20190127 – Sunday – Japanese Gardens for South’s picnic

20190127 – Sunday – Japanese Gardens, picnic with South

I packed my breakfast but didn’t eat it as I wasn’t very hungry this morning.

Then I drove to South Adelaide and entered through the main entrance, just to see if it was as beautiful as I remembered (because I usually enter through the side door.

It was beautiful and I made up my mind to enter that way each time I go to South.

I parked my walker in the usual spot and then sat in my usual chair and set up my little desk and placed on it my iPad and iPhone.

It was Joseph playing AGAIN today, so that was wonderful, two weeks in a row.

Of course, that would be because Peter Whitehouse was speaking today.

Adrian sat next to me and said that Carol was “indisposed” today, so he was here alone.

And so the meeting commenced and we were told that Veronica’s daughter Sandy had had a stroke and some form of seizure shortly after.

That was a sad start to the day.

I particularly felt for her because I have had a stroke and I know what a disruption it is to your life, if you survive it, of course.

Sandy has been unwell for some time before this event I know.

And so, the exhortation was given today by Peter Whitehouse. And the pianist was Joseph C, chair Richard M, and the reading was Heb Ch 4.

Peter turned to the Psalms for inspiration for this exhort this morning and chose Psa 37 and 39 as the basis for his talk together with thoughts that have been going on in his brain for the last month or so.

Peter summarised these two Psalms as follows: Psa 37: Don’t fret because of evil doers, trust in God, the wicked will perish and the wise will be saved, and Psa 49: I am not afraid of bad times, Riches won’t help because everyone is going to die, so don’t  be envious of the wicked, don’t be afraid, and trust in God.

So the title of his address was “Are we living in the last times?

Our collective Christadelphian view of the end times tends to be one of doom and gloom. So what might we be fearful of?

We are instantly informed about threats to our way of life and the future of the world, and what that future might bring.

Our traditional view is that times are going to become very bad and we often in the habit of saying, “Well, it is a sign of the times,” and our traditional view is that events point clearly to “the end of the world.” 

I looked at some of the titles of our pamphlets and one read: “The end of the world is nigh.” 

And another was, “Hope for a hopeless world.” And a summary of that pamphlet was, strife between nations, hunger, pollution, crime rates in society, mental stress, drug abuse and alcoholism, dire doom and gloom. 

Where does it come from? And what is the scriptural justification for all of these messages?

So naturally we turn to the word of Christ on the Mount of Olives in the “Sermon on the Mount.” After this event, Christ’s disciples asked “What is the sign of your coming, Matt 24v23 in other words, When will all these dire events happen?

And Jesus answered their questions thus: 

Many will come in my name and you will hear of wars and rumours of wars. Famines and earthquakes are the beginning of the birth pangs.

 Another of our pamphlets was titled “Signs of the times.” And there are many opinions about what these signs may be.

So are we at that time right now? What is our understanding of NEED for Christ’s return. Is it THAT time right now, or is it still to be at a time i the future.

Are the signs building to a crescendo?

I spend my life assessing information, it is something I do, and like to do.

So I have looked at the data, about disease, pestilence, and finally death. I look at the data from around the world, and I try to assess it.

For example, Childhood deaths. There are 5 major causes of childhood deaths.

Global deaths, in conflicts since 1400 – 2000 are actually going down

Battle related deaths in different ares of war zones. There was a massive peak in 2nd world war, but has been going down since then.

Ad then there are the State based conflicts since 1946, and  civil conflicts are rising, and these are internal conflict rather than nation/nation

Then there are the number of fatalities from terrorist attackes which are going up on an exponential curve.

Then there are deaths from famine, and the annual rates of people dying due to rains in the various decades.

There was a great rise in famine related deaths in the 1870s, and in the 1920s after the First Word War and then after the 2nd World War, but since then deaths from famine have decreased rapidly.

I looked at the supplies of food by region and it was increasing. 

And then there was poverty. 

The red mass (on the chart) is Poverty The red mass is how many people in the world are in poverty. In 1820, 1900, 2000 up to today. 

The green is how many people are NOT  living in poverty

90 % of the world is now not living in poverty, but then, 90% of the world Was living in poverty

And Crime. The statistics show that crime is decreasing dramatically!

Death.  Life longevity rising hugely. From 1800s onwards worldwide there has been improved health and wealth.

Also the rate of homicides victims has been going down dramatically from 1990 to today.

Going down dramatically from 1990 to today

Disasters are decreasing and looking at the global annual death rate from natural disasters by decade, there are almost none today.

Natural disasters that have increased are floods and extremes weather and earthquakes.

There have been temperature anomalies from 1961 – 1990. Increasing temperature and going up. We know because of we know that  C02 is the culprit and it has gone up drastically.

The message from Jesus means exactly what it says. That “Men’s hearts” will “fail them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.” 

So I asked myself “What is going on?” Things tare supposed to be worse not better, and yet, often the statistics show that many of the “disasters” are getting better, not worse?

How is this so?

I have concluded that Fear is not necessarily according to the reality of things.

Our world is full of fear-mongering and misinformation, like Trumps dangers of immigration which he used to influence people and make them fearful.

Sometimes we may be guilty of the same sort of  thing, making things sound worse than they really are.

We are told that Christ’s coming will be as a “thief in night, and he will come when least expect it.

And concerning the day and the hour, no one knows.

That as in the days of Noah, men will be unconcerned and careless, eating and drinking, and completely unaware until the flood actually came.

So should we be warning so much about “the signs of the times” or should we be warning about apathy and “fullness of bread,” as signs of the coming of the son of man.

The message we should be delivering, especially to the saints, is 

Therefore be ready.

We actually have it so good these days, and this may be a bigger threat to the brotherhood than messages of doom and gloom.

Our real fear should be APATHY, and the effect that has on our faith?

Research has shown that 90% of people in our world today are not  coping with the stresses of their lives following Sept 11. 

That event brought all their fears to a head, and together with the decline in Christianity today is due to prosperity and not to disease hunger and other gloomy prospects.

These are the signs that are given to us and which should not ignore today.

We are in actual fact experiencing good things or prosperity which makes bad times hard to remember as motivators.

What we should be looking at is what is happening in the Middle East, and the distress of nations that is happening there. 

If we watch Israel then these signs make more sense there.

What if the prophecies do not so much apply to our part of the world, but just to THAT small part of it.

I believe I have shown that floods, storm and bushfires worldwide have overall been decreasing, so that these disasters are often happening more in the developing countries rather than the wider world.

It may be that the words of Christ are meant to apply to us in our personal spheres.

That the message to us individually is to trust it the Lord and turn to God for comfort from our fears. Our confidence should be in Jesus Christ.

The life to come is the chief concern of God.

Psa 23 tells us that “The Lord is my shepherd I lack nothing, he will refresh my soul and so I will fear no evil if He is with me. 

My cup runs over, and goodness and each and loves follows me, all the days of my life.

Today some of us have real distress and real concerns, and Jesus is CONCERNED with each one of us.

I am grateful to be living at this time in the world’s history.

Never before has there been such prosperity and good health, and most of our problems TODAY are problems caused by our life-style ad our wealth.

We should give thanks to God for blessing us with such lives, and not abuse those blessings, or disregard them.

Whilst not taking away from  individual suffering, and salvation provided by his death. 

The signs of the times were to warn us to trust in God and not to feel fear from real or imagined disasters.

The signs of the times are about both generalised suffering and individual suffering.

Jesus raised the dead, knowing that they would r\return to earth in due course. 

So do not be anxious about your life, knowing tht God cares for even the sparrow. 

So why are you anxious? Most of your fears will be unfounded.  

“Pray that you will be worthy to escape all these things and stand before the son of Man.”Luke 21:36

And when Christ was leaving his disciples he sent them “The comforter,” and he continues to comfort us now.

We can draw close to our Lord as we do now and receive his blessing.

In the afternoon South was having a picnic at the Japanese gardens in the parklands just off of Glen Osmond Road.

Glen Osmond Road it my old stamping ground of my youth when our family loved, first at 12 Kenilworth Road, Parkside and later at 118 Glen Osmond Road, Parkside.

Both of the houses of my youth no longer exist, to my sorrow.  

I would LOVE to be able yo revisit the homes of my early memories.

But no, it is not to be.

BUT they certainly live on in my memories.

So many stories, so many events, and happenings in my life.

I have found that by writing my story about the first 20 years of my life as I did in The Blacksmith’s Daughter, that after writing 52 chapters of approx 10,000 words each in Vol 1 of my story, my memory of those long-gone days gets better and better over the years.

Having written my story for the years from 1939 to 1976, my memory is seamless over those years. 

And then from there, because I haven’t written them up yet, it is like a “glottal stop,” because I can’t immediately recall what happened after 1976, but before is clear as a bell!

I wonder if I will ever get around to writing up more of the years of my life.

And then there are all the photos.

At present they sit in my photo albums and have not been processed and digitised yet.

I am going to have to work so hard in the coming short years of my life if I want to get any of it done before I die.

I have no time to be miserable or depressed, that’s for sure, I have too much to do.

Why do I do it anyway?

Because I LOVE doing it, I LOVE writing and I WANT to find out what happened in those old days and I WANT to see what I thought about everything.

It is a strange thing, I approach each days writing with a sense of wonder, because I never know what I am going to say, what discoveries I am going to find in my life’s story.

It is as though I (the writer) am waiting expectantly to see what (the writer, me) is going to write.

My writing makes my life so exciting.

I do get myself in trouble at times, writing things I should not/ought not, and then having to apologise to the WORLD for having written them.

It is a bit like the prophet who tried NOT to speak, but he word of God was like a fire in his bones, and he simply HAD to speak them (thank you Peter H), Jer 20v9

So I keep on writing.

One thing is for sure, when I am in Bethsalem, I will not bore the people there, telling the SAME stories over and over again, I will have a whole lifetime of stories to tell.