don's biblog

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Haven't blogged for a while, but haven't been idle. Check out "author = donald southey" at Amazon to find all these and at least three more novels ...

#amazon #fiction #shortstories #donaldsouthey

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“Proteins are the most spectacular machines ever created for moving atoms at the nanoscale and often do chemistry orders of magnitude more efficiently than anything that we've built.”

John Jumper, a research scientist at DeepMind 

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While a person has money, he can go without consulting God, like Jonah, who could pay his passage to run away from Him! the fact is, we can never really be His bondservants until God does control our means.

Rees Howells, on giving away the last of his savings

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Seen in a craft shop, Port Elizabeth

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It's our job to pray it; God's job to perform it.

Gary Snowzell, senior pastor, Freedom Church

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Don’s Biblog will be taking a rest for a while, and may return in a new format. Thanks to all my followers.

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more jottings, revelation 21 & 22 .

There are certain themes that are repeated in these two chapters; for instance, what the citizens of the new city of God enjoy, and who is included and who excluded. Clearly these are key ‘messages to take away’ from the whole book. As in my last ‘jotting’, the city comes down from God in heaven; is of unimaginable value; and is the Bride of the Lamb. It is the dwelling place of God with mankind; all who are left on the new earth, it seems, will know and be guided by God and His Church (see v.24). All the glory and honour of the nations will be brought into the Church, and in the church will be all the provision of Eden; even the tree of life will now be freely available, giving continual nourishment and healing to the nations. (These references to “the nations” tell me that they are all represented in those who belong to Christ.) The citizens are those who already love and serve God, and have His name written on their foreheads; their character and conversations and actions proclaim Who they belong to. (Don’t we sometimes say ‘It’s written all over your face’?) This seems to go hand in hand with “Whoever is thirsty ..” I can relate to this -- those who are loving and serving Jesus are also those who are ‘thirstiest’ for more ofHis company and His Spirit. They need no lamp, no artificial light (as the Old Covenant did in the Tabernacle), for the Father and the Lamb are both their temple and their light. The very form of the city echoes the proportions of the Holy of Holies, on a massive scale; as if (appropriately) all the inhabitants are making their home in the Most Holy Place. This also reminds us that to be included, we must also “wash our robes”; making a daily habit of holiness.

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If you want your children to live the best life, you must lead them, not appease them.

Gary Snowzell, senior pastor, Freedom Church

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another jotting in revelation 21 .

In the wonder and delight of the promises, it is easy to overlook the qualification; that these are for “the one who overcomes”, and to miss that “the cowardly” are among those who are denied the new heaven and new earth, but end up in the “lake of fire”. It’s actually a severe wake-up call for compromisers, and any of us who are relying on ‘grace’ at the expense of active holiness. There are little reminders throughout that judgment is an integral part of God’s end game; the angel who shows John the new city of God is also one who dispensed the last plagues. The city -- the Church -- comes down out of heaven, showing it is God’s idea and God’s design, and He has built it (see Matt.16:18 and Heb. 11:10 & 16). It has gates named for the tribes of Israel, but its foundations bear the names of the apostles of the Lamb; Israel has entrance to it, but is no longer its foundation -- that place belongs to the first followers of the Christ. Its foundations are either made from, or faced with, an unimaginable quantity of precious stones -- four sides of 2,000 kilometres each would take many times the entire mineral wealth of Africa -- showing just how precious it is to God. The entire city glows like a jewel, and is apparently transparent (v.11); there is no more need to hide away or be private, for there is no more shame. It has a huge, high, impregnable wall; there is a solid, inarguable distinction between who is inside -- the citizens -- and who is excluded. (Now there is a contrast, and a challenge, to much of the Church of our day! But it is God who built the wall, so it is God alone who can make the distinction ...)

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jottings in revelation 21

Much popular philosophy is, at root, partially based on a Buddhist world view. This proposes that both good and evil are part of the universe as a whole, and are more or less in balance. Either one starts where the other peaks; good at its greatest carries the seed of evil, and evil at its greatest carries the seed of good (this is the meaning of the Yin-Yang symbol). They both need each other. This chapter shows that God has no such ideas. Good does not need any evil, even as a contrast; God’s sure and certain plan is that all evil is destroyed for ever, and love and light are the basis of everything; the very heavens and earth are replaced with a far better and more permanent version.

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Red tide (Eastern Cape)

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more jottings, revelation 19&20

Not only the rider on the white horse, but the whole flavour of this passage, is a hundred miles removed from “gentle Jesus meek and mild” and milk-and-water religion in general. When the nations are being deceived, there can be no peace; Heaven’s answer is a warrior, a bringer of justice by force, an utterly righteous Judge Dredd. Here too is the vindication of the martyrs -- those for whom the stark choice was compromise or death; and they preferred death with integrity. They are now elevated to rule over a new world order, alongside the One for whom they died. It amazes me that even after total defeat, a terrible judgement on his allies, and a thousand years of imprisonment to mull it over, Satan will not repent. (Does this show us where intractability comes from?) Once again he tries to regain control of the earth in defiance of heaven. Once again he lays siege -- briefly -- to the people of God. Once again his army is annihilated (almost casually!) and, having been given every chance (like ‘Jezebel’ in chapter 2), he is judged and punished eternally. The saints are encouraged to rejoice over the fall of ‘Babylon’ earlier, but this time the focus moves immediately to the new world order (the Millennium) and then the new heavens and earth; how God puts everything right -- even Death and the Grave are destroyed.

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..Let me remind you How This Ends; We win! Oh-oh, we win!

Mercy Me

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another jotting in revelation 19 ..

“His Bride has made herself ready; fine linen, clean and bright, was given her to wear ...” This is our calling and our destiny; to wear pure, clean, bright deeds. As the world gets darker, our job is to shine brighter - as Paul remarked (Philippians 2:15).

The rider on the white horse is clearly Christ; none other is “King of kings and Lord of lords”, and “rules the nations with an iron sceptre” as foretold in Psalm 2 (and see Rev 12:5). Although the opponents of God gather all their might against Him, thinking to annihilate his followers and cast off even the memory of his authority, when he rides out in battle not only are the Great Deceivers taken prisoner and judged, but He wipes out their whole army single handed by the Word (“the sword”) that comes from His mouth.

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Life in the harshest place

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jottings in revelation 19 ..

The citizens of heaven rejoice over the total destruction of Babylon, because she bears the guilt of “all the blood shed on earth” - and especially that of the saints. Many civilisations have become Babylon-candidates in their day; the Roman Empire (in John’s day and at least two centuries beyond), Roman Catholic Europe at the time of the Reformation, revolutionary France, Nazi Germany, the Soviet bloc, militant Islam ... and the Dutch and British empires are not exempt, nor is modern economic imperialism. Every power centre in history has been guilty of war-mongering and/or oppression of the weak. On a more subtle level, though, one can reasonably say that ‘Babylon thinking’ has caused the “death” of more of God’s people in Western countries than anything else. By that I mean, reduced Christ-followers to mere believers, whose self-centred or ‘mercantile’ lifestyle has been so at odds with their professed faith that the latter has lost credibility with their children. In the new order of things, however, Babylon will be no more; it will not exist anywhere on earth. The idolising of wealth, goods and possessions, the adultery with the profit motive, will “never be found again”. How everyday life will work is almost beyond imagining; not only that, but right on the heels of the judgment of Babylon comes the announcement of a wedding -- Christ and His Bride. This, perhaps more than anything else, is the prospect that should keep us going.

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Written on a whiteboard at Love Story charity