all along the watchtower....

The second verse of Bob Dylan's 1967 hit "all along the watchtower" reads:
 "No reason to get excited", the thief he kindly spoke, " there are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke. But you and I, we've been through that, and this is not our fate. So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late."

No reason for you to get excited as I don't have my foot in your door.

But the urgency of the above is sounded in Ezekiel 3: 17 "Son of man, "I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever  you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked,"You shall surely die," and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul".

And again in Ezekiel 33: 3 ...... and if he sees the sword coming upon the land, and blows the trumpet and warns the people, then if anyone does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.
and later:  if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman's hand.

I don't want to be all doom and gloom, but in a previous post i claimed that we were, in fact, living in the end time and that the evil one was served notice when Jesus rose, from the dead and ascended into Heaven. His, the devil's, power is broken, what we are seeing is the final throws of a frustrated and deluded entity trying his best to hold onto his power. As the time of the Second Coming draws near we will see an escalation of evil bursting upon our world.

Matthew9: 37  Then He said to His disciples," The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest."
Luke ( 10: 3 ) adds: "......behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves."
Paul ( in Galatians 6: 9 ) encourages us by saying " let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith."

Do we need watchmen in this day and age, I say now more than ever.

Thinking outside of the box, the lonely crewman up in his perilous perch (the crow's nest) scanned the horizon for any sign of danger, or of land ahead, because after months at sea any chance to stretch your legs on a stable surface was welcomed. and what of the father of the prodigal son. surely he must have acted the watchman as he scanned the distance for any sign of his returning wayward son.
An early warning gave time to prepare, either for defence or to welcome guests or loved ones.


Paul again warns ( Thessalonians5: 2 ) For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, "There is peace and security," then  sudden destruction will come upon them, as labour pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

We are not alone, we do have help at hand. The door is there, all we have to do is knock and enter.
I know, from personal experience, that st Elizabeth's in Westville Durban is a welcoming haven in times of need. Get to your local church and offer your services, because by helping others we help ourselves.
The hour is at hand and the bridegroom comes......

on being alone in a crowd...

                 
                                    Jeanne Michele Loveridge (nee Greenwood) 1949_2013


Lennon and McCartney had a hit (1966) with Eleanor Rigby:........
"All the lonely people, where do they all come from?  All the lonely people where do they all belong?"
At some point in our lives those lonely people are you and me.

In April this year Michele, my wife of 42 years, was taken from me having suffered a massive multiple stroke. She went into a coma and never recovered, which in a way was a blessing considering the damage that the stroke caused. This Christmas will the first without her being there, and i miss her.
That trite hollywood:"You complete me...." has more that a ring of truth in it. We were soul mates, there will never be another like her. But this is not about me. It's about all of those lonely people who are very vunerable at this time of year.

The Christmas Season is supposedly one of joy and good cheer and we think that because we are surrounded by friends, family, aquaintences  that we should be happy. But this is the season of abject misery and loneliness for some, which the rise in suicide and family murders can attest to.

There are only two references to "loneliness" in the bible. the first being Ps 68 v 5 and 6. "Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. God settles the solitary in a home: he leads out the prisoners to prosperity." and the second Lk 5 v 16 where speaking of Jesus he says: "But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray."
In all of the bible just these two references and they reference "loneliness" and the act of being "alone". Two words with a very subtle difference in meaning. The first (loneliness) suggests being alone, although surrounded by people, because we feel alienated and not wanted. We feel disconnected and not part of humanity, it's "us" and"them". A dangerous place to be, particularly when everyone else is perceived to be having fun. The second (alone) suggests a deliberate act of withdrawal, to enact a particular task. Jesus would often withdraw to a high place to be alone to pray. In Mt 6 v6 we read Jesus' instruction:"But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who is in secret will reward you". Praying is a personal thing between you and God.

I am very comfortable with myself and would often (much to Michele's chagrin) retire to a darkened room to be alone with my thoughts. I can very easily get "lost" with  a camera or in playing my bass. Soaking ( the christian word for meditation ) is best done where it is quiet and you can "withdraw from the world around you".

But we are a communal species, we were designed to congregate and be together. Things happen when we join a group, suddenly we "belong". Most of our sporting activities are communal team efforts and are avidly watched by huge audiences. Think world rugby and what it meant for this country when Nelson Mandela came onto the pitch wearing a Springbok jersey.
Your local church is a great place to start when you feel that you need some fellowship and support. Afterall God is a communal being: being Father Son and Holy Spirit, the Three in one and the One in Three.
So this Christmas think about what it really means, and set an extra place for that unexpected guest. Make sure that all of your relations are well cared for and loved, and not left in some home where they are with "others of their own age and predicament".
If we could capture the essence of Jesus' message in one word it would be LOVE.

living in the end times....

                                          a modern day voice crying in the wilderness....


So, why do we think that God allows evil to exist in the world?
Why do those devastating natural disasters happen, are they really God's fault?

The Chinese have a saying about "living in interesting times", but these times are more interesting than i can handle. Our country is coming to terms with the loss of Madiba. I think that he died a very sad man, considering all of the corruption that abounds in the country particularly at government level. Corruption is almost our National Export.
But can we blame God for this? Where did it all start?

In Genesis 1:31, we read: "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good."
So, God was happy with his creation, He even took a day off pleased with how it all turned out.
What went so terribly wrong?
The Evil one, in the guise of a serpent, had a "chance" meeting with Eve in the Garden of Eden. Satan (meaning the deceiver ) tempted Eve into eating a delicious apple from the tree of knowledge. She, in turn, passed the apple to Adam who also took a bite. From there it all went downhill. Having lost their innocence and knowing the difference between good and evil, they were asked to leave the garden, and we lost the opportunity to walk and talk with God in the cool of the evening.

Shortly after that we read of the first sibling murder with Cain killing his brother Able. And things got even worse, culminating in the story of Noah having to build an ark to save a remnant of the human race as God flooded the world and wiped the slate clean.
Noah and his sons repeopled the world. But, with delusions of grandeur, the tower of babel was attempted. Again God had to step into the affairs of man.

Much later in Job 1: v6 we read " Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them". and in verse 8:  And God said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?" So what is going on here? God having a meeting, and Satan attending. That there is evil in the world to which God admits.
I think that God is the creator owner, and Satan is the landlord of the Earth. In the continuing discussion Satan suggests that Job is only good and upright because God has given him everything, take it all away and surely Job will change his mind. To which God agrees. Satan returns to the Earth and devastates Job's family and possessions, leaving him with only the clothes on his back.
Job still finds  a way to praise God.
Satan, again appears before God and gets permission to attack Job himself, but not to take his life. Job, as a God fearing man has God's protection, but God allows Satan to attack Job and his possessions. Beginning to sound familiar.
We fast forward to that sunny day near the Jordan River where Jesus' cousin John (the baptist) was preaching. Satan must have got a twitchy feeling in his water when the Spirit, in the form of a dove, came down and settled on Jesus' head as He rose up at his, Jesus', baptism.

Jesus immediately isolated himself, by retiring into the desert, to pray and think.

I know that if i had just received that much power i would also want time to think about what i could do with it. Just think, the power to move mountains. No more travelling to the berg for a holiday, just bring the mountain to you. But what about all those who rose up each day to see the sun rise on it's slopes, only to see it not there. A natural disaster?

Satan, as the Earth's landlord, needed to see what Jesus would do with His new found power, so he set about tempting Jesus to join him and together rule the Earth. It was not to be. Jesus, as the son of God, came here to carry out God's master plan.

So for the last two thousand years we have been living in Satan's world, subject to all of his tempting devices. Just think how hollywood has pandered to bad taste, to the dark world of the zombie and the glitzy attraction of the sex industry. Truly these are the end times.

With Jesus' active participation of His Death on the Cross, His descent into Hell and His triumphant rise to Heaven, Death and Satan have been beaten. Satan is merely living out the termination of his lease agreement. The final showdown is well documented in Revelation ( the last book of the bible) where we read: in Revelation 21: v1 " Then i saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more." and in verse 22: " And  I saw no temple in the city, for it's temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need  of sun or moon to shine on it, for the Glory of God  gives it light, and it's lamp is the Lamb. By it's light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory to it, and it's gates will never be shut by day _ and there will be no night there there. They will bring into it the glory and honour of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life."


We have sadness and pain to measure the good times by....