but tears and prayers ascended for them from all Christian souls, wherever the story of the martyrdom on Erromanga was heard.
—John G. Paton, Mission to the New Hebrides

Given the cruel persecutions that have taken place in England in past times here, the same can be said of England, as Paton wrote of the New Hebrides. That by the martyrs blood, Christ thereby told the whole Christian world that He claimed this land for His own. May the church of Christ, first of all in this land, hear these words and hearken, and it deepen the wishy washy liberalism that pervades here, and  turn into something wonderful and Christ filled. And may it serve as a warning against the wicked rulers who rule here, that God’s Word will prevail, no matter how far they take us away from it by their man made, anti-biblical laws; that they will be called to account, the same as each one of us. And may this once glorious and pleasant land, rise from amongst the ashes, and be alight for Christ once more.

I have had some quite overwhelming increases in illness of late that last about two weeks or more, out of every four which is the reason for my blog having grown so quiet. As some times I sleep for 22 hours out of 24 during those times, which leaves little time for blogging. The cause which gives these increases in illness should start to be addressed by the latest Novemember and then my hope would be to at least be more stable instead of so up and down.

However a few bits and bobs. I kind of half own another cat. A kitten in fact of about 12 months old. Aptly named becuase of her red hair and the first time I clapped eyes on her she was pilfering poppy’s food, one “Meanie O’Reilly.” She does have a home, in the cul de sac, but she seems to spend as much time with us, soetimes more. But she’s quite adorable. She went up to poppy a couple of nights ago and prompty bopped her on the nose twice. No claws involved, pure mischief. Its like having a two year old around who you never know what they will get up to next. she’s a calico tortoishelle. (Pic below). But sometimes she visitus us through the night also. She comes and knocks on the cat flap in the patio door sometimes every hour throgh the night!

Poppy has also been taking alot of care, even mre than norm. She went to the vets the  other day and it seems her diabetes is not tht well controlled at the mo, so we are tying an increase ininsulin.  But the vet said, with the two chronic condiitions she has, that even with one oor the other he wouldn’t have expected her to last this long, but with both together its little short of a miracle that she has. She’s almost 15 y.o.

But all of the above and a few other things are the reason my blog has been remarkabley quiet for a sustained period of time.  My hope would be to get back into some regular blogging at this site before too long.

And I am also giving my living room a make-over. Having an interior design company in to make my living room into a home office; having the carpet replaced with click flooring, which tho it is laminate and perfectly washable, it both looks and feels like wood. And also getting a new recliner ,slightly smaller than my present one. But the home/office will help me be more organized and to know where things are more exactly. Keep things tidier, and hopefully be more productive, and also able to keep on top of paperwork more easily. It also includes some shelving for books. I still buy a fair few books because currently I am reading perhaps two books per week; All the above should be done within the next month.

Here is Meanie O’Reilly:

I wonder if there is even one among us, who has never quite appreciated something or someone, till they have lost them, or are in separation. There is much to that old maxim of Absence makes the heart grow fonder. But there are lessons to be learned throughout history, of such things, and it maybe a friend, a child, spouse, parent, any relationship one can name it may apply to. Those who often make the most impact, are those who walk quietly not shouting about their good works, or feeling the need to display in public when they do one kind act that is not really in the way or normal activities to them like I have seen some do. Those who walk amongst us quietly and discreetly, not wanting applause for themselves, and yet seem to go unseen and unappreciated because of how they don’t crave credit, but want the credit to go to God alone, are the ones it seems to me who are often under appreciated. Those who shout about the odd kind act, and feel the need to tell others, are the ones who will be appreciated because they make sure they are in various ways, subtle ways but nontheless true.
Good theology seems to get you well-respected particualry in Calvinistic circles. But Theology maketh no man. And it certainly maketh no Christian anything outstanding on its own.

The folowing extract if from a memorial by a group of Christian ladies over which Benjamin Morgan Palmer’s wife presided.

” Nearly twenty years ago quite a number
of us organized ourselves together for
the purpose of benevolent and Christian
labors ; and she by whose vacant seat we
now stand to-day with such sorrowful hearts,
was chosen from among us to be our guide,
our counsellor and our leader—and we
called her President.
Many of us were just entering upon
life’s morning, the future all glorious be
fore us, with the rainbow of hope undimmed
by sorrow’s touch. Others were already
bearing the heat and burden of the day,
and were oft-times weary with the load of
care. And, again, there were those whose
eyes were turned to the brighter and more
perfect day, but whose feet were oft-times
tottering and very feeble. But to one and
all, of every age, our President was a dayspring
of joy—ever rejoicing with those
that did rejoice, and weeping with those
that wept. In sorrow and in trial she ever
strengthened by her counsel, and cheered
by her sympathy, herself bearing a part of
our burden. As a Society, we sometimes
halted by the way ; or like a streamlet
with rippled, ruffled surface, made murmur
as we moved ; until with one common impulse
we would throw all the trouble over
on the broad, calm, deep nature—whose
serious depth we then, alas ! but partially
understood ; but now has come the full
knowledge of its power and of our great
loss, .We know her as she was—strong,
yet gentle ; firm, but tender ; a true Chris-
tian, with every womanly virtue. * * *
In her beautiful womanhood, during all
these years she went in and out among us,
always looked for, always welcomed, ever
at her post, until the dawning of that day
when it was said, ‘ she sleeps ;
‘ and from
that sleep we may not awaken her. But
there is a forward looking, and an upward ;
and may we not pray that her mantle cover
us ; and that with united and renewed
strength we follow on where she would
have led—even as she would now say to
us, ‘ Come up higher.’”

Benjamin Palmer himself continues:

‘Tis only when they spring to heaven that angels
Reveal themselves to you ; they sit all day
Beside you, and lie down at night by you.
Who care not for their presence—muse or sleep
And all at once they leave you and you know them.”

But what a sarcasm it is upon the wis-.
dom of man, that his treasures should be
known only through their loss! (The
separation came after the sweet possession
of seven and forty years, and left us bankrupt.
It was a sorrow wholly by itself.

In the calm of a nature thus self-poised
there lay a quiet force, which went forth
with a silent yet magnetic control of all
with whom she came in contact. Its pressure
was like that of the atmosphere, so
equal on every side as scarcely to be recognised.
Like the forces in the material
In the
deep sorrows through which she passed,
her calm submission was an angel’s strength
to all around her ; whilst in each, she
mounted to a higher trust in Him who
was preparing her for the eternal rest.
The virtues, as well as the vices, grow
together in the cluster. It will occasion
no surprise that transparent honesty
marked the character just depicted. Her
truthfulness was so punctilious, that it
stumbled even over the social courtesies
in which the slightest prevarication was
implied. And the strategy was sometimes
amusing, which substituted a judicious
silence for the conventionalisms in which
the charge of falsehood can be evaded only
by construing them as unmeaning. This
sincerity was, however, accompanied with
such grace of manner as never to seem
harsh or brusque ; whilst it had the advantage
of securing that measure of confidence
which is accorded only to perfect honesty
of mind and heart. She was thus the
truest of the true ; and so carried her heart
in her hand, that her speech was ever the
echo of her thought.—Benajamin Morgan Palmer

That is the type of Christian who makes the most difference in a Christ like way. Not the ones with all the right theology yet little of Christ’s works in them or insular self serving faith.
In Seeking A Settled Heart: The 16th Century Diary Of Puritan Richard Rogers he was to write the below entry:

Dec. 16,1588. In this time God visited my wife, never
more near to death, whereby all the former considerations
(January last, the 5 th ) were revived. And this fell out in a time in
which had been broken or discontinued the keeping of some
covenants betwixt us made and entered into, as private
differences, some harshness, not that pleasauntness in that
behalf required.
I saw allso that this was much out of the way a week or
more before, and waited opportunity to cut it off, but I moved
too slowly. And though it was no such thing as was noted by
any one else, or so much as betwixt our selves, only I saw that
there was some abating of the affection which had been, yet I
would not willingly see it so again, nor that we had so parted.
And hereby it may be seen that many of our oversights,
which pass us without any check, do come to remembrance
sometime after — with great grief.
–Richard Rogers

Again another example of how being at odds with someone, you could eaisly lose them in that moment and never get a chance to put things right. We all take things for granted; our health, our relations; our blessings yet we have not one reason too. They are all uncertain riches. But I think we are all guilty at times of not appreciating what we have until separation or loss incurs, even sometimes by death.  And its not just the person we under-appreciate we wrong by it, it is also the giver of the gift too. And as someone who is not guiltless of this, and it often causes me sorrow to remember, I would want to tell folks to show those you love that you love them. For if you don’t, or you put it off, or your stubborn pride makes you want them to make the first move, you may never have another opportunity to. BEcause God could snatch them Home to Himself. Sometimes I think, I have entertained angels unawares, and when I say unawares I mean just that. Sometimes you take peoples always being there for granted. It’s only when the hole is left that cannot be filled by anything or anyone else, you realize how when you had chance to appreciate them, you threw it away and was careless at times. Lets show the people that we love, that we love them, before being left with that hole that can never be filled by another, at least in some cases.

What is to be done with a love which
belongs only to one, when that one is
gone and cannot take it up ? It cannot
perish, for it has become part of our own
being. What shall we do with a lost love,
which wanders like a ghost through all the
chambers of the soul, only to feel how
empty they are ? There may be those
about us who are very dear ; but this love
cannot be divided among them, for it is
incapable of distribution. What remains
but to send it upward, until it finds her to
whom it belongs by right of concentration
for more than forty years. In the unselfishness
of love we wish her joy in her
immortal ascension, willing ourselves to
take the loss that hers may be the everlasting gain.
—Benjamin Morgan Palmer

Again, this is a post that didn’t import from my old site but since first posting it almost three years ago, much of my readership has changed.  So for Friday Fun:

How to win arguments, discussions, debates etc
November 17, 2006

I think this probably falls under the sub-heading of “You’re So Vain, you probably think this post is about you”

I argue very well. Ask any of my remaining friends. I can win an argument on any topic, against any opponent. (Not!) People know this, and steer clear of me at parties. Often, as a sign of their great respect, they don’t even invite me. You too can win arguments. Simply follow these rules:

1. Drink Liquor.

Suppose you’re at a party and some hot-shot intellectual is expounding on the economy of Peru, a subject you know nothing about. If you’re drinking some health-fanatic drink like grapefruit juice, you’ll hang back, afraid to display your ignorance, while the hot-shot enthralls your date. But if you drink several large shots of Jack Daniels, you?ll discover you have STRONG VIEWS about the Peruvian economy. You’ll be a WEALTH of information. You’ll argue forcefully, offering searing insights and possibly upsetting furniture. People will be impressed. Some may leave the room.

2. Make things up.

Suppose, in the Peruvian economy argument, you are trying to prove Peruvians are underpaid, a position you base solely on the fact that YOU are underpaid. DON’T say: “I think Peruvians are underpaid.” Say: “The average Peruvian’s salary in 1981 dollars adjusted for the revised tax base is $1,452.81 per annum, which is $836.07 below the mean gross poverty level.” NOTE: Always make up exact figures. If an opponent asks you where you got your information, make THAT up, too. Say: “This information comes from Dr. Hovel T. Moon’s study for the Buford Commission published May 9, 1982. Didn’t you read it?” Say this in the same tone of voice you would use to say “You left your soiled underwear in my bath house.”

3. Use meaningless but weightly-sounding words and phrases.

Memorize this list:

Let me put it this way

In terms of

Vis-a-vis

Per se

As it were

Qua

So to speak

You should also memorize some Latin abbreviations such as “Q.E.D.,” “e.g.,” and “i.e.” These are all short for “I speak Latin, and you do not.” Here’s how to use these words and phrases. Suppose you want to say: “Peruvians would like to order appetizers more often, but they don’t have enough money.” You never win arguments talking like that. But you WILL win if you say: “Let me put it this way. In terms of appetizers vis-a-vis Peruvians qua Peruvians, they would like to order them more often, so to speak, but they do not have enough money per se, as it were. Q.E.D.” Only a fool would challenge that statement.

4. Use snappy and irrelevant comebacks.

You need an arsenal of all-purpose irrelevent phrases to fire back at your opponents when they make valid points. The best are:

You’re begging the question.

You’re being defensive.

Don’t compare apples and oranges.

What are your parameters?

This last one is especially valuable. Nobody, other than mathematicians, has the vaguest idea what ‘parameters’ means. Here’s how to use your comebacks: You say “As Abraham Lincoln said in 1873…” Your opponents says “Lincoln died in 1865″ You say “You’re begging the question.”

OR

You say “Liberians, like most Asians…” Your opponent says “Liberia is in Africa.” You say “You’re being defensive.”

5. Compare your opponent to Joseph Stalin.

This is your heavy artillery, for when your opponent is obviously right and you are spectacularly wrong. Bring Stalin up subtly. Say: “That sounds suspiciously like something Joseph Stalin might say.” Remember that this is the alternative of last resort; it tend to close all options of retreat.

Keep these basic principles in mind, and you will find it easy (and perhaps even entertaining) to out-argue anybody.

Good luck, and happy hunting.

Are you a social misfit? I am!
I have found there are generally two types of people who lack the social graces so many others can and do take for granted. Those who are terminally shy, and may say things in completely the wrong context drive on by being nervous and shy. And those who just make you feel like slapping them upside the chops because they appear at least down right rude and hostile.
I discovered very early in life, I am terminally shy and awkward with it. I also very early in life learned how to compensate for this. My life has not been usual or normal by any degree of that word almost from the off, and I seem to have spent my life learning how to compensate in various ways. Some of them physical some of them social, some of them circumstantial.
I discovered very early in life, you could hide a multitude of things under a cheery smile, a wink, or generally cheerful countenance. I was to find out way before my teen years, that that could also hide heart-break and a tortured spirit, even if it showed in other ways.
No one likes a misery guts do they?
I also found out as life went along, that if you could laugh at yourself, poke fun of yourself, say things about yourself you would never dream about saying about anyone else, then people did not laugh AT you, but they did laugh with you. It’s a fine line bettween laughing at and with someone, yet the difference between the two things is inestimable.
I think if not for me learning to cover it all with a sharp wit and cheery countenance my life could have been much worse. Or I would have been one of those social misfits who is always putting their foot in their mouth, and then wondering why everyone is so riled up!
People seem to make excuses for everything these days; bad childhood, broken home, yet, it really doesn’t wash. I used to be haunted by my past that never quite went away, perhaps in some ways it still haunts me, but I have learned to manage the demons of the past, by the grace of God, so that they do not drive me on, or control me. I am in control.
However, in this ilness, I am sure my cheerful countenance and habit of just piping up with some witticism out of nowhere, has worked against me. Especially with the medical community at first not taking me seriously.. We’ve all seen people in chronic pain, and you get the stoics who bear it well, and you get those who are totally incapacited by it, thinking the world owes them a living, and wanting waiting on hand and foot. Yet I don’t think I fit into either of those catagories. A friend who used to some times attend doctors appointments with me, at one time told me to stop being so happy on my doctors visits cuz it gave completely a different impression to the amount of pain my body is in. The same friend tole me, that she never would know I am in any pain from appearances sake, she said there are other things outside of appearance or comportment that I do which are vey telling to show the amount of pain I must be in. Yet to ask me to stop being happy, whether at the doctors or not, is about like stopping asking the pope being a papist!
But, if you lack social skills, are an odd duck or the odd one out in your group, then my reccomendation would be, to not fake it, but to use your wit to overcome it so that its not noticable to other folks. People are naturally drawn to bright or sunny folks, as much as they are the sun itself. The social misfit who will say things like I heard of one doing the other day from a friend, oh you cut your hair. Did you mean for it to turn out that way or was it an accident? are the type who are tolerated but nothing more.
But yes, the truth of it is, I am a social misfit, just like the woman above tho it showed itself a different way. But by the grace of God learned by skill and perserverance, so that now, my wit takes over automatically and I cannot turn it off even if I try to. Would I rather be the kind of person whose social skills come naturally and they are not paralyzed by timidity or shyness? Why yes, of course I would. On the other hand, would I ratherr be the person who even if the great pretender, always has a quick comeback or witticism to any situation, who laughs at myself and others laugh along with me, or like the woman who made the comment about the haircut above? In all honesty, not because I am any great catch or anything startling at all, I would rather be as I am–yes, sometimes you may come a cropper, and say something totally out of context cuz your neves have gotten the better of you, yet largely when with people, there are plenty of times of laughter through my coveirng my natural inadquacey in social situations with the quick fire wit. And I would rather people remembered me as that type of person, than someone who was a social outcast who often insulted people even if unintentionally, in the way of above and the haircut.
In part it is why I struggle with such aloneness. My personality type is the The entertainer, and if you have no one to entertain, with that kind of persoanlity, it goes against the grain and against everything you have always found natural and needful to just exist. The entertainer without anyone to entertain, is a great affliction. But, I bide my time, wait on the Lord, and hope that one day, I may again have someone to entertain. And know that they enjoyed the laughter without any knoweldge that it only came about, because I was a misfit, who was paralyzed by shyness and timidity, to compensate to make life easier to cope with.
If you are a social misfit, it’s not all bad. Jonathan Edwards, genius that he was would today come under that label.

Okay, well note quite red, yet, Roses are quite my favourite flower,  and this is the first one in my garden/yard to bloom this year.

I’m not sure what these are as I cannot remember what was planted where. They are either, radishes, garden peas, or a little herb flower called “Pinks.”  I suspect they are radishes.

Poppy enjoying the evening air as I watered the flowerbeds by the side of her.  Last night that ramp she is looking down is the one that she and I came hurtling out of my wheelchair hurtling down it.  But it was only because I had my hands on her rather than my wheels, cuz I knew she would jump off. Tonight we will be more careful. Thankfully, Poppy was completely unscathed, still lay in my arms when we hit the floor.

It’s a fairly innocuous question isn’t it? Yet, I find it’s one I shy away from being asked and it can cause an awkward pause in the conversation. My static answer for folks who know me well, will be “Pass..next question please.”

I think its my weakness, a foible. But if anyone asks me how I am, I can either go into great detail of what kind or degree of torture my body is in that day, , or I can say in a sentence my pain is rubbish today, or I feel trash, and yet, what does it mean to them in the way of understanding, unless they also have a similar type of disease with similar symptoms? Pain is a word most people understand, yet, most people will never understand my experience of pain. The porphyria doctors who says its a worse pain than malignant cancer I can well believe, because it has more than one type of what is classed as malignant pain in it, and its from head to toe. So if I say I am in pain, what does that tell anyone? What context does it have? Do they think about when they have toothache or some other severe pain? How on god’s green earth can they have context? What good does it do?

My body is a challenge, every minute of every day, even as I sleep. But it’s not a challenge you or most people are likely to ever understand, even if Lord forbid, one day you are struck by terminal cancer.

I hate being asked how are you, because there is no answer that is either adequate or meaningful in what it conveys to the questioner in what I answer. I feel very alone in my mind, even when with most people. Some people have a knack of making me feel more alone when they are there, than when I am actually alone. Me telling anyone anything that has no context to be understood, is just another sore that way. So my static answer will always be, “Pass, next question, please.”

When some of us mess up, we just manage to do it behind closed doors, but don’t ever think I’m better than you, cuz I’m not.–BBC Waterloo Road.

If like me, when you mess up it is usually out there in full view of other people, and some other people treat you as if they are better than you, then it becomes an aggravation and a matter of great pride on their part. They make thing they are somehow better than you, but they’re not, they just “mess up,” when hardly anyone else knows about it or sees. It’s a matter of appearances being deceptive, that’s all. And they’re deceiving themselves if they think or act any differently.

Does anyone the same as me get rather tired of the worn out saying of we are no longer under Law but under grace? Of course it has some semblance of truth,  (which is when perverted truth is at its most dangerous) but its hollow, and almost exclusively used by libertarians to advocate a wishy washy, man centred faith.

Isa. 8 speak to this when it speaks of the Law and the Testimony.  YOu cannot have genuine faith without one compliemnting the other.   And before anyone says that was the OT we are now in NT times; true of course, yet is there any other book in the OT so full of Christ than Isa’s oracle?  In chapter 8 (the aforementioned chapter) the term of Immanuel or God is with us is even used, exactly the same as it is in the NT.

Taking a little bit of truth and perverting it, is the way true Presbyterianism lost much of its glory in America. By using new terminology or a little bit of truth mixed with a little bit of error. It was plausible enough for the people to buy into, and so history was written, and the Scriptures were re-written in some aspects. As there will always be teachers, ready, willing and able to lead their flock away from the fountain of Truth in favour of their own version of it.  Joel Osteen is the current name that comes to  mind who fits that description.

Mr free will, if ever you want a proper discussion, then please post your comment without railing against the gods, as you call it and without the use of obscenities.  Did you not read my commenting policy?  You’re comments will not be posted here, unless you stick to the rules! If however, you move on from this abhorrent, heathen rantings and railings, and athiestic God hating railings, then please try again and your comment will be  posted.

Does anyone the same as me get rather tired of the worn out saying of we are no longer under Law but under grace? Of course it has some semblance of truth,  (which is when perverted truth is at its most dangerous) but its hollow, and almost exclusively used by libertarians to advocate a wishy washy, man centred faith.

Isa. 8 speak to this when it speaks of the Law and the Testimony.  YOu cannot have genuine faith without one compliemnting the other.   And before anyone says that was the OT we are now in NT times; true of course, yet is there any other book in the OT so full of Christ than Isa’s oracle?  In chapter 8 (the aforementioned chapter) the term of Immanuel or God is with us is even used, exactly the same as it is in the NT.

Taking a little bit of truth and perverting it, is the way true Presbyterianism lost much of its glory in America. By using new terminology or a little bit of truth mixed with a little bit of error. It was plausible enough for the people to buy into, and so history was written, and the Scriptures were re-written in some aspects. As there will always be teachers, ready, willing and able to lead their flock away from the fountain of Truth in favour of their own version of it.  Joel Osteen is the current name that comes to  mind who fits that description.