Well
what a month, Kris discovered she hadn’t broken two fingers, my teaching
classes are growing, the Durham wanderers have been and gone and we have been
DIY’ing again!
One
more thing………..this is a rewrite of our blog, the first version just
disappeared as if deleted from drafts, we have tried all the recovery tricks
but it has even gone from history, very odd.
Well
continuing my series on the ten commandments’ this month we will look at that
can of worms that is commandment number four.
“Remember
the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six
days you shall labour, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath
to the Lord your God. On it you shall
not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your
female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner (traveller) who
is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day
and made it holy.
Ok, to begin with it is
not my intention to become embroiled in the debate over should it be Saturday
or Sunday that has gone on for millenia and will continue to cause confusion
among Christians for many years to come. My only comment on this is to be found
in the words of Jesus himself.
One person esteems one
day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully
convinced in his own mind. The one, who observes the day, observes it in honour
of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honour of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God,
while the one who abstains, abstains in honour of the Lord and gives thanks to
God. For none of us lives to
himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live
to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or
whether we die, we are the Lord's. For
to this end Christ died
and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the
living. Romans
14:5-10
Firstly what do we mean
when we say it’s the Sabbath,
(Heb. verb Shabbath, meaning "to rest from labour"), the
day of rest. It is first mentioned as having been instituted in Paradise, when
man was in innocence (Gen. 2:2). "The
Sabbath was made for man," as a day of rest and refreshment for the body
and of blessing to the soul.
In the Old Testament. The observance of the Sabbath is central to Jewish life. Of the
eight holy days (Shabbat, the first and seventh days of Pesach, Shavout, Rosh
Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and the first and eighth days of Succot) proscribed in
the Torah, only the Sabbath is included in the Decalogue.
Can we be Christians and
not observe the Sabbath? I invite your comments on this point; I cannot find
anything in the teachings of Christ that says the Sabbath is to be a day of
prayer or fasting. Can we work on the Sabbath, again Jesus answers our question
clearly:
One Sabbath, when he went to dine at
the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. And behold, there was a
man before him who had dropsy. And
Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on
the Sabbath, or not?” But
they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. And
he said to them, “Which
of you, having a son or an
ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him
out?” And they could not reply
to these things. Luke 14.1-6
When Christianity was
spreading to the gentiles a meeting was held by the early Jewish Christian
church where it was decided which rules the gentiles must follow, there is in
those writings no mention of observing the Sabbath as a Holy day as the gentiles
where not of those who God brought out of Egypt. I cannot believe that this
could be an oversight, if the early church gave it such importance why did they
not mention it as necessary to being a Christian?
From a practical point of
view it is a good thing to rest at least once a week, it is good for both body
and soul, and on this day of rest it is only natural that groups of Christians
would meet to praise God but I truly believe as Jesus said ‘One person
esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully
convinced in his own mind, for this reason I say all
days are Gods, all from the beginning until the end are His and we should give praise
to Him at any time on any day as Jesus our Lord did when he prayed at different
times and days, sometimes alone, sometimes with His disciples.
Before Jesus, God
required sacrifices or burnt offerings to appease Him for our sins. Since the coming
of Christ this is no longer required of us for Jesus took all our sins to the
cross where he made the ultimate sacrifice for us all. We now live in the true
grace of God because Jesus made that sacrifice and rose again as lord of both
the living and the dead.
I believe that from a
theological point of view we as Christians are not required to keep the Sabbath,
that commandment as were all the commandments given to the Jewish people but not
to the gentiles. Some will say it is to remember the day of Christ’s resurrection,
the day Jesus rose from the dead, some will say it has to be Sunday or
Saturday. As I said earlier I invite your comments as I can find no statement
by Christ on this subject. By all means observe a Sabbath but do not be
constrained by that observance. A case can even be made to say we are not
subject to any of the original commandments, There is however this statement
from Jesus in answer to a question found in Mark 12:28-34 which for me answers
all my ‘commandment’ questions.
And one of the scribes
came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered
them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus
answered,
“The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord
our God, the
Lord is one. And you shall love the
Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind
and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbour
as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
And the
scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. And to love him with all the heart and with
all the understanding and
with all the strength, and to love ones neighbour as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely,
he said to him, “You are
not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any
more questions.
This for me is the
message of Jesus Christ, as the old hippies out there will note it’s all about
love!
On a personal note Kris
and I both keep a Sabbath day, we fast and do no work and have no work done for
us on that day. We pray, both alone and with others. We return home at about
6pm when we break our fast giving thanks to God for our food and all he does
for us. We do this by choice, if it has to be changed to help someone or go
somewhere so be it. We observe it but are not constrained by it. We live in the
grace of God; we honour and praise Him by prayer and example every day. Only
when we leave this earth will we truly have our Sabbath in Christ.
More DIY
As you can see we have finally stopped building paper piles and are going for a proper filing system. Kris has to paint it yet with primer then topcoat (we have a deal, I build, she paints) as yet though no progress...............
Some excuse about three.......yes it was three broken fingers!
Comment from Kris
I was walking in the market area of Sector 14 about 2-3 kms from home after doing a little grocery shopping this is where I buy bread, potatoes etc. In fact I was walking back to my scooter when I lost my footing on the dusty/loose ground and Knew I was going to hit the ground hard on my knees ( I have knee replacements) and to prevent me damaging knees as I fell I put my hands out to protect them. Alas despite the pain, I picked myself up with the assistance of 3 locals and a nice boy ( I am mega embarrassed at this point) and walked over to my scooter put all the bags of shopping including 3 reams of copier paper on it and in its storage area under the seat and rode home. When I got home I said to Chris I may have damaged my hand, and yes I broke 3 fingers two nasty fractures and one minor one. I do not do things by half. Some people said you rode home! but what was I supposed to do leave the shopping and the bike, no way.
That's one tough lady xx Chris.
Work.
My teaching is going really well with three classes now all hard at it. Kris sadly has had to stop because of her hand....he he she teaches first aid! As she says though now she has a few really good x-rays to show her students.
Other projects such as Sodis (See Comments from Kris later) are about to begin and I think I may finally find some time (if we can find the money) to begin building the worlds cheapest solar heating system.
Garden.
Yummy |
| Sweet pea's in the front garden, sweet smelling shade! |
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| Please let me in (we did) |
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| front porch |
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| Marigolds in flower around our tree |
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| A sneaky plan, overhead watering. and Our completed from entrance........no more mud this is a 4" deep pit filled with grave and three 3" thick stones that drains naturally to a run off in the road 
Comments from Kris .............this month what is Sodis?
Sodis is a fantastic no cost system where people who do not have access to safe water. With Sodis the water can be taken from a polluted stream, river or lake where people and animals use to wash clothes, bathe and drink from and after exposure to the UVA rays and high temperature of the sun becomes safe to drink, free of bacteria and pathogens. It costs Rs 250 for initial set up as we need corrugated aluminium to place 2 litre PET bottles on, they are laid horizontally to enable the UVA rays to penetrate the bottle. We must use clear unscratched PET bottles and Turbid water will need to be filtered through cloth first, then they are left in the sun for 2 days after which the water is safe to drink.
   Two bottle model, the risk here is that if the bottle doesn't have at least six full hours of sun it may not be sterile which is why we will use a three bottle in line system  
Painting
Kris has been encouraging me to paint, well here it is my first painting that I am willing to show the world its 4 feet x 4feet on canvas and is called 'Mercury Rising' the astronomy buffs among you will spot why.
Sorry the photo isn't better but is is done with a small compact and doesn't really show how bright the colours are., but there you go my first masterpiece!
Kris comments - I am very proud of Chris, this picture does not do it real justice, it has great depth, texture and movement and I would have been pleased if I had painted it myself. I can only continue to encourage Chris in his painting endeavours, he is inspiring me to become more abstract in my own painting.
Well this week has been amazing, tiring and full of activity, before I explain further I must tell you I saw my very first Indian Fire Engine the other day. Yes it was red, but compared to the UK a little dated, but if it works who cares, that is the main thing.
We had to apply to extend our Visa's this week and that was a long laborious job, mainly due to the bank we were told to go to to pay the fees. You would not believe it but they refused to accept our payment as they said it exceeded their daily limit for paying money into the bank. They would not accept cash in Rupees, or payment via Debit or Credit Card, the only way we could pay the full amount was if we each had an Indian bank account in our own names. I have never known a bank refuse to accept payment into an account, to take out Yes but paying in seems very very strange. So off we returned to a bewildered Foreign Registration Office to inform them of the problem. After some discussion they then recommended another bank at the other side of the city and Yes they would accept payment.
We then stood waiting in a queue for over 1 hour knowing we would have to return later in the day to collect the bankers draft we needed to pay the visa's with. Long waits in the bank then back to the FRO, for the stamping to say we were under consideration for renewal which has to have final approval from the Indian Government which we will get in 4 to 6 weeks time. I have missed out the interviews and several steps in between to prevent boredom setting in. But yes we have applied for another year with PMF. We have exciting projects to get on with Sodis being one of them.
I had my hand re xrayed the other day, shows healing starting , 2 nasty breaks and one fine line break, but continuing to heal, I have started some gentle physiotherapy and will be able to use it again in about 3 more weeks. It is still quite painful but looking at the fractures and their positioning I am not surprised. It is good to have the cast off, I was given pain killers to help with the physiotherapy and they help a little. I am hoping not to fall again in the near future but can't guarantee it. I feel frustrated that I can't ride my scooter at the moment, it restricts where and what I can do.
Poor Chris is unwell at the moment, he was bitten by a spider and has a nasty wound that is not healing, he has a fever, aching joints and must be feeling really rotten as he agreed to take antibiotics, pain killers and anti Histamine, anyone who knows him well knows he believes the body should use its own defences to fight infection. This in his own words 'the bod needs help' He also stayed in bed all day which is not like him, at one point yesterday he could hardly walk because of the pain in his joints. We are very lucky to have a senior consultant living close by who is a friend so treatment was swiftly obtained.
Get ready for the YUK part of the blog.
You have been warned, if you don't want to look Bye Bye now and God bless you,
Chris and Kris in India
Nice little entry holes
  Never had sexy knees but this really spoils the look!
At this point its still growing yukier by the hour.
Now however I am happy to report he is feeling better but the doc says he will have pain for days yet and it may be months before the aches stop. Needless to say he has had to abandon work and that really upsets him. He feels as though he is letting his students down by not being there.
Well if you have come this far its God bless you from Chris and Kris and we hope it hasn't put you off your tea!
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