HOLD ON TO THOSE RASHERS!!

So NOW we are being told BACON is bad for you - and Red Meat as well.   No more Bacon Buttys; no more Bacon and Egg!   No more Steak and chips!  Wow life changing habits are on the way.    AND if we don't comply with this latest advice that Medical Health Science and Research has come up with, we may all succumb to Cancer.    THAT should stop a good number in their tracks, surely?  No I do not think so.   Alcoholics still drink, and Smokers still smoke cigarettes - and a good many die of heart disease and lung cancer.    So many just do not have a healthy attitude to LIFE, and are willing to take a risk or two in order not to reduce what pleases and satisfies them.     In fact mankind has always tended to DO the opposite to what he is advised.      And in any case there are so many instances of us all continuing to defy death, and living long lives!!    I myself have enjoyed eating bacon, steak, and a great many other banned meats and still, at the age of 75, seeing no ill effects.    Should I now begin to anxiously look for a sudden onset of the newly found 'results'?  I will not hold my breath.  I am trusting in GOD

King Solomon said 'There is nothing new under the sun', and this is true even when it comes to fashion - including the faddy-daddies of diet.      I was brought up on a very basic war time diet which was based, even then, on good dairy products, whenever you could get them, and also red meat (usually horse meat but still red), and later into the late 50s and onwards I continued to enjoy an ever expanding choice and variation of these items.     THEN suddenly the Medics in the mid 1980s warned that Dairy Products were bad for us, and strongly advised us to cut them out of our diet.    Esther and I actually had already been diminishing the purchase of butter, cheese and cream, purely and simply because we could not afford it.     But the semi-ban on the use of these dairy products seriously affected farmers and the daily life for man, especially in the 1st World!
'The U.K. and U.S. Governments practically destroyed their dairy industries by supporting the 'Advice.'       THIRTY years later everything has been turned around again, and now we are told that 'BUTTER' cheese and milk aren't bad for you after all.     Thirty years of deprivation on the basis of what has now been seen and agreed to be 'flawed' information.     'A new Review says evidence for Trials did not support the advice given at the time.    It is incomprehensible that such advice was introduced to 56 million Britons in 1983 and 220 million Americans six years earlier, given the contrary results from a small number of unhealthy men.'

BACON was first produced in its present form commercially in the 1770 in the County of Wiltshire in England,   That gives it a moderate history of some 300 years in which its consumption grew continually more popular and universal.      The consumption of BEEF and other red meets go back into the mists of human history.
In October 1975 Australians opened their newspapers to discover that the link between cancer and bacon was so certain, that the delicious  smoked meat wold soon disappear from every shop. BUT in 1979 the Australian Cancer Council assured the public that 'bacon was not even slightly carcinogenic.'    We need to be on our guard not to be cheated by words that have not been properly verified or proved.     In other words ' Do not believe everything, but 'test' everything thing / every statement, Word, and Prediction.' World Society can be very manipulative, and not always for our good, but rather for some financial profiteering that can actually distress whole sectors of that Society.
In 1902 the world was first shocked to discover bacon was causing cancer.   Again in 1923 there was a renewed outcry and Warning against eating BACON!     It did not seem to affect its production and sale.!     So what will happen NOW?    Will YOU stop eating Bacon.....?     I will continue to do so myself, though not in very enormous quantities.    Probably at Christmas, and maybe a few other special 'Treat' days in the year; and even then only a few rashers rather than a pile!   I am not an 'addict'.   I am for moderation in life, and not excessive, undisciplined behaviour in any way.    Whatever we indulge ourselves in excessively will produce unhealthy and unwelcome results for us.  (See 1 Corinthians 6v12-13)

Having said all this I have to also say that I find myself often very suspicious of what Food Producers and Manufacturers are serving us up to eat!     We have little or no real way of knowing WHAT is actually IN a sausage for example!    It could be almost anything, and some of it might not do us much good.    Indeed these days a Steak might not be from any recommendable animal, and may also have undesirable additives from the 'Feeds' it fed upon.   It is the same with tinned/canned and bottled foodstuffs.    Nothing, rarely, is what it seems to be.     It is good to be warned and then to do our own research and carefully, with out eyes open, make acceptable and sensible choices.      Not all that glitters (looks attractive or worthwhile) is gold !!    We have to do our best not to be taken in by the advertising, and sales pitch.     We might be wise to ask God, and pray for guidance from His Spirit as we shop.!       St. Peter was presented with food that in the Old Testament had  been banned by Moses!    Peter was a bit apprehensive about eating it.   But God said EAT!!     Don't turn up you nose at what God has Created and made.    Give Thanks for it in the Name of Jesus; it will do you no harm - and Peter's life turned a new corner of FAITH.    Give thanks for what you eat, and trust God to keep you well and healthy.   HE is your Health.

A TRULY 'F/RISKY' BUSINESS!

IF YOU WANT TO WORSHIP GOD YOU WILL HAVE TO BE FRISKED!
Really?    Is this on the level? YES, it seems that it is!  Then truly the world has gone crazy!   Well it is going that way, and it started way back.   My 'headline' is that found in our Daily Nation for Tuesday of this week.   The writer was revealing the increase in the need for Security across society, and especially cited Winners Chapel in Roysambu, where the Church has progressively installed more and more Security costing up to Ksh.60,000 a month.     It seems nowhere is safe from some kind of invasion or terror.  No Peaceful spot ensured to stay peaceful.    So now we have to be protected, and must constantly look to our own peace of mind.  Even the Pope has to ride around in a bullet proof car-mobile these days.   Where IS God?
Indeed it is only the poor man in the street, or sitting in his village that is without protection, waiting for calamity to strike him. Indeed the whole world is a very 'jumpy' place these days, just as Jesus predicted in the Bible, in the Gospel of Luke 21v26, when He said
'Men, fainting away or expiring with fear and dread, and apprehension and expectation of the things that are coming on the world...(Amplified Translation).'

When I was child, and even a teenager in the '50s, no Church was locked.   Every door was open to whoever felt a need to be alone with God.   Today all churches are locked for fear of thieves and Vandals come to steal and destroy.      But in my early years God was expected and believed to protect what was His, from the Believer to the Building he worshipped in, and the home he lived in.
But this is a different world isn't it.       In 2012 fourteen people died in a terrorist attack on a Church Service in Garissa.   The government of the day immediately 'beefed up security' - Police with guns guarded churches across the country where it was thought congregations might be at risk, and all those seeking to attend Services were 'frisked' in an effort to make sure nothing untoward was taken into the buildings that might put people in danger.  Frightening?  Yes, and also intimidating and fearsome.    A certain Chick Jacobs writing from America this year states 'In the last 15 years more than 430 people have died in incidents involving deadly force, in churches, synagogues and mosques across America.'    He adds  'If anyone thinks of a Church as an unlocked Sanctuary, he is living in a long gone past.    This IS a different world.    Yes, indeed, the world I grew up in, after the 2nd World War, trod carefully.   It was a quieter, less violent, more respectful, and reverential world than ours today.    We could even leave our own doors open without fear of theft.     
I recently read this enquiry from a man.   He asked ' Does your Church leave its door unlocked to the Sanctuary?   There have been times during the 'trial' I am going through when I have felt a need to draw closer to God, alone, and to just 'let go' so to speak, but most churches seem closed up all day.   Just wondering about it.  I know some might want to do wrong, but still there are times when I'm look for help and guidance alone with God......it would be so good to be able to drop into his House sometimes; into His Peace, and just sit at His feet and hear from him.'        I thought he had a point.    I remember a time when in desperation my own Mother turned aside, in her trouble, and  entered a Church one afternoon, and just poured our her need to God.     He answered her prayer.   It was a turning point in her life.    I wonder how things would have gone if she had found the door SHUT?
The world can be a very unfriendly, unwelcoming place, with no place to flee to for refuge.      Not like God, who freely and fearlessly tells everyone to 'Come to Me, just as you are; I will not send one of you away'.      His door is always open.    He fears no terrorist, or evil.    He knows He has the power to overcome them all, and to prevent them from prevailing against Him.
AND SURELY, if that is true, and if He can be in US, then we also can be confident in His Power and Strength, and be filled with the Peace He alone possesses,

Every week I find myself at the door of Nakumatt.  There are two guards there at the entrance, a uniformed man and woman.  Both are ready to frisk all comers and would be customers with their electronic scanners.    Not quite so physical as a real FRISK, but a frisk for all that.    I understand why it is taking place.   I realise the reality of the possible dangers and risks trying to be forestalled.   But for all that, it spoils my sense of joy in entering the place.  It forces me to examine those entering with me into the supermarket, and forces me to suspect each one as a possible enemy.   It takes from me the freedom to trust, believe in, and be at peace with everyone.     I feel robbed.

If I had to feel this on entering a Church or some other Gathering arranged by members of my faith, or even of another faith, I think I would enter it joylessly, and with resentment.     I believe in God, that He is with me.    If GOD is with me then who can be against me and succeed?    The right answer has to be 'NO ONE.'     The trouble with our world is that God Himself is under threat, and every effort is  being made to syphon the knowledge and Realisation of Him out of human experience and reality.    THUS fear, anxiety and a lack of real peace that generates confidence and hope, is being removed from world society.     NOW we are being forced to doubt and suspect God Himself, on his very doorstep, so to speak.   I run from such a situation.       I will not be 'frisked' to enter a place of Worship.    I will not worship where the Leaders believe God is unable to protect them or me.     If God is SO puny and weak that He cannot protect me and those who put their trust in Him then He is of no use to me.      No I will not worship where He is doubted.  I will not bow down to that.   I will not queue up to enter such a Meeting.      I shall not fear if GOD is WITH me.      Would that the World in which we live might have such Confidence in Him.

We should all watch carefully where we are going; where we are being propelled to.     We have to realise that it is not us that sets the stage, or rigs the scene.    There are forces at work around us; forces controlled by unseen and unrecognised powers, and their purpose is to obliterate GOD out of our minds, and finally, together with all that He has created, destroy Him forever.         It is a foolhardy mission, and cannot ultimately succeed,  for our God is ALL Mighty, and there is nothing at all that CAN succeed against HIM.

Come to HIM.    Rely and Trust in HIM.   Be very bold and courageous and demonstrate and prove in your own life and attitude where your faith really is - in men, their guns, and their boastful pride OR in the one and only GOD.     

LIFSTYLE

DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR SON OR DAUGHTER IS?

550 PUPILS HELD IN SWOOP ON SODOM AND GOMORRAH CLUB!
Sodom and Gomorrah in this case was Sams Discotheque, a fairly new 'Club' in town.
Five hundred youths, many under 18, and some from as far as Uganda and and other places in Kenya such as Kakamega, Kitale, and Kapsabet had gathered there on Sunday afternoon at 2p.m.
The Police turned up at 5.20p.m. and found the place jammed packed, with even some university students among the crowd, and found students with marijuana, alcohol, miraa, and condoms, confirming their suspiciouns that these youngsters had planned to go on a 'hedonistic rampage of drugs and sex.'
One parent is quoted as saying that his son, 'left home at around 2p.m on Sunday to do some shopping for school.  I am very upset, How can I toil, wear one pair of shoes, while this fool here spends my money with girls?' he asked.  Another thought her daughter had gone to attend a church Choir Practice.   When she did not return as expected she began to make enquiries, finding her daughter at the main Eldoret Police Station.

Of course for many such behaviour by their children can be embarrassing, and certainly it can be irritating and a nuisance.    But at times their behaviour is encouraged by too much freedom given by the parent.     After all Sundays are free days for the majority who may not willingly attend a church.
And there is plenty of alternative entertainment and activity to be found in the town, a town booming with the aimless, and also those hoping for some excitement in the multitude of Discotheques, Clubs, Hotels, Brothels, and other centres of licentious behaviour to be discovered there.     All this is ready to entice and entangle our children, while we watch T.V., have a doze, or attend to or own private pastimes.    Indeed we may not even be at home, or even in the Town, our children cared for by others, and some even all by themselves with no supervision at all.

The Police state that they found this crowd of youngsters 'In a BAD way.'   No doubt the influence and use of Alcohol and Drugs was evident, and may be worse since condoms were also found to be carried with them.    The Headline using the words 'Sodom and Gomorrah' can only affect our imagination, as to the kind of situation they found on arrival, in believing it was truly a rampage of drugs and sex - an organised orgy of morally abandoned social behaviour.


THE AMAZING THING about this particular incident is that it occurred on premises between 30 and 50 metres from, and directly opposite to, the Central Police Station!   ( Two different distances were reported in the Nation article.)     Close.     It is said the premises used were in the basement of the building, and were also soundproofed and unventilated.     It is surely impossible that the Police should not have been keeping an eye on the 'joint.'   And whilst we may credit them in making the 'Swoop', how long had they suspected that the Club needed investigation.

Sams Owner Left
with Advocate right.

An interesting further comment from the Uasin Gishu County Director of The Alcoholic Drinks Control Board, states - 'The discotheque was operating without a licence  which had been withdrawn because the Club did not meet safety Regulation; it was found to be too dark and without proper ventilation.'     He reiterated this statement again when saying ' It is very important to note that this club is operating illegally.  It did not meet the requirements for licencing - it among basement clubs that are supposed to have been shut....'        WHY is such a place STILL OPEN?   It is NOT Registered.    It is operating ILLEGALLY.       We are told 'WE ORDERED the Club's closure in June, but we have been investigating reports that it is still operational.  That the doors are closed have made our investigation almost impossible!'      Well, well, well.     Here we see that although we have Laws and Authority, they are scorned, or found  unable to be applied.     WHY?    The answer to that may be in a comment made by another 'angry parent' - that 'The owner of the club is untouchable.

This is but one incident in regular occasions of our young people being tempted and attracted to  liberal venues of immoral behaviour, encouraged by the free availability of alcohol AND drugs.
The law does not forbid the existence of these places, which, for the most part, are licenced to carry on their business.     The Police can only carry out 'Raids' when having enough evidence to do so. We cannot blame the Police for lack of vigilance, par say, BUT perhaps they should be quicker to act on their suspicions.   The Discos, pubs, Clubs, and other dives merely take advantage of our liberal society's appetites to provide what people want.  Nothing is likely to change before the people themselves change.     This is merely another case of Supply and Demand.    Without a ready demand and market, then the supply would dry up and ultimately cease.
THUS we are left to some extend with the a comment made by Mrs. Pamela Kilimouring this same fracas last Sunday.     She is reported as saying -

'It is all  of our making.

Parents are not turning their children into adults (before their time)

Our children have a lot of money nowadays,

and they can easily fund any form of bad behaviour.'

Yes, as a mother herself, she has every right to make this observation.     Testimony School has always had a problem affecting many of the children who attend it's classes.    So many come with cash.    We try ourselves to discover such, and then do our best to discover if the parent is aware of it, and then to agree on ways to monitor is use.    Generally we ask our parents NOT to give their children cash to bring to school. We have not managed to stop children, however, arriving in school with cash in their pocket - SO it may well be that parents are more liberal that they should be.     Even in School students are tempted to use case to supplement their appetites between meals, and even to carry on other less reasonable or honourable business.     Cash can buy almost anything if one has access to enough of it.    One can even bribe with it, trade with it, and promote crime with it.      How very careful we should be.     How very watchful!     Not only taking care and being watchful of how much 'pocket money' we may permit our children, but also in making sure they do not take advantage of us leaving money around, and even items that can be turned into money around.       Children may not be thieves, but they ARE able to steal when the pressure is there to do so.        IT IS ALSO TRUE, that many parents push their sons and daughters to 'grow' up more quickly' than they used to, so that by the time they are in Lower Primary many are dressing themselves and adopting fashions and actions that make them older than their years.    Once they are crossing the threshold into Secondary / High school they are already OLD, and living emotionally and romantically ahead of themselves, plus, plus.

Parents are largely responsible for how the next generation turns out.     It is their lifestyle and discipline that charts the way.     The Teacher also is equally responsible through the example he or she gives in the classroom relative to dress, language, and moral lifestyle.   AND also the Spiritual Teaching and Role given to God both in our family structures and relationships, as well as in our Educational standards and teachings.    The Bible says that without God we can do nothing.   The more we achieve nothing the quicker will be our decay, and descent into chaos!

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