Birthday gifts

I'm not a fan of birthday celebration.
I think the Bible would bear me out in attributing little importance to such matters, although great age is always honour and therefore must be acknowledged and accepted in prostration before the Lord.

I will soon reach my three score and ten, so I will view every day and even minute thereafter as a special blessing.

I have developed a strong dislike for churches. They are dark and foreboding, despite the forced gaiety. There are urgent matters that remain unaddressed in the assemblies. I have tried to interact, but I am always rejected because my views do not suit their statement of faith, as drawn up by a council of elders, most of whom do indeed, I have come to believe, walk in darkness, while professing themselves to be wise.

Suffice to see that most self-confessed Christians today follow the wicked coming rapture / tribulation interpretation, which is an outright piece of mischief perpetrated by John Darby and Cyrus Scofield among others. This doctrine saw the formation of the wicked Jehovahs' Witnesses cult, which has ensared so many with its lies. 

The Bible does not teach this at all, as I discovered with my repeated careful readings, also in Italian. I then discovered that our people had only started to believe this since the mid 1800s and, inevitably, it hastened the decline of the Church, since the flock was told they would be preserved only through the intervention of our Lord and Saviour on some terrible future date, so they had better make sure they stay in his good books. All those fellows shuffling around with those miserable "the end of the world is nigh" signs. There are thousands of books that have declared various dates for the end of the World or the coming tribulation. It is an industry. But it us pure tomfoolery and even witchcraft, the very stuff of the enemy, to distract and terrorise our once valiant warriors - men and women, in their roles. 

This is an absolute travesty of Biblical interpretation, in my own view and in the view of many of my peers across the world. 

It is also blasphemous, because it is casting doubt over the validity and sufficiency of the finished work of Christ, who said "It is Finished" on the cross.

It is completely disregarding the Psalm verse most frequently repeated by our Lord during his ministry:

The LORD said unto my Lord, sit though at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.

God has spoken here. It is unacceptable to me that almost every church is unwilling to listen.

I also consider the complete rejection of the scientifically proven and provable facts concerning the nature of the Earth and the Heavens, which rational and scientific inquiry will reveal to be precisely as described in the Word of God, as we must expect, as believers, but the programming is deep. Globe images have been implanted in our mind day after day, at the start of every movie and newsreel. They were mandatory. The globe was a key tool in the classroom... greatly admired.

My translation work has tailed off lately, so I am thinking of applying for a job in a bar, when I feel physically fitter. I am currently training hard and amending my diet for the utmost health, having finally realised the importance and indeed necessity of that practice. I have been considering getting a road bike with fatter tyres, but my fitness is not yet such as to feel confident riding a bike in or near traffic. I have bought a sports car, which I had been planning to do since selling my MGTF about ten years ago.

This aside, I cannot hold my tongue in the matter of Scripture when I am speaking to fellow Christians, although I don't like to bother people. I should perhaps issue a warning at this point. I have twice stood up in different assemblies and cast down carefully worded rebukes for acts and omissions that clearly dishonoured the Lord Jesus Christ. I didn't plan to do that. I was stood up and given words, on both occasions. And I had all the necessary volume to reach every corner of the churches in question. The risk would be that I am witness to any sort of overt and communal false teaching and acceptance of false principles. Apparently, I can't shut up.

Even the Islamists are not immune.

I accuse them all. Of error, which is another word for "sin". Lack of diligence. Over-reliance on the words of man and gross under-appreciation of the very Word of God.

Slothfulness. Reclining in comfort. Many people of my age are quite unwell, but they do not use diligence and wisdom in searching out the truth and the reason for their sickness. The food they eat, the medicines they take. The very water from the tap. The hum of EM energy from overused smartphones

The EMF stuff is or was a great focus in the new age, also because it gave some men and women the opportunity to sell stuff by ascribing arcane properties to natural materials. Perhaps their allocations are reliable, but they produce only confusion because there is no leader in the new age movement and no standard of truth. There is no King, merely a fallen angel.

Many of my kinsmen and women follow pagan, neo pagan, druidic, heathen, return to nature paradigms. Pick and choose. Some like crystals - very pretty for the ladies. Copper, silver, (gold was generally absent due to its high price). Pyramid structures provide a protective cocoon or concentrator of energy, understanding and health. Perhaps they work. I did sit under one when I was chatting up a witch, so she could show me how good she was at reiki healing. She was very good at doing those sinuous types of movements with her hands and arms while she seemed to be doing squats and stretches around me without ever touching my skin. I suspect she was showing off her trim physique to any  casual onlookers.

The therapy didn't affect me (unlike her physique), but when I went outside and sat down on a bench Shon came over and pointed out that it was dedicated to someone of precisely my name and surname and I was sitting beside the plaque, although my middle name was not mentioned. Surely a coincidence. I had been speaking quite intensely to a young woman  on the subject of our freedom in Christ. She was a volunteer of some kind of group that was engaged in providing aid for families persecuted by the court through child removal orders and such sorry matters. Salvation through works. She seemed to be contemplating the idea. 

I don't presume that there is no power in magic, but I don't fear it because the Lord will always sustain us in the valley.

I think it's a shame that so many people have been drawn into these cultish practices, because all of those things are ultimately futile and meaningless. They are performative, and they only thinly conceal all the usual pride and nastiness that characterises much of modern society, with public displays of virtue and private displays of ignominy.

True joy and meaning comes from the Word of God. That's the first step. All other benefits flow from that source. And those benefits will be so manifold that there is no need to distract the mind because we will be showered with such abundance.

Life becomes exciting and dynamic. The blood starts to flow in the veins.

That's a life worth living. 

Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.

I don't speak from any personal high place. I am a fool, and the matter is plain for any to see. I am a man of no importance, a pilgrim and a stranger. But I have something to say nonetheless. A man must be free to speak his mind, if he speaks fairly and honestly, without offending the name of our Lord.  If people will listen to me, I have something to share. And I will share it from the Bible, line by line, here a little, there a little.

But no one will listen. I mean hardly anyone. except for a few people on YouTube with The Gnostic Amen or The Rational Rapture, but most of my videos only get a handful of views - deservedly really - I am not a very accomplished speaker let alone videographer. I am practicing at best.

I am a translator, and I take my profession very seriously indeed. I think that has helped me see through the mist a little, with my necessary professional focus on detail in wording and meanings. I have been vindicated in my career with my success. It has provided a very good livelihood for thirty years or more. So I have external validation of my ability to interpret writings of all types. I also learned something of philosophy when I was drawn into an online philosophy forum that turned out to be a cult. So the philosophical consequences of Biblical precepts became clearer. I know that philosophy is a Greek art, it is nonetheless useful, allowing us to refine our understanding of nuance and interests. 

Likewise psychology, having undergone two separate psychoanalytical therapies lasting around three years, I have learned how to probe the psyche and discovered how it is voluble.

All wisdom and understanding comes by the grace of our Lord, but we are discouraged from folding our hands to sleep, and study is valuable for the aim of self-improvement and becoming wiser. We are instructed in Proverbs to seek wisdom, as the most precious gift, better than rubies! I think we have to do the work (self-work, not community "works"). That is the inevitable consequence of our dedication and shows our trust in the hand of God. He will provide the health, happiness, strength, and wisdom that we all need, but we have to exercise the muscles and faculties he has so gracefully dispensed. Lip service will not suffice. Surely it is sinful (error) to not use our gifts to their full advantage and I suppose hardly anyone does that - the bar is set high.