In the Area like Bacteria!

Just another post to dust off this blog as I try hard to not inform everybody who does not read this blog that it still exists and its author remembers it.

I can smell change in the wind. Big change. It's taking all my reserves of self constraint to not run away from it and bury my head in the sand.

Matchmaker Fail

That drama between my brother and Joy, which began at a congress, ended before it began. Nothing happened. Something tells me I had more enthusiasm for them to court than both of them combined. Well I have had to stop fanning flames which produce more acrid black smoke than fire, for the lil bro raises all types of objections to Joy, which make no sense whatsoever.

The most disheartening part of this entire shambles is that these two wouldn't need to overcome logistical obstacles like long distance phone tariffs to stay in touch. They could see each other daily if they (only) so wished. Another important plus for them, they both have Adventist background and upbringing which if they stuck to would ground them both.

Perhaps I was even secretly wishing she would soften him up, you know, change him in just a few particulars. If it sounds like I had an agenda, I did. In hindsight however, the fortunate lass probably dodged a bullet - no; the bullet dodged her, though she threw herself right in its path. But if everything had gone to plan and love had tamed the brother, then I could really take pride in my efforts to unite them bearing fruits. So, while hope yet lasted, I asked bro: what's the problem? For Joy on her part was unapologetically enthusiastic as far as I could see.

The sneering answer: "That girl likes me too much."

If he was underage I would knock (knock) into his head the idea that better to stick with the girls who like you more than you like them. The other way round, you go crazy on their account, and they never stick around anyway once they realize what's really up with your constant staring into her eyes like you contemplate drowning in there.

But what do the young'uns know, eh? They chase after the indifferent ones, the spoilt queens, the entitled trophies, for the thrill of the hunt, suffering heart palpitations to no end. Or does the ego reject that which is won without effort, is that it?

Bro has been talking about hooking me up with some "bookish, quiet, religious" girl he knows (she's just like myself, he says), but after seeing his handling of Joy, I do not trust his judgment, therefore I warned him off involving me in those his matchmaking ventures in harsh terms strictly.

Surrender to Overcome

To overcome sin we must surrender to Jesus Christ. We can not do it, not by our selves. We may try, because the mind knows and the heart perceives that something is sin, but the flesh loves sinning. Any effort of ours to overcome sin by our own strength is defeated by our fallen nature, and is corrupted by a desire to establish our own righteousness - a miserable motive with dire results.

But thank GOD the Father for His Son Jesus Christ, who overcomes sin through His Holy Spirit indwelling in us, and lets us take the credit as overcomers! In truth it is not we who overcome, for we merely surrender our lives to One who conquered sin and death: the Lamb of GOD which taketh away the sins of the world. To be born again is to die to the flesh so that Christ may live in us, it is to surrender our lives (our very lives!) to One in whose keeping they are best placed, every day, dying every day, surrendering, because we know by faith that He is coming victorious, and in that Day it will be better to be found His servant than His enemy.

If there is any pride and stubbornness, then the old man of sin yet lives, and yet more dying and surrendering must needs be undergone.

Tuk Tuk Country

Kisumu is literally swarming with tuk tuks.

Image from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Tuk-tuk_in_Nairobi.JPG

Their hunched-down stance and three disproportionally tiny wheels give them a stubborn, beetle-like appearance reminiscent of schoolyard bullies, which impression their drivers (riders?) only reinforce with unconventional methods on the road. It’s not uncommon for a tuk-tuk to swerve straight into an oncoming car’s path and come to a dead stop a few inches away from impact. Thereafter the tightest of turns and they resume their precarious journey, leaving any road users they may have offended with a blast of hard words.

Riding in the tuk-tuk is no glorious adventure either. It vibrates like a 1960s diesel generator, whether stationery or on the move. That vibration may tickle you or make your nose itchy especially the first time. The entire journey your bones will collide against one another and your nerves will wince. As though that were not enough, the drivers (riders?) have a penchant for finding potholes in the road and hitting them with suspicious relish. The initial impact judders the vehicle’s frame, throws all occupants into the stratosphere, and the descent also ends badly, with one’s bum forcefully rediscovering the thinly upholstered seat, and, depending on whether one was braced for it or not, one’s limbs colliding with the insides of the vehicle.

Now the insides of a tuk-tuk are a safety hazard all by themselves, the roof and sides being manifestly a meshwork of iron rods welded together, over which a tarpaulin is spread and fastened. Some painted iron panels make for a lower body and doors, which the driver (exclusively) knows how to push, slap and fasten the latch to open or close. The quality of welding of metallic parts justly earns condemnation, wrath and censure, because injudicious handling of those roughly welded and unsmoothed rods and panel edges could easily end in a cut, especially when the driver (rider?) swerves across the road just to throw everyone into a pothole or a bump. Funny thing is, you never hear the driver (rider?) exclaiming as all other passengers do at these jarring occasions. His right hand immediately wrings the accelerator, his eye scans the road for bumps, off we go again.

And the contraptions are hardy. If ever they topple over, as three-legged monstrosities are bound to do, the driver merely sets it right side up and continues as though nothing happened – assuming the unlikely scenario that the welding works therein did not mangle the occupants beyond help. 

By the look of things tuk tuks are here to stay, being affordable for the masses, and durable for their owners. Also, apparently, the drivers of today’s carbon-fiber cars fear nothing more than a clash or even a close brush with a tuk tuk, and everybody knows why.

Attraction Differential

A great sage (I suspect it was the tireless Anon once again) said "Obey your instincts." Now in the haste of modern life many influences demand obedience, and sadly there are always stray people lacking direction who thus fall prey to confidence tricksters, simply because they seem to know what they are talking about. I'm always suspicious of people who primarily issue imperatives in their speech, maybe except my football coach, who literally barks orders. Now I need to be getting to the point, how our eyes need to stay open.

Let us telescopically zoom in on love and romance, the way modern culture depicts them. ( Not so close that we must stare at other people's displays of affection. Look in the mirror and you should see quite enough, thank you.) My view of the past presents me as an evangelical believer in the romantic tropes of back in the day.  For example, The One: an exclusive soulmate figure with whom the matching agent is no less than Destiny and without whom there is no Happily Ever After.

With ideas like these filling my head I set out to search for love and soon thought I found it. But my instinct refused to believe the narrative I was forcing upon myself. I ignored the annoying instinct until one day it screamed out: "Love is not this way!" The attraction was compromised from the start by an unfortunate pink hue coming from rose-tinted glasses I was wearing at the time.

Let me explain myself; you see, attraction is a funny thing, it's like binary. When it's on, it's like two magnets close together, they slam into one another and cleave together. When it's off, nothing will happen, like preoccupied strangers in the street. Factors of attraction vary, from physical appearance to virtues and appealing character but there's got to be attraction, it's not magic.

The problem begins when romantic love is made the be-all and end-all of life and happiness, until misguided souls settle with insufficient attraction. The cart is before the horse. There may be other motives which do not qualify as attraction because they are only marginally related to the object of affection, like how the two of you will look, what others will think, other calculations, etc (which are given disproportionate weight despite only being by-products, side effects.) This is the real dynamic behind that oft-rehashed complaint now popularized by the movies: "I feel like you are in love with the idea of being in love and not in love with meeee!" **tears, and then an overdue break up***

In a lovesick mind, having to pep talk oneself every time before facing the partner is more tolerable than being alone. Consequently, these shut their eyes and ears from dissonant facts that indicate that they have been settled for, shielding themselves from the truth by going to extra lengths to obligate their partners to stay with them. But love is not this way. Granted, arranged marriages between total strangers have worked, which somewhat  complicates my argument on the necessity of initial attraction. Never mind,  I'll figure it out. All I'm saying here is, there's no faking love in a relationship, no matter how "romantic" it is made to look.

Why am I talking like this? How do I know? I've been that guy, I've been on both ends of an attraction imbalance, both settling for others when my options dried up and being settled for by others. One kind of feels a nagging pain in the instinct in either format. Unless an isostatic adjustment balances the inequality, which may not happen even with prolonged exposure, do not proceed by any means. Just wait. Keep your eyes wide open in the meantime.

The Jesuit Teaching on Regicide, Murder, Lying, Theft, Etc

"But we should swell beyond all reasonable limit, our enumeration, were we to quote even a tithe of the “moral maxims” of the Jesuits. There is not one in the long catalogue of sins and crimes which their casuistry does not sanction. Pride, ambition, avarice, luxury, bribery, and a host of vices which we cannot specify, and some of which are too horrible to be mentioned, find in these Fathers their patrons and defenders. The alchemists of the Middle Ages boasted that their art enabled them to operate on the essence of things, and to change what was vile into what was noble. But the still darker art of the Jesuits acts in the reverse order; it changes all that is noble into all that is vile. Theirs is an accursed alchemy by which theytransmute good into evil, and virtue into vice. There is no destructive agency with which the world is liable to be visited, that penetrates so deep, or inflicts so remediless a ruin, as the morality of the Jesuits. The tornado sweeps along over the surface of the globe, leaving the earth naked and effaced and forgotten in the greater splendor and the more solid strength of the restored structures. Revolution may overturn thrones, abolish laws, and break in pieces the framework of society; but when the fury of faction has spent its rage, order emerges from the chaos, law resumes its supremacy, and the bare as before tree or shrub beautified it; but the summers of after years re-clothe it with verdure and beautify it with flowers, and make it smile as sweetly as before. The earthquake overturns the dwelling of man, and swallows up the proudest of his cities; but his skill and power survive the shock, and when the destroyer has passed, the architect sets up again the fallen palace, and rebuilds the ruined city, and the catastrophe is effaced and forgotten in the greater splendor and the more solid strength of the restored structures. Revolution may overturn thrones, abolish laws, and break in pieces the framework of society; but when the fury of faction has spent its rage, order emerges from the chaos, law resumes its supremacy, and the institutions which had been destroyed in the hour of madness, are restored in the hour of calm wisdom that succeeds. But the havoc the Jesuitinflicts is irremediable. It has nothing in it counteractive or restorative; it is only evil. It is not upon the works of man or the institutions of man merely that, it puts forth its fearfully destructive power; it is upon man himself. It is not the body of man that it strikes, like the pestilence; it is the soul.It is not a part, but the whole of man that it consigns to corruption and ruin. Conscience it destroys, knowledge it extinguishes, the very power of discerning between right and wrong it takes away, and shuts up the man in a prison whence no created agency or influence can set him free. The Fall defaced the image of God in which man was made; we say, defaced; it did not totally obliterate or extinguish it. Jesuitism, more terrible than the Fall, totally effaces from the soul of man the image of God. Of the “knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness” in which man was made it leaves not a tree. It plucks up by its very roots the moral constitution which God gave man. The full triumph of Jesuitism would leave nothing spiritual, nothing moral, nothing intellectual, nothing strictly and properly human existing upon the earth. Man it would change into the animal, impelled by nothing but appetites and passions, and these more fierce and cruel than those of the tiger. HOPV2 401.5
Society would become simply a herd of wolves, lawless, ravenous, greedy of each other’s blood, and perpetually in quest of prey. Even Jesuitism itself would perish, devoured by its own progeny. Our earth at last would be simply a vast sepulcher, moving round the sun in its annual circuit, its bosom as joyless, dreary, and waste as are those silent spaces through which it rolls."- The History of Protestantism Vol. 2, Chapter 5, The Jesuit Teaching on Regicide, Murder, Lying, Theft, Etc..., page 401

On the Brink of Bliss

I once seriously considered marriage, in much the same way a small boy craves big-people stuff. My thinking back then was that, yes, it's no walk in the park, but if you put in the work it is rewarding. I wasn't really feeling like an adult by that time despite having obtained an ID card. Embarking on the apex of adult relationships seemed like a sure way to accelerate the process. Colleagues and a wife instead of "the boys" and (a) girl pal(s) seemed like a step up into the somber big boy world of Duties and Responsibilities.  Also, hardship greys the hairs. I looked boyish, nobody was taking me seriously. It got so bad that I'd be in the company of my peers yet some ignorant lazy buggers picked on me as the "kijana" whenever an errand called for sending someone. All because I lacked a premature potbelly, stress wrinkles, a steely gaze or a "baba somebody" moniker. I was just Tony to all and sundry, or, in extreme cases, Duski Bolt. Indeed one of the portly girls gathered enough courage to tell me to my face that I had babyish eyes. Luckily for her I looked, and was, harmless back then. But I digress. Point is, I toyed with the idea of marriage for a variety of reasons. Think Marriage Challenge. As for whether my intended was going to accept my proposal, I took it for granted that given enough time, I wouldn't even really need to ask for her hand except as a formality, a ceremony, a gimmick, an exam whose answers I knew beforehand but still had to sit and write anyway. I felt  to be "in love" was a necessary prerequisite for marriage, therefore I strove to feel and act the way a person who is in love is supposed to, according to an unrehearsed mix of my convictions then and contemporary romantic conventions as depicted on TV. Probably I would do it differently today, just relax and steer the ride at my own leisure, but at the time it was an honest effort under the perceived pressure of self-imposed adult burdens and a need to impress. Those were some big shoes I was yet to grow into, but clumsily walking nevertheless, in earnest, a kid trying to become his daddy overnight. In my haste to settle down I skipped vital steps in the metamorphosis. Long story, we leave it for now. It helped that my intended spoke the truth from her heart, often smiled radiantly and redundantly and was easy to talk to. At times she could draw me out of my shell, which is no mean feat. I often retreat too far inwards to bring myself back into circulation but this one figured me out and disentangled me patiently like I was knotted up Christmas lights. In her presence my mental clutter cleared miraculously. Although there were times when she was the cause of fretful contemplations rather than their bane. Still I decided on the balance of things that marrying her might be a good idea... once I started working, if ever. Also there was the little (big) issue of sex, which marriage would not only rubber stamp but also require on the regular, so hooray, another plus. Other specifics like the wedding, and the house, and how many kids, blended vaguely into the blurry background of things that would somehow sort themselves out with time, why stress. Those days I was an atheist due to poor choice of reading material, but she was a believer. I merely assumed I would convert her to my perspective and married life could begin from there, because even in my unbelief I knew enough not to be unequally yoked with a believer, can you imagine! But she was strong, thank God, though my evangelization was not altogether very zealous because I quickly figured out that a little faith in the mother will be good for the kids if for nothing else. Besides, who wants to raise faithless brats in this cold blooded 21st Century? not me. Yeah that's how far my thinking went. Kids. Weird. Anyway, my marriage fantasies (!) were overtaken by subsequent developments (!) and now rants such as these are all that remain of that adventure that never was.

Struggle is Real

I struggle with sin. What I need to do is overcome in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Bible tells me the blood of the Lamb is a complete cure and I choose to believe the Bible.

Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. But sin? I see what harm sin has wrought in my life and am grieved. For while Christ yet loves me, if I cling to sin my reaction is to run away from Him and hide.

Sin alienates me from my fellow man as well. My love grows cold, I forget the good feeling of selfless service and look only to my own affairs even to the expense of others. Sacrifice becomes to me a repulsive idea. Pride puffs me up and I am ignorant that the swelling is due to my own internal putrefaction!

I struggle with sin. I need to overcome in Jesus' name.

Review: Cross and Crown

I'm currently reading the book Cross and Crown. It details the last moments of notable Protestant martyrs of the Alps, of France and of England. These people were persecuted, tortured, imprisoned, exiled, enslaved and died for their faith despite being offered many opportunities to recant and be set free. Their love for Bible truth exceeded their love for their own lives and so they risked and lost everything while spreading the Gospel of Christ.

The book is excellent for its message. The accounts narrated therein of individual and collective martyrdoms are heartrending for the cruelty of the persecutors and inspiring for the bravery and endurance of the martyrs until their dying moments. If this book does not moisten your eyes even a bit, nothing will.

The prospect of persecution may seem remote today, but the lessons that may be learnt from these people's accounts are very important to our generation. There is danger in forgetting history. Many reforms that have come down the ages to be taken for granted in this day  were dearly purchased by the blood of martyrs. For example, "freedom of information" as we know it today may never have come about but for brave children of GOD who resisted tyrannical censorship to print, translate and disseminate Bibles in the common languages. Nor would we speak of freedom of conscience except many had shed their blood taking a stand for it.

This is an era of great light, and great will be the repercussions of turning away from it, thereby slighting the sacrifice Christ's saints (following His divine example) made to secure it.

But many will face persecution in days to come. will we stand in the face of public hatred and universal ridicule, imprisonment, or even death? Others have done it before. Their blood was seed.

The man of sin appears as an angel of light

The pope has been championing justice and charity as his rallying call to unite the people of the world under one banner, arguing that doctrinal differences are birthing fundamentalist extremism. On the face of it the argument sounds logical and the cause looks noble; so what's the problem?

What's wrong with justice? Justice is good. What's the problem with charity? Charity is excellent! Unity is ideal! But the question is, where do justice and charity come from?

Or rather, do we human beings have our own internal reserves of justice and charity from which to draw? Or, contrary to this idea, is there a greater Source outside of ourselves, which is really the highest Standard of justice and charity?

I'm not splitting hairs here but dividing between truth and error.

Now the Scripture says no good thing comes out of man, but the pope says every man has intrinsic goodness.

According to the pope if everyone unites on the basis of human nature (intrinsically good) they will form a kingdom of GOD (deputized by the pope) and the thing will be blessed by GOD.

According to the Scripture if everyone unites on the basis of human nature (sinful by default) it will be to rebel against GOD (worship the beast and receive his mark) and this will earn GOD's wrath (seven last plagues).

We also have the testimony of history, to test these contesting propositions with. Will you believe the Bible or the pope? One certainly speaks askew. Many of the popular spiritual leaders (and pop stars and politicians and scholars) are choosing the pope's side of the controversy, in many not-so-obvious ways, every passing day.

There is no justice and charity (or virtue, generally) but that which comes from GOD. He is revealed in his Word (both Christ and the Bible.) Therefore correct doctrine is not the fly in the ointment of world peace; rather, it is the knowledge which is a savor unto life for those who look for it as for water of life, avoiding the dry broken cisterns of false teachings. Separation naturally arises, the division is a present precursor of the chasm that will separate the sheep from the goats in the great Day of the Lord. What a day that will be! Are you preparing to stand in that day?

But the "charity" and "justice" peddled by the pope are counterfeits which would turn our eyes away from the character of GOD. It is much like the secular world "legalizing love" by opening the door to LGBT marriage. It is a redefinition of love, a turning upside down of GOD's blessed order, indeed, a rejection of GOD's love by defiling the gift. "License they mean, when Liberty they cry." Sodom and Gomorra also "legalized love" (at least de facto) without scrupling over what GOD declared abomination as opposed to what he blessed and sanctified. While they looked forward to endless days of unbridled pleasure, a hail of fire and brimstone awaited the day their iniquity was full.

What is the basis of unity? The putting away by churches of doctrinal differences for unity constitutes a sacrifice of truth for whatever ends envisioned (at least for some of the consenting parties), so that any union that arises thence is founded on commonly held lies. If unity was the glorious end that justifies such a means, then why hasn't anyone thought of this before, to round up all the fish in the religious seas into one orderly ocean where no troublous extremist fundamentalist species may disturb the peace? Indeed just that has been tried in the past. History calls that period the Dark Ages, when the Papacy claimed authority over all living souls in the known world as far as her hand could extend, persecuting "heretics" who did not embrace her doctrines, unseating self-willed rulers, martyring many, rich or poor, who obeyed their own consciences according to the Word of GOD, conducting lucrative traffic in the very souls of men by her monopoly of the keys of heaven and hell. Truth being set aside for unity, it became a time of great superstition and ignorance on a grand scale; misery and disease were rampant, but the Church remained a wealthy, hard and cruel steward over the masses in bondage to her false doctrines, by which she extorted their very lives and livelihoods. Only with the Protestant Reformation did an enlivening essence animate the societies previously fastened in her iron grip. And what was the Protestant Reformation all about? The inerrancy of Scripture, freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, separation of church and state. Then, with the much vaunted yet cannibalistic unity collapsing, real progress resumed her onward march in history after a hiatus spanning centuries.

Today we see the pope arising in the public esteem to popular status fuelled by his image of a humble man, a pope of the people who champions wide-ranging reforms in church and world with conviction. Amidst all the brouhaha let not sight be lost of the danger. He downplays the role of Scripture and magnifies the role of the Church over which he is the head. And the world has been bullied into the position where she is again ready to sacrifice freedom of conscience for "peace" and "unity" under pretexts like "justice" and "charity". Such a step will represent a massive backward leap for mankind, whose results will baffle belief to see, because GOD Himself will signally disapprove of it.

Contrary to public declarations on the part of deceived and deceiving apostate church leaders, the Protestant Protest is not over. "Great numbers of influential preachers abandoning the Protest for worldly acclaim wholesale doth not a Protest over make!" It only means they are not Christ's, for if they had been His, they would not have gone away from Him. Expect to see much more of the same as the issue gathers steam.

As for the Protest, it will continue as long as there is deception, for GOD's Word stands eternally against the devil's lies. The only thing that will end the Protest is when its opponents are finally silenced forever and truth alone remains supreme. Then there will be nothing in all GOD's creation for us to protest against.

On Beatification

“It is the most impudent of all impudence to affirm that to be a part of Christianity which Christ never taught.”
Martin Luther

A certain dead nun was declared “Blessed”, based on miracles attributed to her. The event took up the limelight as it was the first beatification ceremony to be held in Africa. Among the by-products of the main event were a cleaning upgrading of Nyeri and an explosion of economic activity in the period when visitors thronged the town. Who’s complaining?

Any true Protestant (one who believes in the Bible alone as a rule of faith) should immediately be disquieted by a series of question marks when they encounter this curious ceremony.

1. Who is a saint? Has the Catholic church authority to canonize saints?
2. What is the state of the dead? Are they conscious in afterlife, or asleep in the grave?
3. Can the dead intercede for the living? (Can the living intercede for the dead!?)
4. What role do miracles play in a believer’s faith?

True Christianity is to worship the Creator and believe and obey His revealed Word. The just shall live by faith.

The bitterest enmity against GOD’s kingdom is not to be found in the ranks of sworn Satanists. Rather, counterfeit Christianity fabricates an elaborate series of decoys that masquerades as the real thing. Paganism in the guise of Christianity, like a wolf in sheepskin, betrays the Son of man with a kiss. Paganism simply defined is the worship of the creature more than the Creator.

Counterfeit Christianity is actuated by the same spirit as paganism. While the human heart is naturally awed by scenes of beauty and themes of grandeur, being proud it lacks the humility to ascribe the glory to GOD and rather prefers to view the object itself as intrinsically glorious. Romans Chapter 1. This is the root of idolatry. Satan knows this – idol worshippers really worship Satan. Therefore his counterfeit has just enough religiosity on the surface to be called Christianity. But the substance is the same lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and pride of life that lays aside judgment and ignites in the heart of man veneration for legendary and monumental false gods of doubtful virtue. The seduction once complete blinds the deceived worshipper to the inefficacy of rites painstakingly observed, even while enchaining the supplicant to a useless round of ceremonies impossible to be understood, being rooted in lies and fables, whose end is destruction.

The history of sainthood in the Catholic church is fraught with controversy. In the early days of the church, the Catholic church made many compromises with the pagan religions in order to attract more followers. One of these compromises was the inclusion of pagan dieties into their worship, except that these false gods were “baptized”: renamed and retitled as “saints!”

Apostasy is like the descent of heavy bodies, it proceeds with ever-accelerating velocity. First, lamps were lighted at the tombs of the martyrs; next, the Lord's Supper was celebrated at their graves; next, prayers were offered for them and to them; next, paintings and images began to disfigure the walls, and corpses to pollute the floors of the churches. Baptism, which apostles required water only to dispense, could not be celebrated without white robes and chrism, milk, honey, and salt. Then came a crowd of church officers whose names and numbers are in striking contrast to the few and simple orders of men who were employed in the first propagation of Christianity. There were sub-deacons, acolytes, exorcists, readers, choristers, and porters; and as work must be found for this motley host of laborers, there came to be fasts and exorcisms; there were lamps to be lighted, altars to be arranged, and churches to be consecrated; there was the Eucharist to be carried to the dying; and there were the dead to be buried, for which a special order of men was set apart. When one looked back to the simplicity of early times, it could not but amaze one to think what a cumbrous array of curious machinery and costly furniture was now needed for the service of Christianity. Not more stinging than true was the remark that "when the Church had golden chalices she had wooden priests." 

James Aiken Wylie, the History of Protestantism, volume 1

The righteousness of men is as filthy rags; it avails nothing to themselves much less to others, only the righteousness of Christ in man constitutes the kingdom of GOD. A saint is anyone who has Christ enthroned in their heart and life. Yet Rome would have men regard and venerate fallen dead men rather than the Savior. The army of intercessors which Rome would interpose between humanity and Jesus Christ and GOD the Father, spanning millennia since Mary until Irene Stefani, with more doubtless to come, serves only to obscure Christ from view.

Besides, these “saints” are dead, unconscious and therefore incapable of hearing anything, much less prayers to them; which even if they could hear (an unwarranted speculation!), they would grieve for their utter inability to do anything with, and would cry sorely for the dire delusion of their petitioners in targeting prayer at them, even prayers to them to pray for them to the Father.

The idea that one’s prayer to GOD for forgiveness needs to be pushed through and by dead “saints” is reprehensible. It calls GOD’s character into question by depicting Him as a hard wrathful avenger only to be placated by the intervention of a dedicated galaxy of austere dignitaries pleading tirelessly on the sinner’s behalf. No, rather GOD himself in His word promises to us that whosoever seeks after Him with the whole heart shall find Him, also that He is afflicted with the feeling of our afflictions. His terms to accept us are our repentance of sins, to turn away from them, but the doctrine of dead saints praying for us non-stop seeks to relieve us of that burden of sacrifice. The attitude is “Let them be praying for me as I go off and live my own life, that will work.”

Truly the need for repentance remains, for our sins have separated us from GOD. But the only one who can mediate our reconciliation with GOD is One who paid with His own blood the penalty our sins demanded. No one else in the entire universe dare stand in that gap but the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Go to Him with your heavy burdens and He will give you rest.

Nor does Rome’s superimposition of unworthy and incapable intercessors stop at the veneration of dead saints to the work that is Christ’s alone. By the use of priests who hear confessions and claim authority to absolve sinners, a great blasphemy is perpetrated, an attempt to usurp a prerogative of GOD alone – the forgiveness of sins. In truth the sins thus confessed remain unforgiven and the conscience rests carelessly in the shadow of a fellow sinful mortal human. This mindset emanates from the apex of that idolatrous system whose head titles himself the Vicar of the Son of God; in layman’s language the “deputy of Jesus Christ on earth,” a lofty imposture rebuked in Scripture, whose perks include the keys of heaven and hell. Strong delusion!

Many have lent support to this beatification without understanding its background. Of the army of dead people that the Catholic Church declares to be saints worthy of interceding for sinners before GOD, none are actually doing that, for they are dead. Nor would sainthood thus attained confer any special intercessory obligation or capacity on anyone as only Christ can intercede for humanity before the Father in that sense. This is why our prayers are said in Jesus’ name – He alone is perfectly God and perfectly man; he having been tempted as we are and yet overcoming in all points is a worthy representative, he presents His own blood for our justification. Between Jesus and His followers the bond is close and personal, real by faith. Come boldly before the throne of grace. Pray more, pray always, pray directly to Jesus Christ our Redeemer.

But communication with the dead is abomination before GOD. The dead cannot communicate with the living – it is impossible. Yet even here Satan erects a lie. What happens is that evil spirits impersonate the dead person’s voice and appearance so that they may mislead the living that they are hearing instruction from ‘the other side’ whereas it is the league of fallen angels beaming doctrines of devils at them. Saul’s experience at the medium of Endor, when he called up ‘Samuel’ from the dead, is a warning to others in this respect. The whole class of people who claim to be able to communicate with the dead, summoning underworld solutions for temporal problems, are an abomination before GOD, because they are really in advanced talks with Satan and his demons.

ISAIAH 8:19-20 And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and mutter: should not a people seek unto their GOD? For the living to the dead? To the Law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

Nor have we seen the worst of this spiritualistic assault from the demon world. Prophecy testifies that in the last days evil spirits will play a leading role in deceiving the world’s political and religious leaders to unite in rebellion against GOD in forming the image of the beast by Sunday legislation. At that time the Spirit of GOD will be withdrawn from the earth, and men will be left to the control of the evil spirits they have allowed to deceive them by rejecting the truth. Only these evil spirits will likely manifest as dead saints and departed luminaries of ages past bringing ‘wisdom from beyond’ which will contradict GOD’s Law.

In short, let us repudiate the veneration and intercession of the saints. Look, I hold nothing against the woman they canonized, I never knew her. She’s just as dead and ineffective as all the other “saints” they pray to/through. Satan would like to take advantage of people’s ignorance of their privilege and responsibility to pray for themselves in Jesus’ name. Just you be certain the whole idea that anyone other than Christ is in heaven praying for sinners is a pleasing fable. It is one of many false teachings in that blend of doctrines Revelation calls “the wine of Babylon’s fornication.”

Love versus Passion

But if the sense of touch whereby mankind is propagated seem such dear delight beyond all other,
think the same voutsaf’t To Cattel and each Beast;
which would not be to them made common & divulg’d,
if aught therein enjoy’d were worthy to subdue the Soule of Man, or passion in him move.
What higher in her societie thou findst attractive, human, rational, love still;
In loving thou dost well, in passion not, wherein true Love consists not;
Love refines the thoughts, and heart enlarges, hath his seat in Reason, and is judicious,
is the scale by which to heav’nly Love thou maist ascend,
Not sunk in carnal pleasure,
for which cause among the Beasts no Mate for thee was found.

(John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book vii)

Apology: I edited the paragraph to align by punctuation. Makes for easier reading than the original.

Here John Milton argues that love is superior to carnal lust ("passion") because mankind has great capacity for reason and emotion than the animals, hence a greater scope for the exercise of love. All other animals can partake of carnal relations but for man to settle for that baseline is to sell himself short. It's quite relevant in this age of overhyped melodramatic romance (also "passion") which is really only confusion in a nice dress. The passage actually tells men to love the aspects of their better halves that are attractive, human, rational, but not to abandon the reins of judgment to "passion." Sound advice?

Should We Then Make Mirth?

Last Sabbath (Saturday) in church the preacher made the divine hour a humorous adventure. By the looks of him he is a naturally mischievous man with an unapologetic sense of humor. He began well enough, with a Bible verse and an exposition of the principles it entailed - the need to pray in faith. Then his natural predilection for jokes kicked in and he went on and on, raising bouts of laughter from the congregation with spontaneous good-natured jokes (the young lady I was seated next to was a particularly rampant giggler), until eventually, when the joke was too good to let slide, he spoke unadvisedly, something downright irreverent, and he reaped a hailstorm of laughter.

Earlier on today (Sunday) I was at a roadside hotel for late breakfast with a friend (long story!). The TV at this chapati-and-mandazi establishment was tuned to a live Sunday broadcast of some church service somewhere in Kenya. The pastor's message was the usual "prosperity gospel" fare that's all the rage these days- "your breakthrough is in the pipeline". The camera cut to scenes of attractive listeners nodding in inspired expectation. Effectively his message was that Jesus' blood had purchased his audience's miracles. Now that may be open to interpretation, but his focus was decidedly temporal. Afterwards the worship team leader turned out to be a shrill, loud lady.

With hindsight there was little difference between these two sermons. That disturbs me. Christians are supposed to have a message for the world that is distinct from the world, especially at this time of world's history. But the podiums have become stages for "charismatic" but meaningless performances of humor and smooth talk. "All will be well, relax, have a laugh."

Elisha's rhetorical question to Gehazi in 2 Kings 5:26  becomes relevant.

...Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and maidservants?

You may think I'm being uncharitable with criticism. Hear me out.

Ezekiel 21:8-9 (I recommend you read the whole chapter) contains GOD's message to Israel at a time when judgment was imminent. It thus gives us the correct attitude we should have in view of the impending end of the world:

⁸ Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

⁹ Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith the LORD; Say, A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also furbished:

¹⁰ It is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; it is furbished that it may glitter: should we then make mirth? it contemneth the rod of my Son, as every tree.

A sword brings death; GOD's sword is His executive judgment upon the wicked who reject His ways - they shall be destroyed forever.

A rod represents correction; the rod of GOD's Son - the cross - is the only means by sins may be forgiven.

These verses are prophetically telling us that if we reject Christ's "rod", we must then contend with GOD's sword! That someday it will be too late to apply the rod of correction, and only the sword of destruction will be applicable! Could any warning be more urgent? Indeed it is repeatedly given throughout the Scriptures in a variety of ways! 

But the churches increasingly have other things to say.

The signs of the times multiply, prophecies of the end time are fast fulfilling, but many pastors, the shepherds of the flock are blind to these things hence not preaching the need for preparation. Even excepting that, there is a wealth of spiritual instruction for character development (take up your cross daily, etc) that a pastor must overlook before they settle for jokes and nice-sounding promises of prosperity. These two sermons were similar in their omissions, by which the true gravity of the present situation was minimized in peals of laughter and obscured by visions of opulence.

 Ezekiel 13

1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,:1-16
2 Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel that prophesy, and say thou unto them that prophesy out of their own hearts, Hear ye the word of the LORD;
3 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!
4 O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts.
5 Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the LORD.
6 They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, The LORD saith: and the LORD hath not sent them: and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word.
7 Have ye not seen a vain vision, and have ye not spoken a lying divination, whereas ye say, The LORD saith it; albeit I have not spoken?
8 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye have spoken vanity, and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, saith the Lord GOD.
9 And mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies: they shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the Lord GOD.
10 Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace; and one built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it with untempered morter:
11 Say unto them which daub it with untempered morter, that it shall fall: there shall be an overflowing shower; and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall rend it.
12 Lo, when the wall is fallen, shall it not be said unto you, Where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed it?
13 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even rend it with a stormy wind in my fury; and there shall be an overflowing shower in mine anger, and great hailstones in my fury to consume it.
14 So will I break down the wall that ye have daubed with untempered morter, and bring it down to the ground, so that the foundation thereof shall be discovered, and it shall fall, and ye shall be consumed in the midst thereof: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
15 Thus will I accomplish my wrath upon the wall, and upon them that have daubed it with untempered morter, and will say unto you, The wall is no more, neither they that daubed it;
16 To wit, the prophets of Israel which prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and which see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace, saith the Lord GOD.

Indeed. Not peace, but a sword.

Escape Plan

Prophecy in Revelation predicts the seven last plagues that GOD will pour upon the inhabitants of the earth who will accept the mark of the beast. The plagues will be worldwide, there will be no place to escape from them except to be one of GOD's sealed remnant, who GOD himself will protect and sustain by His powerful hand.

These are the end times; we shall behold strange sights as momentous events transpire in heaven and on earth.

A recent post discusses how Proverbs chapter 2 points to that time of plagues, when probation will have closed for all humanity ( there will be no more forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ's High Priestly ministry, which is the only valid channel for justification before GOD.) This will be the prophetic day (year) of GOD's wrath prior to Christ's second coming.

There will be no pre-advent rapture by which Christians will be providentially removed from the trouble (as many blind guides teach). These days of grace are granted us that we may prepare our hearts, resolve our wills, refine our characters to pass through the days of persecution and martyrdom ahead of us. Those saints who will live to see the plagues will have to live SINLESS lives (there being no more Intercessor in the Heavenly Sanctuary) at that time, though hunted as outlaws by the laws of menm.  See Revelation 14's description of the 144,000. Is it possible to be sinless? By the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, yes.

But now, today, is the time to be fetching oil for our lamps, parting with sin, whilst our great High Priest still intercedes for us with His own blood before the Father. Now we should confess, repent, pray and read the Bible as never before, redeeming the time, for it is short.

The world today is embroiled in a man-eat-man struggle for survival. It is easy to get carried away. The love of many has waxed cold. For love of money, greed of gain, many would do anything to be rich above everything else. So rampant is this grasping selfish spirit that many believe that once they make "enough" money they will be free from troubles. It is a collective delusion of the majority, that money buys happiness, that wealth can be a shield in the day of affliction, that luxury is peace of mind.

Wealth indeed is a blessing, from GOD, no less. But what brings a curse, other than a blessing ungratefully misused and perverted? But if the blessings with which we are blessed were used in blessing others, we would then be blessed indeed from all sides.
Life is more important than possessions; having food and clothing let us therewith be content.

The multiplicity of fault lines on the planet is becoming more apparent as they widen and multiply. It is a necessary feature of the struggle for limited resources amongst natural mankind. Consider how the xenophobia in South Africa took a bloody turn. I wondered who they would start killing when all the "foreigners" left (or died) and the inequality still persisted. One fears when one considers scenarios like Kenya's almost forgotten Post Election Violence of 2007-2008. Such is the spirit of war, that Outside Enemies can easily be made of foreigners, other races, other tribes, other clans, other families, neighbours and even kinsmen. There is no abiding solidarity amongst the selfish. It is one of the many unsavory traits of the last days generation.

Inequality has become a dividing line causing worldwide unrest. Even in Kenya the recent allegations of grand corruption, bad enough as they are all by themselves, have additional unhappy outcome of polarizing the country between the eaters and the eaten. When the people see corruption so blatantly carried out in high places, they themselves feel justified in cutting corners in their own integrity to get ahead, or getting even somehow. Everybody suffers eventually, yet retribution must come, because all actions have consequences.

The Bible makes it clear that wealth is no escape from troubles. Jesus warned against the deceitfulness of riches. James chapter 5 says (paraphrasing) in the day of GOD's wrath the wealthy wicked will find that there is no escape any more. In that day, no matter how wealthy they will be, their wealth will be useless. Many will find after long years spent accumulating luxuries that they are unavailing of comfort against the plagues.

Picture it, the plagues wreaking havoc in the neighbourhood of a fabulously wealthy man, so that he can obtain neither peace nor safety, good health or clean water by any means. He boards his private jet with a stash of valuables looking to fly off to somewhere cooler. Getting there after long hours of flight over desolate waste lands, finds the occupants of his presumed paradise preparing to fly off to some other resort destination coz their home conditions are just as uninhabitable as the ones their guest has fled. This is just an imaginary scenario to illustrate that in that day there will be no place on the earth where the plagues of GOD's wrath will not be in full force. It will be worldwide.

But before that day comes, first, the mark of the beast. In fact that mark is what will trigger the seven last plagues, when every living soul will have decided for or against it. Do you know it? Are you ready? It is a weighty decision, because accepting the mark of the beast will earn the wrath of GOD (plagues) and rejecting the mark will earn the wrath of the beast (persecution, imprisonment, death.) With this in mind only one question remains: in the Great Tribulation, why will you suffer? Not whether, for all will suffer, but  why? Will you suffer for doing right of for doing iniquity? For following Jesus or for worshipping the beast?

Satan's Weapons of Mass Destruction - Introduction

The war for your mind, heart and soul proceeds apace. GOD, with love, grace and mercy vies for your life. Satan in wrath and hatred kills, steals and destroys while promising peace and prosperity.We must discern his lies and identify his weapons of mass destruction, otherwise in ignorance we are prone to destruction.

Proverbs 1:17 "Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird."

Let us pray for spiritual eyesight. Wisdom comes from GOD.

Satan desires total dominion on earth. He gauges the extent of his kingdom on earth by whether he has deceived mankind into breaking GOD's law. Satan is a rebel commander, desperate for more recruits to his army, seeking strength in numbers, trusting in his own might. His dominion over the earth is not total or permanent so long as there are many who willfully obey GOD. To strengthen his kingdom, Satan strives to tempt and harden men in decided law breaking, to greater outrages in proud rebellion. He deceives man to destroy himself - it is the spiritual equivalent of suicide-bombing, only the target (the law of GOD) being impregnable stands unhurt while its opponent is defeated and lost. 

All of Satan's WMDs are illegal: they rely on sin for their effectiveness. Through sin, man is separated from GOD, and defenseless against Satanic attack. Yet the devil is more interested in claiming the man's soul and chaining him to sin's bondage. So the man while he yet lives (life is a blessing from GOD) expends that life in the bondage of sin (a curse) in rebellion against GOD, and exhausting his life in the service. Such is Satan's hatred for mankind - in this war his projectiles aimed at GOD are people who his arts have perverted, his shields are human shields, he cares only for his pride.

Satan's weapons of mass destruction are those things he has perverted in order that, as human beings embrace them, knowingly or not, they may bring upon themselves curses.

Proverbs 26:2 
As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.

This verse tells me that curses do not roam the earth looking to fall upon whomever hapless passerby they randomly chance upon. Curses have specific causes, they can be called the consequences of someone somewhere breaking spiritual laws, or they can be the outcome of misuse of blessings. But let us continue.

The love of GOD for his children is vast, we fall short of understanding it; he strives to save each one of His children. By His omnipotent power and boundless love, GOD gave His only begotten Son to offer salvation freely to everyone who, hearing His warning, will access that salvation BY FAITH, turning from sin by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The devil knowing this designs that souls chained to his miserable service will be deceived into loving their bondage and rejecting that salvation! By the love of the world, by worldliness, the devil satisfies men with this world's illusory "good", so they do not seek a better country, where righteousness dwells. They settle - and fight - for far less: fool's gold, survival for the fittest; a brutal and meaningless existence - but for sin, which alone can stir passions perverted bythe devil's black arts.

We shall go into a step by step analysis of Satan's WMDs - the curses he intends for us to claim under deception - in future posts in this series.

The Close of Probation (in Proverbs!?)

This passage (Proverbs 1:20-33, quoted below) explains a timeless principle about wisdom and folly.

Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:
She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,
How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.
Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;
But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:
I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:
They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.
Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

But then it also struck me as applicable to the soon coming close of probation and the seven last plagues of the wrath of GOD. This can be deduced from the "fear", "calamity", "desolation", "destruction", "distress," "anguish" (you get the picture) mentioned.  This will be the global condition during the plagues.

Consider also, "Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you,"... That means "Repent and I will give you the Holy Spirit". That is another prediction of the promised Latter Rain outpouring of the Holy Spirit for the last generation prior to Christ's second coming.

Also, note in verse 28 that "then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:" it is a situation particular to the close of probation, the one time when prayers for repentance will not be heard any more because Christ will have finished His high priestly ministry preparatory to His second coming. It was foreshadowed by GOD Himself closing the door of Noah's ark seven days before the flood began so that none could enter who ridiculed his message.

Wisdom still "cries out" today calling us to repentance, but humanity must listen today, while grace remains, before it is too late to seek GOD.

I'm admittedly quite surprised to find this in Proverbs. GOD has hidden nuggets of prophetic truth all over the Bible.

Out for weeks

"Mouthballers" had largely absconded this day's training session. Eight of us real aspiring footballers were in attendance. Mouthballers are those teammates who boss others around and complain much more than they eventually play. We were more concerned with ball being played than with arguing with the ceremonial referee's contentious decisions - what does he know? Is he not comfortably seated outside the playing area and declaring his opinions on infractions from far away? Just do what he says anyway and play ball. It was unfolding as the best training session we have ever had.

In the heat of the contest I received a pass on the right wing. With a simple sideways movement beat the defender and dribbled away from him. Just as I was clearing his space his knee struck mine and, alas, there was a sharp heavy impact between them, whence I keenly perceived a dislocation in my knee. I fell with a big shout.

The teammate with whom we suffered that delicate misfortune was genuinely sorry, his first instinct was to forget about the ball and turn towards me, closing in fast with outstretched palm and many expressions of regret. But I recoiled from contact and rolled away to protect the tender joint.

A quick thinking team mate convinced me to accept first-aid and he stretched the leg and bent affected knee back and forth a few times. The bones and muscles realigned properly yet not without  some tense friction. But I could soon stand up and limp somewhat.

Thanks to adrenalin the wound seemed alright so that I foolishly completed that training session. Eventually hours later after my excitement level was depleted I felt that the knee was actually badly. It would require a long rest period.

Nothing saddens a footballer more than a long period off the pitch. Even the actual pain hurts less than the long compulsory rest. It always turns into a real test of patience.

Hence the title. I'm out for weeks (maybe months, but optimism is preferred) thanks to injury. Not off the society though. Off the pitch. This should release to me more than enough hours and head space. 

I will report regularly on progress.

Middleman Mentality

That guy or girl who has no original ideas of their own but always hijacks other people's ideas by assuming executive capacity and bending over backwards to fill every power vacuum.

Is not exactly  in the heights of power but certainly anoints oneself with administrative duties.

Monopolizes channels of information. "All inquiries go through me. I will give you feedback."

They screen all comings and goings to protect their interests within the group, therefore they need the oversight role, with minute invasive micromanaging.

Very territorial about their perch on the big shot's shoulder so they may repeatedly parrot their agenda.

The undertone in their over-enthusiastic rhetoric is such: "Everybody owes the success of this endeavor to my neurotic meddling. This endeavor is my middle name."

While the team's success is to their credit, failure has nothing to do with them (you know, their "advice" was not followed properly, etc.)

They will balkanize the group to get themselves ahead via staged conflicts. They will vilify innocent bystanders to knock them down and become heroes.

They will not be sorry.

First Love

One imagines, one believes, that in days past
when one couldn't live without the other,
that the love was spontaneous, unrehearsed;
honest, unschooled by hurts;
awkward, hence unfeigned; 
pure.

One remembers ideal love
(or imagined it to have been thus
before second thoughts came along):
That the terrain was uncharted,
pristine, wild, beautiful, perilous;
so that one marveled and feared,
as wonders and horrors from either's mind
took colossal strides that shook your worlds;
one held fast to one's own mutually vulnerable other,
in turn was held close in pain or pleasure;
one's collateral was one's own heart,
one held nothing back

When one meets one's first other,
one mumbles mundane weather updates;
yet one imagines, one quietly fancies,
wishfully, unjustifiably,
that one knew the other perfectly
first loved and was loved 
as none other ever will

Because when that perfect chapter ended
both devoted the rest of their lives
to protecting themselves
from losing it again
by never finding it

(Or so one dreams.)

Do or Die

When couples commit themselves to counseling, it must be a drudge at first. I can picture each of them - the man in particular - fidgety, filled with reservations, apprehensive and downright suspicious towards the counselor.All these are manifest in his guarded answers, clipped phrases, hostile staring and crossed arms.

Lastly however the blame games his wife enthusiastically initiates with the counselor gradually draw him out of his shell. Finger-pointing Olympics begin in full earnest as he strives to apportion her just share of the train-wreck at hand.

I myself are many light years away from understanding married life, but stick with me. The example illustrates how when you first make a pledge or a resolution, the first few instances of complying with it rely on sheer will power to overcome self-generated resistance.

All this beating around the bush is to explain to you dear readers how comes last month's pledge to regularly update the blog is faring badly. It still feels like the first few sessions marriage counseling. By the time it comes to that, you know you're in hot water.

The first days of blogging, when one sets out, are like the beginning of courtship - thrilling for their uncertainty and unbounded possibilities.One puts one's best foot forward, one revels in the partner's lively qualities. But the years, they come; familiar routines sear themselves into one's mind, until one is thinking three steps ahead of their partner's next move. Unconsciously.

Suddenly, one humdrum day, one wakes up with a cold sweat on one's forehead, facing mid-life crisis and existential doubt.

Is this it?

As always, there's a lot I could (should!) report to you people from the end-times front. Of course. And then time and means must be allocated to encrypt selected episodes from my personal life. It just seems I'm much busier elsewhere lately, with few results to show for it, somehow.

Enough of that. I would now like to turn the spotlight on my fellow bloggers, who have largely gone quiet. It's a deterioration of literature from my point of view, and I'm holding them (you?) responsible for this literary Dark Ages that's started afresh. Sins of omission and that kind of thing. Missing in Action. Downed tools. Deleted blogs. A writer who doesn't write does not deserve the title.

Look who's talking.

If your failure to blog can be paralleled with unwillingness to attend marital counseling, let's brainstorm.

Sleeping Watchmen

Signs of the times are passing without comment from mainstream churches. You might excuse the mainsteam media, after all, they are largely mouthpieces of the powers that be which have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. However, the church, those who ought to be preaching repentance as preparation to meet the LORD are quiet, even strangely content to mention nothing about Signs of the End.

Signs like the moon going blood red, twice already, with two more instances to occur within this year. One would expect such omens to have sparked off revivalism in the churches,  or at the very least, a quick glance at Revelation 6:12-13, which predicts just such an event, whether this could be its fulfilment. But for the most part, all we hear is studious silence from the pews broken only by overheard explanations of secular scientists and astronomers rationalizing the redness away. "Okay, nothing to see here, business as usual, as you were."

did you see? (image from therealstevegray.com)

Elsewhere in the Bible we find an explanation for this glaring oversight by our spiritual leaders:

ISAIAH 56:10-12

10 His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.

11 Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.

12 Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.

In which:

watchmen -  shepherds of the flock, spiritual leaders

blind, ignorant - clueless

dumb dogs wont bark - will not warn of danger, seeing none  ("sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber")

"fetch wine, ...fill ourselves with strong drink" -  wrong doctrine, false teachings

"tomorrow shall be as this day" -  there is no danger; eat drink, and be merry.

Experiment to simulate seriousness

I had never seen her before.

We were in church. She sang with the choir, led the congregational singing and served me chapatis generously at lunchtime. 

As service ended in the afternoon, the choir sang again, and I stared at her and wondered how long I could keep my face straight while I made a joke which she would only realize was a joke at the last minute. Could I walk away looking earnest and serious, like one who made an honest mistake, or would I burst into premature laughter midway, like a malicious crime lord with a rolling laugh that he opened his mouth wide for? Well, since the thought alone already had me laughing in bursts, the prospects weren’t good.

Still it had to be tried.

Service ended. I waited until she was alone – her friends encircled her constantly, those coming replaced those leaving in a constant stream. Popular girl, what could I do? It seemed she would never be alone, therefore I turned my attention to others, lastly lost myself in the crowd among familiar faces. At some opportune time when she was the last thing on my mind, the crowd before me parted and behold, her, standing alone at last, apparently looking for someone.

The moment had come. I zeroed in with the straightest face I could muster. 

Offered a grim handshake. “Hello.”

“Hi.”

“I know you, but you don’t know me.” Saying this revived the mental concept of my mischief and I broke into a wide smile.

“You know me?!” she repeated, in consternation, as if a new and grievous injustice had stormed against the universe by surprise. She looked perplexed. Fearful, even. I have that effect on strangers.

I geared towards the punchline. “Yeah! I even know your name.” At this point, the smile I had on, it was all I could do to not burst out laughing.

“You know my name!” she echoed.

“You are called Lupita, right?” Of course she wasn’t, but I tried to look serious, earnest, dead sure, a bit arrogantly, like one merely expecting confirmation, not correction.

She burst out laughing and walked away visibly amused.

Caps Lock

The title is an attempt at humor.

It attempts to convey that I wear so many caps that I need Caps Lock to lock them in place.

Cue polite bad-joke-laughter from the audience.

This guy got caps lock. http://www.engagedmarriage.com/communication/how-many-hats-can-we-wear

Now to the caps. I'm so many things simultaneously that people who ask me what I do are faced with much confusion and headscratching on my part as I struggle to list them in order of priority. The truth is oftentimes I neglect some of those caps, like the Blogger cap, and then when guilt overwhelms me, like now, this blog gets the occasional lazy copied piece in the name of maintenance. If I was to treat a significant other the same way, I would quickly be single again. True story. Apologies to blog readers, many of whom fell by the wayside and disappeared between the cracks in the pile of hats I claim to be wearing.

I'm one of those people who can't choose without crying for the rejected option, and that choice will be procrastinated as far as possible. Jack of all trades, master of none. They say men can't multitask, they haven't seen me refusing to let some things go so as to better focus on others. For one, I can't stop playing football, my thoughts always wander back to it. This "hand in every pie" complex is also literal: things I have no further use for hardly ever enter the bin. I could open a fully-stocked museum with the clatter that crowds my spaces.

But I speak not thus in jest. A major overhaul is in the pipeline. But first I must stock up on tissues for the bitter tears that will flow during the Purge. And the few hats that will remain (including Blogger) had better adhere to Caps Lock, or else.

No January Resolution

As has been the trend, end of last year found me attending Bible camps and congresses. A close relation commented that I am very committed to these things. Even this blog's past posts will confirm the trend of end year narratives mentioning camps in which the Bible is studied.

We learnt a lot. We always learn alot; they mostly teach us the same lots of stuff with a little variation. Still I attend every year, because, left to his own devices, a guy forgets, a guy backslides. This year the light from the Scriptures was particularly bright. Yet it was not all paradise. As always the food and accommodation was scandalous. But that's not why we were going, so let's lay that aside quickly.

Also the Ambassadors (age 16 to 20 or thereabouts) I found to be utterly insufferable. Maybe I'm the one who's growing old and grumpy. But the young ones these days are radiating too much heat and very little light. I know I was once that age but...

Okay I'm off topic. The point here is I don't want to be that guy who's always going and listening to the word of GOD and not practicing it. Let's not be those people. GOD help us.