Before I begin an apology for the blue bits, if anyone knows how to stop this happening PLEASE tell me!
Well here we are in the 21st century,
and I am still going on about commandments that were given to the Jewish race
over 2000 years ago, why?
The short answer is because I am a Christian who
truly believes that these laws are very relevant today and that even now they
shape our faith and our lives.
Just spend a few moments reading all ten, I
guarantee you will have to pause to consider what they really mean to YOU today
in your life.
They are not meant to constrain you but to guide
you on a path to the love of God. Since the coming of our saviour Jesus Christ
when he was born, lived among us, died on the cross then rose to show he was
Lord of life and death, some over the years have argued that we now live in a
different time. His sacrifice on the cross, dying in agony as He did,
Why? He did this for you and for me so that we through Him might come to
God forgiven of our sins and in the love of Jesus Christ our saviour Now and
forever. This is so important that I will repeat it ‘Now and forever’. Not for
a few years but FOREVER, for all time passed and to come, we need the
commandments, we need as a society to really start thinking about where we are
going, where you are going, where your children are
going.
Now this month, Gods commandment to us, number
seven;
‘Thou shalt not commit adultery’
Adultery (anglicised from Latin adulterium) extramarital sex is but one interpretation, I think it covers it and
we all know what it means so I am sticking with that, sex outside marriage.
Interpretations of what
constitutes adultery vary widely, as do the religious and legal consequences of
the acts in question ranging from divorce to death.
Ok, let’s start with a bit of truth, really
do this…….if you have ever broken this commandment then raise your hand
now…….mine is up, I broke this commandment many times before I came to Christ,
are you being as honest?
Remember;
Jesus taught
that indulgence in adulterous thoughts could be just as harmful to the soul as
actual adultery, and it is clear that both carry the same weight of guilt:
But I tell
you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery
with her in his heart. (ESV Matthew 5:28)
Hand still down?
Opponents of this commandment
cite the fact that adultery laws are a major contributor to discrimination and violence against women, as
they are enforced selectively mostly against women by men who are judging them.
The head of the
U.N. ‘expert’ body charged with identifying ways to eliminate laws that
discriminate against women Kamala Chandrakiran, has stated that: "Adultery
must not be classified as a criminal offence at all". This is so
wrong as it attempts to place man’s law above Gods law! A joint
statement by the United Nations Working Group on discrimination against women
in law and in practise states that: "Adultery as a criminal offence
violates women’s human rights". HOW? I have to disagree here again, the
law does not discriminate against women, men do.
If the law is
upheld justly against both men and women these debates over discrimination
would be irrelevant. Why try to dispense with Gods law because of man’s
discrimination against women, the plea “she led me astray” is all too often
used when the truth is the man was sexually attracted to the women and did not
resist his animal instinct to mate. In other words adultery takes place between
two people, I am quite sure that is all men as well as all women were
punished in the same way there would be no need for civil rights
issues. This argument is like a doctor trying to cure the symptoms and ignoring
the disease!
Please note that I
do not comment on rape in any form, which is intolerable in a just society.
Still, I am not
writing this to vent my spleen against overzealous law makers, it would not be
difficult to fill a large book of the most stupid laws we have on
discrimination, teachers have to call black boards ‘chalk boards’ in case it
offends black kids, white boards have become ‘wipe boards’, man hole covers,
‘Personnel access covers’ where do we stop!……….. Well, lets get back to nice
simple adultery.
Some Christians
believe that under the new covenant (New Testament, since the coming of Christ)
things have changed because he died to forgive our sins. However adultery
is still considered by Christians to be immoral and a sin,
(1 Corinthians 6:9–10). Or do
you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do
not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers,
nor men who practise homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the
greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of
God. And such were some of you. But you were
washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Although Jesus
does say that "and that is what some of you were. But you were
washed", He still acknowledges adultery to be immoral and a sin.
However, Christ
also showed forbearance to those committing adultery, although still
commanding repentance. John 8: 3-11
Then the scribes
and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set
her in the midst, they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in
adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should
be stoned. But what do You say?” This they said, testing Him, that they might
have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the
ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.
So when they
continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without
sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” And again He stooped down
and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their
conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last.
And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised
Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are
those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”
She said, “No one,
Lord.”
And Jesus said to
her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”
The key I believe
is go and sin no more” and then through baptism come to Christ free of past
sins. That is what I did, in my heart I truly asked Christ to forgive me and
take me as one of his flock, to wash away my past sins of which I confess there
were plenty. He did this for me by filling that empty space you have within you
with the Holy Spirit and by being baptised in His name in water.
Please consider
this, if we lived in a sexually moral society would we still have the problems
we do in the UK. The statement below is from the report,
‘Sexually
Transmitted
Diseases.’
By Dr O.e.o. Hotonu MB. ChB. BSc (Hons)
“Virtually all the
sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are increasing. The number of
attendances at departments of genitourinary medicine/sexually transmitted
diseases now totals 1 million per year, a doubling over the last decade. The
commonest conditions are genital warts (some types of which can be associated
with the subsequent development of carcinoma of the cervix), chlamydia and
gonorrhoea, which if untreated can result in ectopic pregnancy and infertility.
Chlamydial infection seen in clinics has risen by 21% between 1996 and 1997,
and a further 13% from 1997 to 1998 (latest figures). Population surveys have
reported rates of chlamydia as high as 20%, particularly in young women. There
has been no reduction in the annual number of new diagnoses of HIV made and the
latest annual figures (1999) saw the highest number of new HIV diagnoses ever
recorded.”
Unrestrained
sexual coupling is the reason for this, let’s be honest about this, the direct
cause of this dramatic rise in disease is sexual immorality. In a truly
Christian society that lived by Gods law this could not happen.
Extramarital sex
is considered to be immoral by most Christian groups, who base this primarily
on passages like 1 Corinthians 6:9-10: ‘ Do not
be deceived: neither the sexually immoral…….’
This was an
attitude was held by some in our own church towards Kris and I.
Let me explain,
when asked by people when were you married we reply giving two dates, the first
was when in front of witnesses on 8th October at St Mary’s
Parish Church on Holy island (which is the first Christian church in England
and stands on the site of the monastery founded in 635AD by Aidan) we knelt and
gave our oath before God at the alter there to always be only one for the other
and that we wanted to be joined for life as man and wife. This we said
to God. This was a Holy vow between us and our Lord. From that moment we
lived together and loved as a husband and wife, we had become one in Gods eyes.
Some people even
from our own church didn’t agree with this and in their opinion we were
considered to be ‘living in sin’. How can a true Christian doubt the validity
of a sacred oath to God given in church before witnesses? This is a question I
still ponder over.
It was always our
intention to have a wedding celebration in our church and confirm in
man’s law that we were man and wife, this we did on the 14th May
the following year. What was more important, our oath to God or signing some
book that made it legal in man’s eyes? We know when we became one, when on the
8th of October we swore our oath to God; our second marriage
was just a celebration of our joining. We both believe what Jesus said ‘Give
unto Caesar what is Caesars, give unto God what is Gods’ We gave our lives to
God, man required that we sign a register to be married in man’s eyes, so this
we also did.
Sexual immorality, whether
adultery or as a single person is a sin, the only way to forgiveness is through
repentance and the Lord Jesus, I know, I have a past I was forgiven for, I went
through a near death experience lately nearly dying twice and after that I know Jesus
is real. (See blog 17 addendum).
I will leave you
with this one thought;
1 Corinthians 6:18 (ESV)
‘Flee from sexual immorality.
Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually
immoral person sins against his own body’.
Please if you are not yet
baptised then come to his love now before it is too late for you, nobody knows
the time of their own passing, come to him now and be saved as
I was. Free yourself from this corrupt diseased society and walk in His love
and protection forever.
Well as I sit and write this its 24th of
December, Christ, born tomorrow, or if you are of the pedantic persuasion we
celebrate Christ’s birth tomorrow!
We can’t arrange the star over Bethlehem so we have
bought a 50 star shooter box, tonight at midnight there will be 50 stars over
Udaipur followed by two huge mortars that climb high into the sky and then let
go with (sorry about the pun) an almighty bang. We are giving everything a head
start by launching from our roof! CHRIST IS BORN! Then I think we go will quietly
off to bed and let all the dogs and children settle down again!
We have decided to have a quiet Christmas this
year, we are both still a bit fazed by me nearly leaving us and Kris has had a
hard time other than looking after me with a loss in her own life lately so she
is pretty worn out.
Really cold for the last couple of days, no sun
just over cast, it did this last year for a few days then back came the sun and
spring rolled in…….wonderful. It will stay ‘cold’ for another month or so but
by that I mean 58F at night and 68F by day, after a year here though I have to
admit its 65F outside now and we have the heating on!! BRRRRR.
Well Christmas was great; we gave pressies, ate
well, and helped a few people worse off than us. On our roof there was an A4
(each letter) sign that said ‘Happy Christmas to you all’ and lots of
lights…..yeah, we are Christians, fireworks went down well. Sign now says
‘Happy 2014 to you all’. We were thanked by many people for our good wishes to
them, several said they really liked that it said ‘to you all’ not just
Christians.
Thank you all who sent us so many kind wishes, we
are softies so we had them all pinned up on a board over Christmas, 
and the
Skype link was brilliant, what a good idea, well done Andrew and all who worked
to make it such a good afternoon.
and the
Skype link was brilliant, what a good idea, well done Andrew and all who worked
to make it such a good afternoon.
On the 24th we went to a carol service
at a neighbours house that included the kids singing all the old favourites and
food, good attendance from the local people of all religions.
25th we stayed at home, had a quiet day,
just us two, one or two people visited to wish us the best, on the whole it was
very peaceful, somehow it felt right for us this year after all that has
happened just to be secluded and say ‘thank you’.
31st we were asked out by some friends
and had a wonderful meal at a new restaurant in Udaipur ‘Zuchini’s’ near court
circle, a blend of Indian and Italian food, sounds odd but is really well worth
a try if you are passing through. As we left the year ended so we went in 2013
and left in 2014, cool.
On a personal note, and we will not go into details
here, nearly three weeks on antibiotics, both injected and oral has completely
destroyed my ‘Indian’ defence bugs, proved by eating a road side Samosa from a
place we use often and then spending many visits to the bathroom. Kris while
sympathetic I’m sure is thinking ‘glad it’s not me’! So here I go again,
another three months to build defences.
Being ill really disrupts your life, being cured is good, being alive is
better but this is a complete pain in the ***!
Garden
We have had
the hedges ripped out to reduce the mosquito population and have planted roses
and put in homemade garden
lights, all looks very lovely at night.Our home made lamps, now replace the hedge and the new layout of the garden as seen from the roof.
This is a water bowl we fill for the cows, we thought it looked a bit dull so we painted it when we did the herb pots!
This count does not include Kris’s herb garden which has now also been sown with (and this is where I step aside and say all yours to Kris) We have planted Coriander, Basil, Parsley 2 types of Thyme Methi seeds (its Indian), Palak, Marjoram, Oregano, Rosemary, Chives, Dill, Sage, Sorrel, and Chulai. Thanks, I can never remember them all.
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| we have herbs! |
A few general shots of what’s growing, note the rose that died last year,
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| Hidden in the general vine growth, we thought it had died! |
Peppers do well in the driveway,
probably because of the extra sun and a wall behind them to retain the warmth
at night. Those on the roof are in flower, in the drive in full fruit.
The red cabbage are great.
We still have bees; love them, our little workers. Carrots heading for the freezer soon, which by the way is
seriously full of veg we have grown, must eat faster! We give loads away to
friends and neighbours, Loki, round green melon looking thing we have about two
a week from the vines we planted go great in any veg meal.
The pelargoniums (Geranium) are from seed and are doing very well where they get the early morning sun
.
Pixie tomatoes
 |
| Pixie tiny but oh so sweet |
 |
| Garden |
 |
| Same variety, same sowing date on the roof |
Who's a happy gardener then!
They taste great, Kris lets them ripen on the vine,
it really makes so much difference
Work.
Due to my
illness I haven’t been able to go to work and teach yet. We have been working
on SODIS though (a cheap way to produce perfectly safe bug free water and costs
practically nothing to run), first full scale trial at home here next week with
luck then we will see what the production rate per day of clean water is. The
system has four stages of particle filtration (a fifth, activated carbon coming
soon), settlement and then exposure to UVA rays for at least twelve hours. The
result, clean safe water, cost to date building the prototype Rs450. A
machine that does the same from a shop……Rs13000, for a cheap one. We estimate
the production model at about Rs400. Now all we have to find is some funding to
get it out to villages before the summer and we can save HUNDREDS of lives. In
this country 80% of childhood deaths are caused by water Borne disease, how
can we let this go on year after year?
The present
exchange rate is now; USD 1= Rs
61.86, UK £1=Rs102.51…….. Rs450 to save
children’s lives!
Please think
about that, this is not an appeal for money from you as an individual but if
there is anyone reading this who could help us raise a significant amount of
money to really get this off the ground and start saving lives please, go and check
on us, investigate us, our NGO we work for is called the Pragati Marg
Foundation based in Udaipur India, for personal details e-mail drwatsonsmate@yahoo.com, check with immigration, our Church which is Emmanuel
Church Durham (alan.bell@thedurhamcentre.co.uk) they have a website if you want to contact them, do whatever
it takes to make you sure this is not a scam. We need to be acting soon before
the summer death rate rises as it does every year from the contaminated water
sources. Please help us save these children.
Chringlish
A client I
have been working with for the last few weeks has just taken and passed his
exams written and oral to train as a pc repair technician, I am so proud of
him.
Also another
charity has taken the method up to teach basic spoken English, isn’t that
fantastic. When I began writing this I never thought it would do so much good,
six months to write and develop into a working system and even now it is
getting ‘tweaked’ as new ideas are incorporated Thank you JH. The big
difference between my system and standard systems is that with mine the tutor
does not have to be able to speak the client’s native language or the client
doesn’t have to know any English, although some does help a lot. It works!
Comments
from Kris
Things that
made me go uhhhhh and ummmmmmmmmmm with motoring as follows.
There are as
always lots of near misses between pedestrians, cars, buses and bikes etc but
the other day I saw a sight that still amazes me. I was on my scooter about 3
or 4 bikes ahead of me there were 2 motorcycles that were weaving in and out of
traffic they suddenly bumped into each other from the sides of their bikes and
wobbled outwards but managed to stay on the bikes and not crash to the ground.
I think God must have been with them as they were going at a brisk speed at the
time and I have seen bikes topple for less impact. The bikers just shrugged at
each other and rode on.
Another
strange sight was the car that had so many passengers adults and kids packed in
that no way could he see out of his rear window was funny as it was a new car
and he had his wing mirrors folded into the door possibly so they did not get
damaged or maybe he did not realise it. Last night and today through the day it
is getting colder and I have seen more bikers riding around wrapped up in
blankets not sure how they are managing to keep riding without getting caught
up in the thing. Ladies on back of bikes wearing fine saree’s but with blanket
or thick shawls wrapped around whilst riding side saddle amazes me. No way
could I ride side saddle on a bike I have tried briefly and I was wearing jeans
and did not feel safe. I suppose when you grow up riding this way it becomes
very natural and the bikes do have foot rests and Saree guards so that Saree's
do not get caught in the spokes of the wheels or gubbings so to say.
Hoppy has decided that its got a bit cold for him and moved into our garage at night.
Well I do hope
that 2014 is a better year than the last one especially health wise, poor Chris
has got deli belly and quite rightly I am pleased it is not me I have had it
and hated it. (SO DO I, Chris). Our garden is looking good and we
have made lots of changes as you can see with the photos. Chris has put lots of
lights around the lawn which have received lots of admiration from friends,
neighbours and those just visiting. This is my new jacket, fully armoured in the back elbows and shoulders.
I am going to
try to learn a new Hindi word each day but it is not easy at my age to remember
them all as quickly as I would like.
I have spent some time sorting out the
weeds and that is an ongoing problem.
I am back at work next week after the
holidays, Chris will return when the consultant says it is OK to do so.
Well me
again….
January 1st
2014 happy
New Year to all of you and may you all find piece and joy in the lord, remember
even when it gets bad that He still loves you. Treat your fellow man with the
respect you would want and try to live by His commandments and the word of
Jesus Christ our Saviour who said ‘Love thy neighbour as thy self’. For my non
believer readers, try it, you will be amazed at how good you can really feel
when you accept the love of Jesus into your life. You don’t turn into a weirdo,
you just find great peace and support….what have you got to lose?
Welcome to
2014, day one, it’s been a cold day down to 65f and at about lunchtime the sun
went in as it got cloudy. We had a visit from friends all very nice.
Ah the bladder
calls so off to the bathroom I went, AAAAAAAAAAAH poo coming up the drains, the
sewers are blocked and as with all good Indian building the internal drains in
the house are below the overflow level of the inspection cover so it can never
get full just backs up into the downstairs bathroom
A wetter
smellier sometime later:
The internal
drains are sealed by sheets (about 12” square) of plastic held in place by a
good shovel full of sand, every dust cover and most towels are soaking in
disinfectant and are off to be boil washed later. We smell, are wet and cold,
generally not happy, but not the worst that we have faced in our lives, looking
back we will probably laugh but not right now…..neither really felt like eating
so we settled for toast and a couple of sandwiches after we had cleaned up…..I
will never bite my nails again!!
Jan 2nd.
Man with rods
coming today. Luckily the house drains are split left side/right side so
although we couldn’t use the downstairs bathroom or our bedroom (on the left
side plumbing) we still had the guest room and kitchen that connect to the
right side drainage, so by the end of the day we will be poorer but have a
fresher house.
We had hoped
to show you Sodis in action this month but what with my health and various
other distractions we can’t, so next month we are going to do a Sodis special
feature, the how’s , whys and wherefores! We have included a couple of ongoing
build pics just to give you some idea of what it is going to be like.
 |
| The master plan! |
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| Mk 1 not yet tested |
I had wanted to include this in our last blog, (in the end we added it
as an addendum) we repeat it here for those who haven’t seen it.
It has been difficult to write, not because of what happened but because
to convey to you the reader the joy and love I feel is beyond my capabilities
as a writer. I am still in awe of what happened, Kris and I still hold each
other and pray in gratitude for His love, it is very emotional sometimes for us
both. Anyway this is my testimony, written as best I can.
I lay dying. Because of delays and misdiagnoses I had arrived at the
main hospital in Udaipur GBH American Hospital in a very poor state.
I had contracted two of the most dangerous strains of malaria you can
get, this had been misdiagnosed as food poisoning by another doctor so for two
days I just got worse until Kris my wife all but dragged me to the hospital
with a friend Eric who came straight away in his car to help us. To be honest
at that point I really didn’t care anymore.
We got to casualty and over the next little while things became more
blurred for me, my major organs were in the process of shutting down, I had
complete renal failure, my Liver was failing and my blood pressure was falling
fast, I couldn’t breathe properly. I was supposed to go to intensive care but
the doctors didn’t think they had time so right there in A&E they all got
to work on me.
If you have read our blog (17) you will know the details of my time in
hospital and the problems I came through to still be here.
That’s the practical side of this story, but for me there is so much
more:
I had said my goodbyes to Kris and told her there was a letter for her
on my laptop. I had said my last prayer to God looking back over my life at all
my sins and all the evil I had done, I asked him to forgive me and that I was
sorry for all my doubts and misgivings about him. Because yes my faith was
solid but I still have thoughts that put doubts into my head, I read widely
both for and in opposition to my faith, I believe we must never shy away from
doubts but should prove them to be without foundation by research and prayer.
As I lay there I knew the end was near, a face came to me, not like a
photograph more like an image seen in a poorly lit room, long dark hair, beard
and the one thing that even now I marvel at, he had a large ‘Arab’ nose, I
recognised Him on a level I can’t explain I KNOW it was Jesus, as I looked at
Him he held me close in arms I couldn’t see, the feeling of love and care
for me was beyond my ability to describe, it flooded me, poured into me, words were
inadequate and unnecessary. I have likened it to being a small child lost
in a mall, afraid and alone, and then their father sweeps them up and holds
them close loving them, there were no words just the knowledge that He loves
me, and I truly mattered to him, at that moment I consciously gave my soul into
his care, I was I must stress fully aware of what was happening to me, it was
more real than the world I was leaving.
From an outside view Kris says she has nursed people who have in the
last moments seemed to go into a state of peace, she saw me do this and at that
moment she knew she was losing me. She had no doubts, I was dying.
Jesus decided differently.
From that moment on I started to recover, after eight days I was allowed
home, I am still very weak and have no stamina my kidneys are still in a
delicate state and I am not allowed to ride but every morning I say thank you
to God for this extra time he has given me. I don’t know if its days, weeks or
years but I praise him and thank him every day for his love.
I now know His love in a way I never have before, I am a changed person,
and things that used to stress me doesn’t matter anymore. When asked how we
were going to pay the hospital bill both Kris and I simply say God will
provide, in the meantime Mr Barclay has it to deal with!
I have tried to tell this as accurately as I can, I have not embellished
or overstated any of it, it is simply the truth.
Praise God
Chris
Well that’s
all for this month, May God bless you and keep you safe
Chris and
Kris.
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