Get those ratings up

GET THOSE RATINGS UP

It must be a game

they all play

           ***

Some,

scrutinised –

           ***

are

always having

to respond

to the groundswell

of opinion about

themselves

bandied about –

by others

that

mix fact with fiction

           ***

The restriction

           ***

of constant nosey

verbal bacteria

From those

who hope to sell

Their pseudo-

newsworthy story

for their own glory

           ***

Who needs

the pure truth?

when fictitious lies

will catch the eyes

           ***

Get those

subscribing numbers up –

Is the only motivation –

Forget moderation

           ***

Pure truth

lost along the way

The game of death is:

‘bombard

the unsuspecting’

           ***

Pummel them

into the ground

           ***

Any lie will do

As long as

numbers go up

And it benefits

journalistic you

           ***

Suck them in

With a

ridiculous headline

Then strip it down

To something

close to the truth

But far enough away

To keep them here

Wondering all day

           ***

And if there’s nothing

To scandalise

Just make-it up

They’ll never realise

           ***

You only want to

sensationalise

Futility

FUTILITY (all scripture in red)

As natural human beings, consisting of the same physical and mental make-up, as in male and female, we are endowed with a mind, a will and emotions plus a human spirit.

Solomon who (it is generally accepted amongst bible scholars) wrote the book  of Ecclesiastes, informs us of something that pre-occupied him.

It was a quest to find out what it was good to do ‘under the sun’.

What should one do with one’s life? What should one give oneself to, as we pass through this scene of time?

What are the common ingredients that go to make up a life?

We eat, we sleep, we walk, we talk, we think, we see and hear, we work, we learn, and so on and so on…

In what activities do we engage our faculties?

What is it good to give ourselves to?

Solomon undertook the task of finding out. What conclusions did he come to, in his search to find…

What profit has a man from all his labor
In which he toils under the sun?

It would be looked upon, as a totally pessimistic view of life, if one were to give the one-word answer to Solomon’s quest/question, about what it was profitable to do under the sun.

The one word answer would be ‘nothing’. There’s no profit. We could add: ‘after all we just die in the end, so what’s the point?

There is no profit in the sense that man’s lifespan is short on the earth and eternity awaits. 

All things are full of labor;
Man cannot express it.
The eye is not satisfied with seeing,
Nor the ear filled with hearing.

That which has been is what will be,
That which is done is what will be done,
And there is nothing new under the sun.

Nothing satisfies, or more correctly ‘has lasting satisfaction’.

I see so many people, often celebrities who have received the ‘momentary’ adulation that followers give, go on to manifest in one way or another that all is… 

“Meaningless! Meaningless!”
    says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
    Everything is meaningless.”

(Ecclesiastes 1/2)

They demonstrate this with their mixed-up lifestyles. Dabbling in debauchery to see if that is the answer. 

Trying to be satisfied with partner/wife/husband/children – followed by discontentment that can’t resolve issues, which then leads to  break up or divorce, and often more than once.

What about the acquiring of great material wealth? Is that the answer to what life is about ‘under the sun’?

Solomon says, quoting but a snippet of all that he did say:

Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me. 8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of kings and of the provinces…

Going on to conclude:

And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind.
There was no profit under the sun.

With all of the things that make up a human’s walk on this earth, we miss out on the satisfaction that can only come from a relationship with The Creator Himself.

                                          ….

I see myself as a discontented human being.

That’s part of the makeup of my personality. And it is my relationship with Christ Jesus, that keeps that discontentedness in check.

There is an old saying that did the rounds in Christian circles years ago: ‘I’m satisfied with a dissatisfied satisfaction.’

In other words I long for more of God in my life – so although He gives deep inner peace and satisfaction, I long for more of Him.

The other extreme is people who are so satisfied and satiated with the natural world, that they are travelling towards eternity like some train, filled to capacity with goods, but about to go over the cliff.

For some or many (?) – any discontentment they have – they have managed to bury under heavy layers of apathy, numbing all desires they have for inner peace.

Some are naturally satiated and directionless when it comes to spiritual matters – blindly walking into the ditch or quicksands of lostness.

I believe the book of Ecclesiastes was ordained by God to say to mankind: ‘If I leave you to your own wrong choices and devices in your present state of selfishness then this (book) is written to show you the only conclusion you can come to’:

“Absolute futility,” says the Teacher. “Absolute futility. Everything is futile.” (HCSB)

The way mankind has rejected and turned his back on God and when considering all Christ has done at the cross of calvary, using human reasoning alone, would suggest that the proper conclusion for God to come to, regarding mankind would be:

“Absolute futility. Everything is futile.”

*…all, like sheep, have gone astray…

What’s the point in giving my Son to die on their behalf ? – why it’s…

“Absolute futility. Everything is futile.”

But completing that verse we read:

*…all, like sheep, have gone astray…

…each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53/6)

In God’s infinite wisdom, He did not think it a futile endeavour to send His Son to deal with the sin problem on the earth.

It was not futile even though mankind in, let’s just say large numbers, rejected Christ’s cross-work as futile.

God knows the only redemption for mankind is found in this perfect plan of salvation, that He himself drew up.

But the cross and what took place thereon, is foolishness to many.

It is a perfect plan and action – but the god (the devil), of this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe that it is God’s perfect plan.

God does not handle rejection, the way we, left to our own devises – do.

Despite man’s rejection of His Son, the plan and action of Christ on the cross will still stand to the end of time, and beyond.

There is no other plan, no other Saviour, no other means of obtaining deliverance from the sin and evil that lives on the planet, and is the cause of the ‘futility factor’.

Because of the mystery of iniquity contaminating our souls and producing deep dis-satisfaction, insatiable greed and more – we are left with the conclusions of Ecclesiastes.

But thank God, He has made provision and remedy for every form of

“Absolute futility. Everything is futile,”

in the Person of The Lord Jesus Christ.

He it is, that makes life worthwhile. He has given us all things to enjoy, BUT – only whilst we partnership with Himself in a living relationship.

It is a relationship with Him that brings the contentment, that all the other things we try to cram into our lives to find peace, contentment and satisfaction – cannot achieve.

If you desire this relationship with Jesus the Christ, but have no idea how to have this relationship, let me know. (ken.riddles@btinternet.com).

RAGE

RAGE

With all emotions per second

‘The accompanist’ is the mind

Turmoil favours the double mind

Turn it off – if you’d be so kind

                      ***

Thus I describe being human

Now the volume may rise

See this as metaphor

For the extremes of what I describe

                      ***

All kinds of awful deeds

From so little a thought or feeling

On the road to destruction

Producing sins up to the ceiling

                      ***

Of every low ‘bad-turn’

Every crime or criminal mind

Uncontrolled wrath

Spat-out in vehemence

                      ***

Repeated all the time

The anarchistic road of no return

When all sound council – men can spurn

Makes me think of Sodom

                      ***

And with that comes Gomorrah

When all thoughts locked-in together

With no way out of their chains

Men working with men in unseemly rage

Falling apart

FALLING APART

This world is falling apart at the seams. I could now – randomly visit any news outlet and list – one negative news item after the other, to kind of prove the point.

World events that are negative, awful atrocities that demonstrate man’s inhumanity to man, moral collapse expressed in aberrant and abhorrent ideas that try to justify unnatural and demonically inspired outlooks, to the negation of the moral standards that have kept the world in some sort of equilibrium.

Indeed equilibrium lost, is expressed in any amount of chosen metaphors/descriptions:

Drunk reeling out of control. Splitting at the seams (my opening remark). Slippery slope to hell. Sin-sickness of pandemic proportions, anarchy rules ok and so on.

To some these kind of statements are the ramblings of some religious fanatic. ‘Ramblings’ associated with old men sporting large placards on their person, front and back. with such words as: ‘The wicked shall be turned into hell’, emblazoned in large capitals for all to see.

Their seeming eccentricity and appearance, blinding us to the fact that there is actually a scripture that states this:

Psalm 9:

16 The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah.

17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.

18 For the needy shall not always be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever.

Even though such gentlemen can have a rather narrow outlook and a mind that is one track. We need to embrace the one-track even though it is far from the whole story.

Often, these characters who stand on street corners or attend sporting events – are quick to point out everything that is wrong, showing what they do not approve of. But unfortunately they can be the type, that never also tell us what they do approve of.

Having said that, the idea of punishment is universal. We need prisons. ‘Civilised’ societies need judges, courts, law and order and so on…

So how is it possible that God should be any different? The idea is ludicrous.

God is just – evil must be now, or eventually punished.

The jail/gaol happens to be called Gehenna.

But stop right there! I do not need to look far to find others itemising the long list of madnesses that manifest mostly through human flesh, that underline what really is obvious to the spiritual or even unspiritual human being.

I listened to a Jewish gentleman who made a video and absolutely itemised and described the madness of sin run rampant. His whole premise was to highlight all that was abhorrent, as he itemised the practices that are abnormal, whilst he also kept mentioning the many celebrities who were practicing these sins.

Even I who can see the madness all around us, grew weary of his diatribe about all that is wrong.

Many Christian commentators like to remind us that Jesus spoke more about hell than other things…

However if anyone is in any doubt about the love of Christ, take a look at His track record while walking on the earth, and thereafter working through chosen vessels (the apostles) and you will see in thought word and deed the powerful life of the Son of God – healing, restoring, instructing, delivering and sharing the good news that we can still have a relationship with Him.

If we don’t see the problem and indeed the increasing problem of a world that has lost its ‘rudder’ and is all at sea – then we will not seek the solution.

The solution is, has been, and always will be in The Person of The Lord Jesus Christ.

Thoughts…

Thoughts…

There is no human being that can recall or recount the thoughts that went through their mind yesterday. In fact I would suggest the same applies to the thoughts you had within the last ten minutes – how about last two minutes?

By recall/recount I mean every single thought in the order you had them – exactly as they were.

You see it is a pretty impossible task to do so. We can recall that we were thinking about a given subject – but we cannot re-run verbatim every thought we had in a given day.

God has no problem with this. The ability to do this – is well within His brief.

Let’s face it – God having created mankind, is of course, of a superior intellect than all of mankind put together. If this were not so – then how could He have the ingenuity to create us in the first place?

But God’s thoughts towards mankind are not always the same. Yes – always the same in His intentions, because of the salvation wrought by and through The Person of His Son – but God’s thoughts are often thoughts of response to what mankind is thinking and doing on the earth

At given seasons, at given periods of history, at specific times, and in the context of given situations that have arisen on the planet, God’s thoughts are thoughts that arise in response to man’s thoughts, words, and actions.

Here is an example of God having thoughts at a given time and situation:

Jeremiah 29/

11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

We talk of finding the context, when we quote a given piece or pieces of scripture. And it is wise to do that. But God’s Word is beyond just grammatical considerations. Or contextual ones.

A big additional factor with the thoughts of God, rather than just the words of men unaided by God is mentioned in:

John 6/63 (Jesus speaking) where we read:

…The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.

Words as spoken by God Himself, have creative power, miracle working power.

When God speaks – His purpose for doing so, – may differ greatly from season to season. And what He says is often in response to earthly situations, that man finds himself in, or has brought upon himself.

God thinks and then speaks. Almost just as we do. Except that proper pre-meditation often escapes human beings, who so easily speak wrongly, or out of turn.

Concerning man’s thoughts – we are told in Psalm 94/11 that God knows the thoughts of man:

The Lord knows the thoughts of man, That they are futile (vain empty)…

And yet, what are we to do? We cannot think with some other mind (?) – we have only the one. And yet God invites us to do that very thing –

5 …Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus…

He invites us to think His thoughts after Him – this should be a major concern for every Christian, namely, to fill his/her mind with the thoughts of God – utilising the means He has provided as in Bible meditation.

We are also given insight into God’s thoughts in Psalm 40/4:

Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works

Which You have done;

And Your thoughts toward us

Cannot be recounted to You in order;

If I would declare and speak of them,

They are more than can be numbered.

So God, we can be assured, has ‘thoughts toward us’, – thoughts in our direction.

He considers and has not abandoned mankind.

Even when we have abandoned Him, He still wants to communicate, and wants us to listen. That’s why He both sent prophets to speak His thoughts to us, and has enabled men to write His thoughts down, in scripture.

God thinking and speaking again in response to man’s thoughts and actions says this:

Jeremiah 6/

Hear, O earth!

Behold, I will certainly bring calamity on this people—

The fruit of their thoughts,

Because they have not heeded My words

Notice ‘the fruit of their thoughts”

What fruit is our thoughts producing?

God will tailor-make His thoughts and Words by way of response, to suit the fruit of our own thinking, responding in accordance with whether our thoughts are godly or sinful.

Repentance in the simplest understanding of the word means to ‘change our mind’.

We can say why God wants us to do so i.e. (‘change our mind’) when He says – 

Isaiah 55/

7 Let the wicked forsake his way,

And the unrighteous man his thoughts;

Let him return to the Lord,

And He will have mercy on him;

And to our God,

For He will abundantly pardon.

8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.

9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

So are My ways higher than your ways,

And My thoughts than your thoughts.

He realises that mankind left to their own thoughts manifests futility. We must trade-in our old vehicle of communication (the sinful mind) for God’s superior model (pure thoughts of Christ). Properly understood this is repentance.

We live in a day where man’s own thoughts and ways are increasingly (and at a more rapid pace) abandoning the thoughts and Words of God.

In order for God ‘to move’ in mercy and grace (unmerited favour) toward an individual – that individual must fulfil the ‘conditions’ God requires.

God ‘moving’ is the work of The Holy Spirit that comes to influence an individual in such a way that they find a consciousness of their own sin followed by a yielding to the same Holy Spirit that draws them to Christ as Saviour and Lord.

This is a subjective experience available to every person on the planet. However we are told ‘few are they that find…’.

This ‘few’, is a comparative term – [has to be] – when we consider the innumerable multitudes that have passed through the scene of time.

The Word from God goes out: Matthew 11/28:

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Our own ways (thoughts), keep the soul and spirit of man in a place of struggle, burden, turmoil, hopelessness, and condemnation.

But Christ offers us life and life more abundant. Not a problem-less existence, but a Peace that passes understanding (our understanding).

Failure

Failure

I think it is safe to say that every human being suffers from a sense of failure in their life, at some point.

We can say that this is real or imaginary.

Questions get ravelled-up together. Questions such as – what is the purpose of life anyway? Or what have I really done with my life? Why have I not been more successful? Why do I not get invited to the party? Why can I not pass this driving test?

And so on…

Most of these have a sense of failure pending or following.

Not wanting to be boastful/big headed – we can be the first to admit that others seem to excel where we have failed.

But if we are at all logical – then we can add to the mix – ‘well what is success anyway?’

We have raised two or three children who are all doing well, who are solid and not neurotic or dysfunctional, but who perhaps themselves, lead a good home with balanced offspring.

Whereas over here the head of a multi-million pound/dollar conglomerate – a millionaire – well, his children are rebellious and in rehab.

So who has been successful in this scenario?

We learn then that success is comparative.

Truth is, we are all failures. And can still find acceptance in Christ. Who clears the conscience, and loves the unlovely me.

But in these days what is put forward as important and representing real success, has changed. And will go on changing. Not for the better – in it’s abandonment of what is of real value.

The predominant values of the society we live in are the result of the majority-held views. Views that build up in the psyche of the citizens of the place we dwell in. Then there is the world view.

There comes a mental blindness with this. When common decency is replaced with something else, building up to confusion running rampant.

The words of the old classic hymn come to mind:

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;

All other ground is sinking sand,

All other ground is sinking sand.

I stand appreciating The Victor who took my place on a cross, and who offers the gift of His success and acceptance, making such as I, a king and a priest unto God.

Revelation 1/6

And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

Mind Bombardment

MIND BOMBARDMENT

(in part metaphor)

Everyone had a helmet-shield

All prepared to go to the mind’s underground

Down came the thought bombs on the nations’ mentality

The enemy pressed to get access – to take control

The minds reeled like on a runaway train

No one knew what to hold on to

To steady their fall

Many blocked their ears and ran at the preacher

Blungeoning his words to try to cause death

The corporate mentality slipped further and further

Into the acceptance of moral reverse

Natural affection was dismissed as of a – by-gone-age

Faces were dark and cold and without feeling’s expression

Empathy disappeared and

proud rhetoric dismissed all traces of right and wrong

Guidelines of law turned and twisted to a warped degree

Everyone did what was right in their own eyes

Mocking laughter filled the air as the fingers pointed

At the boat builder – the eccentric hippie

with strange dreams

Who kept offering passage on his vessel

Eight survived – got on board

The deluge sprang forth – and didn’t stop

A torture or a judgment depending on your point of view

A constant flow of the watery grave

Until all ceased to billow and all ceased to live

A similar time was predicted but a long time from thence

As it was in the times of the remaining family

So shall it be…

Poetic Interlude XII

VANITY OF THE FUTILE NIGHT

Your little bit of glory in the futile night

Transgressors bubbling over

  into the outer darkness

Are allowed to keep their little bit of glory

  in their futile night…

“Vanity of vanities”, said the preacher

Beware of the glory of the futile night

Will any be of the day –

  by inheritance of the light?

That lights every man in the world

  of the futile night.

Reach out for the light

before Grace passes by

They cleave to the vanity of the futile night

unattracted by anything other…

…Other than –

the vanity of the futile night

Glimpse, also, struggling humanity

grasping for deliverance, grasping

‘under the influence’ of the futile night

in response they say…

“Can I even give this a moment’s thought?

These strange words – and turns of phrase

What is that to me? – see to it yourself

You and your ‘vanity of the futile night’…”

“What baloney”: 

(content of inferior or dubious quality)

the estranged minds will conclude.

‘Few are they that find’

Preferring the vanity of the futile night

And if we hand out hope

It is poison to the lovers of night

No light they see…

Only the light of darkness

Darkness of the futile night.

……………………………….

Luke 11:35

Therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness.

Empty philosophical deceit

Colossians 2/8: Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.

This verse of scripture meant a lot to me when I first became a follower of Christ Jesus.

Philosophy (to state the obvious) activates our reasoning powers.

Every philosophical opinion, from a held point-of-view on everyday life, to some political manifesto, is held in some loosely defined philosophical way.

I’m thinking of the word philosophy in a dictionary definition sense of:- a theory or attitude that acts as a guiding principle for behaviour: and/or the study of the theoretical basis of a particular branch of knowledge or experience:

According to the above verse from the bible, philosophy can cheat us.

Philosophy of whatever kind, can rob us of the supernatural, because it does not readily embrace the idea of spiritual revelation from a Living God.

Rather it relies only on man’s ability to reason, and to find answers to profound and deep questions, through the use of his reasoning powers – alone.

The obvious conclusion we have to come to, when relying ONLY on man’s reasoning powers is this: – our imagination can justify, any ‘doctrine’ that mankind wishes to dream up.

Left to our own devices – we can create our own morality and find reasons, if we have enough fallen-imagination – to justify the most despicable behaviour.

And of course man has done so, many times.

If deviously-clever enough, man can embrace evil as good and make good – evil.

There has been such a slide from wholesomeness, that the imagination doesn’t know where to stop, as it manufactures justification(s) for whatever it chooses, producing  a man-made morality.

Today, long accepted norms are being cast aside with reckless abandon.

And many of the rejections of God-given morality are couched in philosophical terms that can sound so plausible, but reject many other counteracting considerations by simply not mentioning them.

In all of these ‘new approaches’ to morality – there is no higher power, taken into consideration. No revelation from the creator is considered. If man can use his darkened imagination he can dream up anything.

That’s the world we live in today. Man is his own god. When men disagree on questions of morality, they do not seek the One with the higher reasoning power.

But rather lean on their own understanding, and fail to acknowledge God in all, or any, of their ways.

Their wisdom is earthly, sensual and devilish.

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.

If there is no ultimate creator-God authority, then there is only one opinion versus another opinion, especially in areas of morality.

No one refers to the absolute, everything becomes relative and a war of words.

Your opinion if it differs from mine is going to remain different, while someone else comes along and presents yet another opinion, and another, and another.

A world full of views and opinions all trying to convince each other.

God in the person of The Lord Jesus Christ – intervenes and leaves us His divine thoughts of righteousness, revealed to chosen men and written down under His influence (The Bible).

These revealed precepts – are recorded in human language but with the hand of God on-them perpetually.

These are given as the ultimate light to which all ‘philosophies’ must be held up to.

Man-made philosophies are – weighed in the balance of God’s word – and found wanting.

Reach for the higher wisdom – written down – for our consumption, and don’t allow the aberrant philosophies that are rampant today to spoil/cheat you …through empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. (Colossians 2/8)

Foolishness

FOOLISHNESS

If someone took a $100 bill or £100 note, and tore it up – allowing it to flutter over the mountain side.

I’m pretty sure everyone would agree that they were being foolish?

However – I don’t often hear the word foolish being used nowadays. Is it just me?

Foolishness is usually not used as often as swear words to describe the unacceptable behaviour of others.

There are approx. 84 bible mentions of the word foolish, 20 for foolishness, and 189 for the word fool.

Here are a few to ponder –

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. (Psalm 53/1, 14/1)

A fool despises his father’s instruction, (Proverbs 15/5)

…any fool can start a quarrel (Proverbs 20/3)

A fool vents all his feelings, (Proverbs 29/11)

The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, (Proverbs 12/15)

The somewhat dated story is told – (It goes something like this): –

A lady, when questioned by a bible salesman, if she read the bible much?

Answered – “Oh yes, all the time!” 

“Would you mind going and fetching it for me to have a look?” (No doubt with the idea that he could sell her a ‘superior’ printed version).

When she returned, in the act of handing him the bible to scrutinise, a small pair of rimless reading glasses fell out of her large bible.

“Oh!” she said – “I lost those years ago!”

Does that behaviour fit the ‘foolish’ category?

I wonder how much behaviour is just plain – foolish-lying to ourselves?

…………………………

James 1/22: …deceiving your own selves.