Two Decades, Looking Back...

As I get older, time seems to fly. Especially after retirement from 47 years at a full-paid job, the last 35 years being self-employed. But since this is the final blog of not only the year 2019 but the whole of the 2010s, here I would like to look back at the enormous changes over the last twenty years which enabled us to strengthen our marriage bond and to feel the privilege to take on a new responsibility as a carer, something I had never anticipated during my earlier years of both bachelorhood or married life alike.

2010 began not long after our 10th anniversary. During those days making up the first three years of the 2010s decade, Alex began to suffer from periodic back trouble every day. This I believe, was a psychosomatic throwback of both mental and emotional stresses we both suffered towards the latter end of 2004 and much of 2005, the sort of traumas which could have ended our marriage, but for remembering the wedding vows made before both God and the congregation in 1999, with God's help, I was determined to make our marriage not only stable but strong and robust. And Alex had no intention of separating, either, even though she was advised to do so by Social Services!

But it was also the time of fulfilled dreams. So highly valued were our wedding anniversaries that we made something of them. These included trips abroad as well as within the UK. Overseas destinations within this decade included Kos, Malta, and Paris (twice). This reflects the restrictions our health has recently imposed on us, as within the previous decade, the 2000s, our anniversary trips together included Israel, Rhodes, and Sicily, together with non-anniversary trips such as to Lanzarote during midwinter of 2006. 

And not to rule out our overnight train trip to Inverness from London Euston during the Summer of 2005, a trip deemed very necessarily after what we've been through, and which included hiring two bicycles, one for each of us, to ride the 18-mile 29 km of the northwest coast of Loch Ness to Urquhart Castle, located midway along the Loch. After spending a couple of hours at the lakeside ruin, we then cycled back to Inverness, making a total trip of 36 miles done in a day. Although to my standard, this is quite a moderate distance (I was able to cover up to a hundred miles 162 km in a day on a lightweight bicycle.) For Alex, this was quite an achievement, even surprising the cycle shop owners from where we hired the bikes, who believed that such a trip couldn't be covered in just a day. 

Urquhart Castle, Scotland.

This is a reflection of my beloved's health during those early years of our marriage. Also, she was able to out-run me easily, her lithe physique enabled her to perform fast sprints whenever necessary. 

It goes to show that the 2010s was a decade of massive change and a time for my faith in God to pass through the fire of testing. During the Summer of 2013, we packed our rucksacks for a camping trip to the Dorset resort of Swanage, the gateway town for the Jurassic Coastline with its coastal hiking trail. Alex loved camping and the Great Outdoors. I preferred hosteling, however, the very thought of sleeping in a shared dormitory with other females was anathema to her! So we camped at a site just outside the resort, after a sailing trip from Bournemouth Pier, where the view of Old Harry Rocks, the Foreland and the chalk cliffs of Ballard Down, all viewed from the sea, resulting in an unforgettable experience.

After several nights spent under canvas, the day we were to return home, the weather deteriorated, with gales and rainfall compelling us not to sail back to Bournemouth but instead to take the bus. It was a bad decision. The shaking of the vehicle over rough ground had destabilised her spine, causing a severe pain which immobilised her. She literally struggled to board the train at Bournemouth, and once back home, it took just two more days for her to lay on the floor completely immobilised, a paralysis which rendered both her legs immovable, although not her arms. We called our GP to come on a home visit. At first, he refused. So I had to persuade him over the phone to come and see for himself. Eventually, he agreed to come over. He took just one look at her lying there on the lounge floor and immediately called for the ambulance. With a GP's consultancy, she was admitted to Royal Berks Hospital in Reading, a twenty-minute train journey away from home. There she would stay as an inpatient for up to four months leading to December 2013.

I visited her every single day, including the two weeks she was at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. It was here, by her bedside, where we spent our 14th Wedding Anniversary while she lay semi-conscious. It was devastating. We were meant to have celebrated our 14th in Crete, where several months earlier I had booked and paid the full price - airfare and hotel - to spend a week there. To cancel, then to imagine some other couple taking our place on a cheap, last-minute deal was very unsettling.

She made a recovery to a certain extent but never enough to regain her full mobility. After discharge, it was the wheelchair whenever she was out of doors. The wheelchair was not supplied by the NHS, rather, I bought it myself for her. Later, for her to enjoy greater independence, I bought her a mobility scooter and a shed to house it in. Paul, a good friend of mine in the church, and I took a full day to erect it.

Ballard Down chalk cliff and Old Harry, taken 2017.

However, just a following year, in the Summer of 2014, I began to find breathing at night difficult along with a sense of fluid in my lungs. Alex persuaded me to visit our GP, who immediately sent for my chest to be X-rayed. It came back with a result. My heart was enlarged and not pumping properly. Therefore followed trips to a couple of hospitals until I was diagnosed with a regurgitating aortic valve, and therefore in need of a major heart operation. And so in February 2015, I was admitted to Harefield Hospital in Uxbridge for open-heart surgery. After this and following further tests, I was put on Warfarin for life along with other drugs. Visits for post-surgery hospital check-ups every few months has become a regular schedule right up to the present.

Unfortunately, the 2010s did not bring full harmony with my relationship with Ascot Life Church, my spiritual home. Among the congregation, there is just one man in particular who has a thorough dislike for me, simply for my love of hugging other people in the church, mostly men. Shortly after discharge from Harefield Hospital, a dispute with an Elder, in connection with this man, during Spring of 2015 opened the door for a sabbatical, that is, to take three months off from church commitment to visit twelve other churches, a different one for each Sunday.

But after my return to Ascot, I couldn't help feel the poison in the air whenever this man is present with us. This has been ongoing until very recently when he suddenly stopped attending. At least for now. But every week, right up to the present, I always expect him to turn up unannounced, and I look around with dreadful anticipation.

This man's perception of God is of a truculent Deity who is usually dissatisfied with how some Christians relate to such a fickle-minded divinity. Not surprising at all, come to think of it, that this fellow sees the truth of imputed righteousness of Christ credited to the believer's soul, which leads to eternal security - to be heretical, a dangerous heresy. He also has very low self-esteem and carries an unhealthy preference for graduates, especially those who are married and hold down a professional career. Therefore I wasn't at all surprised for him to turn up to hear a preach delivered by one married graduate at an evening service during the early Summer of 2018.

His discourse was about the first chapter of Genesis which he believes to be on the same authoritative level as the Enuma Elish, an ancient Babylonian document about how the Creation of the heavens and the earth, with all its life, was from a dispute among warring gods. This reminded me of another ancient document, the Gilgamesh Epic, which most secularists place as the true source of the tale of Noah's Flood, above the authority of Genesis. Afterwards, I asked him directly whether he believes the Genesis record is history. He denied it, insisting that Science holds the reins of truth instead, hence questioning the reliability of the Bible to a congregation of listeners.

Yet despite these setbacks, I always had a passionate love for Ascot Life Church, my spiritual home. But to seek relief from the presence of this aforementioned man, God has allowed a beautiful friendship to develop between Dr Andrew Milnthorpe and myself. It actually took off in the Autumn of 2016, when I invited him to attend a conference in Central London which was held by Creation Ministries International. This two-day conference, which involved a night stayed at the Premier Inn Hotel near Waterloo Station, has opened the door for a relationship with someone with an IQ much higher than the foe at Ascot, despite the latter's adoration for the well-educated.

Within the last two years, Andrew has invited me to Encounter, a midweek lunchtime meeting held at the Kerith Centre, with, of course, a self-serve buffet included. Held only during the school term, I only went to it whenever Andrew was allowed the day off, or even the afternoon off, from work, which tends to be sporadic, hence, an invitation to come along can come at very short notice. A development from there is the swim and sauna immediately after the closing of the meeting, as well as day trips to London to visit a museum.

Another reason why 2019 was remarkable. This year was the diagnosis of Alex having breast cancer. Discovered by a Consultant at Frimley Park Hospital back in April 2019, it didn't take long for her to have her affected breast removed, followed by a course of chemotherapy, which was the cause of her hair loss. With this, I'm very, very grateful for the NHS! This after realising what my friend Paul had said to me, that had we lived a century earlier, there would have been nothing the physicians could do. Instead, I would have watched my beloved suffer in pain as her cancer worsened and to die a premature death. I went home that day almost in tears, and grateful to God for allowing us to live in the present when scientific expertise had literally saved my wife's life.

2019 consisted of trips, back and forth, back and forth, to Frimley Park Hospital. This includes the three days she stayed in after her operation. But this also includes the eleven days she had to remain, a few weeks later, after an ambulance pick up from our home to the A&E department. This was due to the discovery of her low white cell count due to her chemotherapy, and the development of feverishness, which if left untreated, could have led to sepsis.

Oh, the days of loneliness as I spent the nights and mornings in an otherwise empty house, save for the goldfish. But the level of comfort gotten from the aquatic organism was practically zero. I wanted my beloved wife to be with me. Back and forth to Frimley Park Hospital by several means. One was by taxi, another by train, other times I actually cycled the 8.5 miles 13.8 km from my house to the hospital and back. But at other times, I can only thank those at our church who was willing to give us a lift, as well as the regular three-week journeys in my father-in-law's car.

Dr Andrew Milnthorpe, a good friend from 2016 - present.

The 2010s decade has changed my life in many ways, from the carefree, travel-loving husband of the late 2000s decade to the responsible carer of the present. This has given Alex tons of loving assurance, especially after the loss of her hair, and my trust in God's faithfulness has grown and matured. And also learning never to take anything for granted but to realise that each day we spend together is a strong, robust marriage is in itself a wonderful gift from God.

Unto Us A Child Is Born...

As I sat at Starbucks this Saturday morning, with my weekly dose of Cappucino Grande having now developed into a tradition of its own, I just had to break into a smile while as I read The Daily Mail newspaper sprawled out in front of me with the page edges overhanging the rather small circular table. Smiling at such promises of "...restoration of our institutions to their right places as instruments of self-governance...and to open up oceans of opportunity...as one invigorated nation, one United Kingdom filled with renewed confidence in our national destiny and determined, at last, to take advantage of the opportunities that now lie before us..." - all to happen after Brexit.

And on the same spread, without having to turn over the page, was an article with a headline which read,

Council Tax bills to rise by £70.

So this is the start of this utopian "oceans of opportunities as one invigorated nation" post-Brexit! Not much fun for low-income earners after all.

Wait! This blog was originally meant to be non-political. After all, it's Christmas. Surely, there are other things I can smile about - things that are far grander, far more glorious than the apparent contradictory news.

For many families, Christmas is a time of enforced joy, according to one newspaper journalist who wrote to The Sun, more than a couple of decades earlier. That's rather different from the amusement I felt while sitting at Starbucks. Here, I was genuinely amused. But on Christmas Day, there are always those niggling bits, such as the unwrapping of brightly-coloured paper to reveal an unwanted present and the utterance of Oh, that's what I always wanted, with a pretence which might have impressed Hollywood. 

Children squeal with delight at their newly-unwrapped powered toys, until, that is, realising that Father Christmas had forgotten to include the batteries. Mums are busy in the kitchen, monitoring the slow cooking of the turkey while preparing the roast potatoes and Brussels sprouts. And this despite Mum has already foreseen that this little green vegetable will be the bane of the children, who will be kicking up a fuss over them, and their tearful protests will dampen the joyful atmosphere the festivity is meant to create. Yet to boil up the sprouts is essential for Christmas dinner, simply because it's traditional. Christmas without sprouts? That's unheard of.

In the afternoon, a quarrel could well erupt among the extended family members as Dad and his visiting older brother will avoid the mountain of dishwashing, leaving the task to the already stressed-out Mum, even with Auntie's help, while the grown-up brothers either relax in the armchair and smoke their Havana cigars, filling the room with that aroma - characteristic of Christmas - or with their teenage sons, engage in the board game of Monopoly, where sedate men metamorph into ravenous property-owning monsters whose hotel on Park Lane and Mayfair will guarantee a wipeout of all the teenagers' assets, money and property alike until Uncle has bankrupted all his opponents, Dad included.

Then by nightfall, it's all over. It's rather like a firework. It's made in a faraway factory, then shipped to the store and eventually purchased by the customer, who may store it away for weeks on end until that one evening, Bonfire Night, when the firework is at last lit, only to brighten the dark sky for just a few seconds before ending up as a burnt-out shell, ready for the trash can. Christmas follows the same pattern as the firework. After weeks, maybe even months of preparation (eg, gift purchasing) it's all over after just a day. As for me, it can feel like an anticlimax.

At least not for the children, who would play with their presents for days, weeks or even months until the novelty has worn off. If Mum is lucky enough, Dad might wear that tie she bought for him, at work in the office, at least for a while anyway. Else, I wonder how many ties received at Christmas across the nation, end up forgotten in the bedroom wardrobe, never having seen a shirt collar?

This long wait for a sudden, momentary spark seems to be what the Old Testament of the Bible looks to resemble. For example, around 700 years before the birth of Christ, a prophet wrote:

Even the Lord will give you a sign. A virgin shall conceive and give birth to a son, and he shall be called Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14.)

It's indeed a very long wait - 700 years for an event which probably took no more than a couple of hours, including the start of labour pains following the breaking of the waters. Or even less than an hour altogether. Indeed, giving birth to the Son of God might have been very quick. The Bible doesn't tell us how long the birthing process took. But God took up to 4,000 years to accomplish it! That is, from the Promise delivered immediately after the Fall of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:15) to the moment of conception and birth of Jesus Christ.

But there is a massive difference between the preparation for Christmas (or Bonfire Night) and the preparation for the Virgin Birth. While the first two are annual events which don't change anything except for a short time of euphoria, the long-anticipated birth of the Messiah changes the eternity of all believers, both alive during Old Testament times and in the New, along with the fate of all Creation itself. And that includes the fate of all the stars and galaxies in the Universe. I find it amazing that the entire Universe, made on the fourth day of Creation Week, will be affected by the birth of a baby boy in an insignificant Judaean village of Bethlehem. 

It is the birth of this man-child which will turn death into life, mourning into joy, enmity into friendship. This baby will result in the atonement for sin, the Resurrection from the dead, and the final defeat of the Devil. This birth will bring about the glorious marriage of the Bride, which is the Church, to her beloved Groom. I would venture to say that in the past there were three great redemptive events ever to have taken place in history - the Nativity, the Death and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. As for the Second Advent, this is still future and therefore not yet recorded in history, except having been foretold in prophecy.

Somewhere in eternity past, before Creation of any kind, the three Persons of one Almighty God were having a discussion among themselves. God the Father asked,

Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?

To which God the Son answered,

Here am I, I will go. Send me.

To which all three, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, rejoiced greatly in full agreement.

And therefore, God the Son, having the very nature of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness (Philippians 2:7) - and chose to be born in a stable rather than in a palace. It is because of this birth having taken place in a stable and not in a palace, that Almighty God, this incarnated Second Person of the Trinity, had the most humble of beginnings.

Eight days after he was born, and keeping with the law delivered to Abraham and to all his descendants, this baby let out a scream the moment his foreskin went under the knife, as circumcision had to be carried out on all Jewish boys. This Jesus, this Son of God, had become familiar with physical pain right from the start of his life as part-fulfilment of the prophecy written by Isaiah:

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgression, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes, we are healed.

Isaiah 53:4-5.

Of course, this prophecy was fulfilled at the Crucifixion, but I venture to say that the pain he had to go through as an eight-day-old infant was part of that fulfilment, as he was without sin, and therefore, during that heavenly council during eternity past, it was agreed that he gave himself to be circumcised to fulfil all righteousness.

It's because this child was born in a stable and then placed in a feeding trough that we as believers are able, through his death and Resurrection, to have the righteousness of Christ imputed into our souls. It's this Nativity marking the beginning of the New Covenant, the Covenant of grace ratified, even though every Old Testament saint was saved by grace, as with Abraham, having the righteousness of Christ imputed into their accounts. There is no other way. It's impossible to work for salvation since we are all tainted with sin. And if salvation can be lost or forfeited, as some Christians believe and teach, then it would be utterly impossible for any believer to enter Heaven, for the Law is already transgressed at the slightest stumble, according to James 2:10.

So special was his birth that he was, and will be, the fulfilment of another piece of Scripture, which reads:

Unto us a child is born, unto us, a son is given: and the government will be upon his shoulders: and his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, the mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgement and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord will accomplish this.

Isaiah 9:6-7.

With the angel announcing to the shepherds that to them this day a child is born, who is Christ the Lord, (Luke 2:11) - this leaves no doubt that at his birth, this baby is already the Christ, the Jewish Messiah. 

Putting it all together, Christmas is a very special holiday for us, it should be celebrated with joy and thanksgiving, and it should not be compromised, such as referring to it as Winter Holiday or anything similar in order not to offend Muslims or of any other faith. Christmas is about the birth of Christ. Christmas is also about Easter, for the primary purpose of his birth was to die to atone for our sins and to defeat death by His bodily Resurrection.

The birth of Jesus Christ is about the birth of a new Government, which will come into power at his Second Advent. So perfect this Government will be, where peace, longevity and perfect health will be the hallmarks no present Government could ever deliver, regardless who resides at #10 Downing Street.

On behalf of my beloved wife, Alex and I wish you all a very merry Christmas. May God bless you richly in the week to come. 

Election Result: How I Found Peace

Throughout the past three years, I have featured on my pessimism over the idea of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union, and later expressed my concerns concerning the future of the National Health Service (NHS). This has always been due to our for-life medicine supplies, with my beloved Alex relying on Diazepam and other drugs to keep her neurotic disorder under control, and Warfarin, along with other drugs, including beta-blockers, to keep my heart pumping healthily after an aortic valve replacement procedure back in 2015.

Happy to say, at present, I'm more at peace with our present election result with Conservative Boris Johnson elected as Prime Minister.

But before I proceed further into this blog, it might be helpful to give a brief background of my upbringing, so what follows will fit into place more clearly.  

Both my parents were ardent socialists, with Dad, in particular, a republican. Here in the UK, a republican is someone who prefers an elected president as Head of State rather than a monarchy, who's heir to the Throne passes from generation to generation without ever facing an election. Therefore, on the political front, both my parents had always been committed to voting Labour.

As for me, I am more sympathetic to the Monarchy than my father was, but only on the borderline. When I see the Queen busy at her duties and fully committed to them, then I tend to feel that she has done a good job and therefore engender a greater sense of sympathy. But at other times, such as the divorce between Prince Charles and Diana, her fatality under a Paris subway, along with the scandal following Prince Andrew's friendship with a billionaire paedophile, besides with such global broadcasting of royal pageantry, giving the impression that Queen Elizabeth II is the most important Head of State in the world, surpassing all other national leaders, then the pendulum tends to swing the other way, and therefore I tend to favour republicanism. And that is my position at present.

Since I became a Christian believer exactly 47 years ago, I came across literature by Christian authors, mostly American. These included Dr John R. Rice, founder of The Sword of the Lord in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, along with Hal Lindsey and Tim LaHaye. All three having testified that capitalism is linked to the Bible while socialism opposes it. Indeed, they have a point. The father of both socialism and Russian communism was Karl Marx, a Jewish atheist who advocated collective ownership of all property and distribution of all wealth gotten by high taxation. Along with the banning of all religion, and private ownership of property both were made a criminal offence, as all churches were forced to close, and land and assets were forcibly seized from their owners under Marx's manifesto.

Such a brutal system proved to be a failure, as both Perestroika and Glasnost of the 1980s led to the eventual downfall of Soviet Communism, and the dismantling of the Berlin Wall during November 1991. As such, as a Christian, I believe that capitalism is not only a better system to serve this fallen world, but it's closer to the Bible than outright socialism.

Along with the 8th and 10th Commandments of the Decalogue (Exodus 20) emphasising respect for private property ownership, one of the best-known teachings of Jesus Christ was on the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, recorded in Matthew 20:1-16. Here, an agreement was made between a landowner and a group of hired workers of a penny for a full day's work, starting early in the morning. Then throughout the day, the landowner went out to hire more workers to make it possible to market his produce sooner, whilst still fresh. He then went out to collect further workers in the early evening, and they did just an hour's work. Then at payout time, everyone received a penny or denarius, regardless of the hours put in.

The idea of a penny seems utterly worthless in our present currency. It doesn't buy anything. Of such little worth, our Government had talked about abolishing it, along with our 2p coin and our tiddler 5p coin, but an uproar from the public had quickly shelved that idea. But as the denarius is a day's wages for a worker, the penny of Roman times must have fed him and his family.

It came as no surprise then when the early-starters kicked up a fuss over receiving the same amount of money as those who only worked an hour. Forgetting the original agreement made with the landowner, their protest earned a rebuke and a questioning of his generosity.

For most of my Christian lifetime, I have thought that the landowner's generosity applied only to those who worked from mid-afternoon onwards. But lately, I have come to believe that he was generous to all his employees by allowing them to earn a day's wages instead of watching them and their families go hungry. If this perception is true, then I have begun to understand the underlying motives of the English capitalists of the Victorian era, that period of English history which has been re-enacted in a series of BBC documentaries.

Often depicted as the epitome of cruelty, we watch as these proprietors and mill owners extract the most arduous of work from their employees for the smallest pay they feel to be right. The result is that the working families, including their children, goes through a hard day's graft, under the threat that their pay will be withheld if they don't work quick enough or their final product is below par.

But these capitalists saw themselves as Christians, in obedience to God based on their awareness of Matthew 20:1-16, along with other Scriptures endorsing the virtue of land ownership. Therefore they saw themselves as generous, allowing the poor to eat.

Boris Johnson after his election victory.

It's such an environment of the 19th Century when the rise of the Labour Party took its roots. However, there is a subtle difference between Labour and Socialism which even my late father might not have been able to tell apart. The former wishes to give greater care and respect, along with a decent pay among workers within capitalism, allowing the latter to exist. Socialism wishes to do away with capitalism altogether. As one who believes that capitalism is of greater benefit than socialism, I believe Labour has done a great deal of good among the workers. Not only has their pay had risen to considerable heights, but paid holidays eventually became the norm, along with the forming of the NHS in 1948 under Clement Atlee's Labour Government.

Since then, the NHS has been the sticking point in every election manifesto, especially in the last few decades. And it was the issue of the NHS that has made me develop a deep distrust of Boris Johnson's attitude towards the NHS, with his intention for privatisation, together with his Brexit campaign.

It has all started with David Cameron's February 2016 declaration of a Referendum to be held on the 23rd June of that year. Two brothers who both attended Eton College, Nigel and Alex Noaks, were two businessmen who had an interest in psychological profiling. The older of the two, Alex, was also a former executive of the Tory Party's favourite advertising agency - Saatchi & Saatchi. In due course, another Etonian, Alexander Nix, joined the brothers after forming a company, Cambridge Analytica (CA), whose purpose was to persuade swing voters to support a particular candidate or issue and to win elections. 

As a result, in 2016, the Trump campaign, sponsored by wealthy businessmen such as Ted Cruz and billionaire Robert Mercer, was successful in winning the majority of the American electorate to vote for Donald Trump. Then afterwards, the main Brexit group, Vote Leave, which received £100,000 from one of its donors, billionaire Paul Marshall, along with donations adding up to millions of pounds made from other businessmen; and the website Leave.EU. sponsored CA to enlighten the nation to vote to leave the EU. 

Three tactics were used. One was to do with the NHS, with Boris Johnson promising that with the weekly £350,000,000 paid into the European Union, this instead can be used to fund the NHS. However, the then UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage saw that Johnson's NHS argument was too overwhelming to be a realistic tactic, so he ventured on the second of the three tactics - immigration. Farage emphasised how the crisis caused by the 2015 Refugee Crisis into mainland Europe from Turkey and Lybia was the setting for his Breaking Point campaign, featuring a queue of refugees attempting to enter Croatia. This campaign was also heavily supercharged by Cambridge Analytica.

The third psychological tactic used by the CA was the idea that by leaving the EU, the British can reclaim its Bulldog spirit. This British Bulldog spirit mentality most likely had its appeal for the Labour strongholds of the North of England, where heavy industry such as coal and steel once held dominance.*

The Referendum came and went with Brexit the clear winner, albeit by just a small 52/48% margin. David Cameron resigned from his PM post on the same day, Theresa May took over as PM and Boris Johnson declared that the weekly £350,000,000 meant for the NHS were absolute rubbish, before setting off to play cricket with Lord Althorpe, another Etonian. Indeed, with the heavy influence of Etonian-run Cambridge Analytica, Boris Johnson, also an Etonian, used deception to fool the public. On a spiritual basis, this is a serious matter when considering what Jesus said that the Devil is the father of lies (John 8:44).

With this lie, my distrust for Johnson grew as he took over Theresa May's resignation on June 7th, 2019. After he won the post as leader of the Tory Party on the 24th of July 2019, one of his vows was:

I will sooner die in a ditch than not take the UK out of the EU by October 31st.

October 31st came and went and the UK was still in the EU. Then the matter arose of a document, produced by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, about the NHS being on the table among other trading agreements with the USA. This document was composed under Theresa May's administration and therefore vehemently denied by both Donald Trump and Boris Johnson alike.

With the Tories winning the December 2019 election with an 80 seat majority, I took a look into the Daily Mail newspaper of Saturday, December 14th, the day after the election result was given. He had promised a sum of thirty-four billion pounds! At first, I wasn't sure whether the paper meant the total sum of that amount throughout the whole five-year Parliament, or otherwise. It was later that this enormous amount of money, £34,000,000,000,000, was his annual contribution a small fact the paper did not mention.

It's an enormous promise, which apparently dwarfs the weekly £350,000,000 he says he would save from having to pay for EU membership after Brexit. If £34 billion per year is what he has promised, which he says will be legally binding through a law to be passed through Parliament, then I truly hope he will stick to his promise in the years to come!

Then there are the Labour strongholds, particularly in the industrial North of England. For up to a hundred years, no Tory candidate would ever be delivered to Parliament. For these regions to give their support for the Tories to deliver Brexit is an astonishing accomplishment. But this, I believe, is a borrowed vote, lent on condition that Brexit gets done. Tamper with the NHS to their detriment, and the Tories will become toast, especially after the Labour Party had changed its leader.

All this is a tremendous sigh of relief! But in truth, my trust must be in God alone. The One who holds everything in his hands and even uses the earth as his footstool. This is the real source of peace - a trust in God for his daily provision including medical care. He alone is the Saviour, the source of salvation, the gift of eternal life given to everyone who believes.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Good information is found in the paperback: Posh Boys, how English Public Schools ruin Britain, by Robert Verkaik, 2018, Reprinted 2019, Oneworld Publications

Post-Brexit Britain - Atlantis Reborn?

December at last! And the start of the party season which marks Christmas and New Year's Eve respectively. Next weekend (that is Sunday 15th) there will be a Carol Service at Ascot Life Church beginning at 4.00 pm and another one at the Kerith Centre at 7.00 pm. I'll be attending both, God willing, the later service through an invitation made by my good friend Dr Andrew Milnthorpe, who, this week, offered me a level of prayerful comfort after finding out that I'm waiting for a hospital appointment for tests to rule out the possibility of bladder cancer.

But the atmosphere of "goodwill and peace to all men" made manifest by the presence of Christmas trees illuminated by coloured light bulbs, fake glittery presents purposely placed around these trees in a public setting, tinsel and baubles hanging from wall to wall - such a festive air of goodwill seems tainted with anxiety and a feeling of uncertainty by the coming general election for the leaders of either of the two main parties for Government power. Those two candidates are our present Prime Minister Boris Johnson for upholding a free-market economy, against the Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn for promoting "extreme Marxism" which to many, poses a threat to the future of our country.

And so the two were up for an hour-long debate, with BBC reporter Nick Robinson as the monitor. With The Daily Mail national newspaper making a lot of fuss about Johnson's very narrow victory of the debate, a 52/48% majority, according to a snap YouGov poll, leaving he newspaper pleading with the electorate to vote Conservative at the next election, itself taking place less than a week after this blog is written and published. The narrowness of the capitalist's victory over the socialist leader does pose a threat of a hung-Parliament with a chance of Corbyn, with the support of, or even a coalition with, the Scottish National Party's leader Nicola Sturgeon, taking the keys of number 10 Downing Street.

Therefore the newspaper promises "a fabulous golden age of National Sovereignty and independence from Europe, where businesses will thrive, people will have well-paid jobs, world-wide trading being established, the building of up to sixty hospitals, the training of thousands of nurses, the immigration of skilled people only into the UK" - all promised to happen after Brexit. Or in other words, an independent nation of engineering skills and technology, along with a thriving economy.

Yet the newspaper is running scared. And that is despite that during the early stages of the BBC debate, no mention was made whatsoever by The Daily Mail of Johnson's constant er-er-humming in hesitation when an awkward question was presented to him. All he could come up with was GET BREXIT DONE! over and over again like a computerised zombie programmed by some insane maniac. Even then, a YouGov poll reveals a higher level of trustworthiness towards Corbyn despite his defeat in the debate. On Johnson's constant hesitation to answer directly, the Tory-leaning newspaper remains ominously quiet.

I suppose the unrealistic optimism of promising something of a resurrection of Atlantis after Brexit takes quite a beating! This was a fabulous island-continent somewhere "beyond the Pillars of Hercules" - according to the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, meaning somewhere out in the Atlantic Ocean. This landmass supported a population who was supposed to be so advanced in engineering and technology and enjoying a thriving economy before descending into wickedness, eventually resulting in a mass swallowing up by the ocean. A fabulous myth? Maybe so, but there is that distant echo of the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished - 2 Peter 3:6 - a strong indication of not being a mythical but a historic event. And a global event too, not just restricted to the Atlantic Ocean.

Fantasy image of Atlantis submerged by the ocean.

Perhaps for the Tory-voting, Brexit-supporting businesses and entrepreneurs, the fact that Jeremy Corbyn is accused of supporting or endorsing antisemitism within his own party might offer some hope of this Labour leader will suffer defeat at the election. But among these Tory hopefuls, I actually wonder how many of them are familiar with that one verse in the Bible:

I will bless those who bless you, but anyone who curses you will be cursed (Genesis 12:3.)

It's so unfortunate that the greater majority of the electorate, both Tory and Labour, are not aware that a leader's attitude towards the Jews can be the reason for either his elevation or his downfall. If Corbyn is defeated at the coming election, then one cause of his downfall could be from his antisemitic attitude both within himself and in other members of his party. That is my opinion. But the many, who are aware of this verse, having learnt it at Religious Education classes at school but without conversion, will equate it as a fairy tale, although still acknowledging that Abraham might have existed, unlike that of Adam or Noah.

Maybe that's the reason sceptical scientists laugh at the idea of Atlantis having ever existed, just as much as Noah having ever existed at all. Both Plato's Atlantis and Noah's Flood speak of the same thing - a judgement sent from heaven to punish wickedness within a thriving society. And what I can see, Boris' optimistic utopia following Brexit looks to be very parallel to Atlantis and the antediluvian world. All three reached the height of technological splendour and with a flourishing economy - but all three rejecting God. As Jesus himself once said,

In the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark and the flood came and took them all away (Matthew 24:38, Luke 17:26.)

If that wasn't enough, then Jesus continues:

It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and brimstone came and destroyed them all (Luke 17:28-29.)

Little wonder the Bible is mocked or even hated to this day. Here were two flourishing economies, both divinely destroyed. Therefore Jesus must be endorsing history, for he spoke as if these events were history. There was nothing bad about these cultures (eg heterosexual marriage), nothing bad about these economies, nothing bad about these projects - their skills, their ability to educate themselves and become experts in architectural and engineering marvels. Their main shortcoming was to reject God and deny his existence. That left them feeling optimistic, fueled by self-confidence, opening the door for every kind of debauchery, along with all the sexual, covetous, and murderous sins the human heart could ever bring up.

Therefore my doubts on Boris Johnson's long-term optimism for a flourishing golden age of post-Brexit Britain. Although it's a crying shame, such hope doesn't have its foundation on the Rock of Christ but on the sand of Darwinism. Okay, for you who may be regular readers of this page, I know, I go on and on about this Darwinian theory opposing Divine Creation. But it's this, I believe, which has sent millions into a lost eternity in the past couple of centuries! A terrible tragedy. Tragic because it was a lost destiny I could have been heading myself, as I was once an atheist, a God-hater and a devout evolutionist.

It gives me no joy to write like this, hence my wish for all my Christian brothers not to bother so much about Brexit, but to be more emphatic about Divine Creation, along with Christ and his Kingdom, the final destiny, so wished for by the apostles that the speeding of his coming as part of their prayers - for a quick redemption of both body and soul alike. Heaven is about being in the presence of God, who is Love, the eternal love shared between Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and God's gracious wish and desire to share this eternal love with his Creation, with mankind, actually partaking in this love and sharing all the joys which go with it.

At Creation, God appointed a federal head of all mankind, Adam. But since the Fall, God appointed two more. Those two were Abraham, the father of all Jews, a nation appointed to intercede for all nations, and Jesus Christ himself, the Second Adam. All mankind is born in Adam, but through faith in the Death, Burial and Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, the believer becomes one in Christ. Furthermore, the Christian receives the imputed righteousness of Christ into his account. That means that God the Father sees him in the same way as he sees his Son, the believer in Christ and Christ in the believer. And because the Father sees the believer in the same way as his Son, the believer can never be lost again.

As for Adam himself, the federal head of all mankind, is he in Christ? Yes, I actually believe he is (along with Eve). When God rebuked the serpent in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve believed, and thus, the righteousness of Christ was imputed into their accounts (Genesis 3:15). But they were still driven out of the garden due to their sinful bodies. The fact that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God is why, when a saint dies, his spirit and soul goes to Heaven to be with Christ while his body goes to the grave.

Three federal heads: Adam, Abraham, and Jesus Christ. As such the plan of salvation which is infinitely greater than any utopian ideal dreamt by any political leader. Each of the three has a bride, a wife for the husband to love and care for. Adam had Eve, Abraham had Serah, and as for Jesus, his bride is still in the making. She is the Church, a nation of called-out saints who have received his imputed righteousness. 

Reader, if you are a believer in Christ and you are indwelt by his Holy Spirit, then I beseech you to let go of Brexit and take hold of the greater promises God has in store for you. As I say of Brexit, is the same instruction Jesus gave to one of his listeners:

Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the Kingdom of God. (Luke 9:60.)

Veganism - No, Not To My Taste.

I never forget watching Clint Eastwood play the part of the Good in the Big Screen movie Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo, with such beautiful music accompanying the film, the music composed by Ennio Morricone. The title theme is most likely the better-known piece, however, The Ecstasy of Gold, from the same movie, is to my mind, one of the best tunes the music industry has ever offered. Whenever played from YouTube or from one of our CD albums, I can't help but associate this musical track with my hiking trips down into the Grand Canyon during the years 1978 and 1995 alike, walking, fully laden, down that dusty trail into the desert environment until reaching the Colorado River and beyond.

Colorado River, Grand Canyon, taken September 1995.

Although the story is set just after the American Civil War of the 1860s, the location conveys the idea of the Utah/Arizona area of western United States - hence my association with the Grand Canyon hiking experience. In fact, the movie was shot in Spain, at a landscape very similar to that of the western USA.

But I'm drifting off from my point here. Please excuse me for that. Anything to do with Travel and I can get so easily carried away. The point here is that one of the better-known actors who took part in the movie was Clint Eastwood.

Although I know of Eastwood, he doesn't know me and I guess he never will - unless he has faith in Christ as Saviour. Then we'll get to know each other in Heaven.

Celebrity is a subject I have touched on before. On one of my earlier blogs, Three Little Boys, at present standing at #3 on the most popular personal blogging list, I have gone quite deeply into the celebrity culture, specifying that my birthday was very close to those of Patrick Swayze and Christopher Reeve. Swayze was a month older than me while Reeve was a couple of weeks younger. Location of all three newborns was the only preventative from all three of us lying side by side in our cots, with me in the middle. Of us three newborns, not only was I the only one who had never made it to celebrity status but I'm also the only one of the three still alive, having outlived the other two by quite some years.

However, thanks to the internet, it's actually possible to send a private message to a famous person if that person has an active account on social sites such as Twitter or Facebook. But without doubt, the star has to shift through hundreds, if not thousands of messages each day or each week - my own message would be close to irrelevance. Or quite likely, my message may go unread for weeks, months or forever. For him (or her), I'm just another faceless one in the crowd.

As celebrities go, there is quite a number who is gathering fame on YouTube. Videos posted recently can gather a viewing rate of several tens of thousands in just a few weeks - a rate which compares more favourably than blogging, since I believe that watching a mini-movie is more illustrative than reading words. Could this be the reason why so many great films shown on the Big Screen and TV alike are adaptions of novels?

However, I doubt very much that YouTube celebrities will ever reach the status of an actor, pop artist or even a sportsman, such as a professional footballer. Actors such as Clint Eastwood, Christopher Reeve, Patrick Swayze, Michael J. Fox, and many others became famous by appearing on the cinema screens. In turn, singers such as John Lennon, Harry Secombe, Mick Jagger, Cilla Black and Sandie Shaw became famous through their sale of records. On the football field, Sir Alf Ramsey received a knighthood for managing the England team to victory at the 1966 World Cup final against Germany, with Geoff Hurst scoring three of the four goals in a hat trick which made 1966 the only year in international football history ever to lift the Cup.

Those are true celebrities, whose talent in their particular fields have made them pass through an otherwise impossibly narrow gate to stardom. However, it does look as though YouTube stars will never make it to the level of the names mentioned above, but many of these vloggers (I think I got that right) have a wide-enough audience to actually sustain their living. One of them, university graduate Gabriel Morris, better known by his screen name as Gabriel Traveler, makes his living by videoing his travels around the world and posting them on YouTube - and getting paid for his contributions from Google. And as such, there are many vloggers on YouTube who can be classified as "minor celebrities". 

But one vlogger, in particular, I would like to bring to the forefront here. His real name is Alexander J. O'Connor, known under a screen name of Cosmic Skeptic. Barely out of his teens, this Oxford undergraduate already has close to 300 subscribers and at present 24,040,703 views since joining the website on February 2nd, 2013. Being a student at Oxford is a huge advantage, as being an academic will add authenticity to his presentations. Like the long-haired and bearded Gabriel Traveler, O'Connor is always dressed in a crew-neck tee-shirt whilst in his own studio, and he wears an open-neck shirt when speaking to a live audience. The absence of a tie does not seem to affect his viewing statistics, nor his popularity.

Alexander J. O'Connor, aka Cosmic Skeptic.

O'Connor grew up as a Roman Catholic and he devoted his childhood to the faith, I believe, as an altar-boy. But as his disillusion with his faith began to grow, along with his faith in Evolution, he became a staunch atheist. And that is the main theme with all his presentations, with the words moral and morality, which, according to him, can be attained equally well in an evolutionary setting without the need for religion.

But one video he recently made was a talk delivered to a live audience at an auditorium in Tel Aviv. The subject was about why he has turned to be a vegan. In a half-hour presentation, he explains about the cruelty of animals and their slaughter in the abattoirs - just to delight our taste buds.

I do believe there's a difference between veganism and vegetarianism. The latter excludes meat and fish from the diet, but I think, milk and eggs, along with their products, are allowed to be consumed. But veganism excludes everything which comes from animals. Not only meat and fish but milk and eggs too. This would include all cheese, yoghurt, and all other dairy and egg-based products. Furthermore, according to O'Connor, veganism also excludes all clothing made from animal fibre, an issue which would make both winter clothing and footwear choice difficult matters. For example, this atheist speaks against wearing woollen jumpers, despite that the sheep which supplies the wool is not killed, but shorn alive - a procedure which actually enhances the health of the sheep.

To impose a self-made restriction on what I can and cannot eat or wear or even what I can have as a utility (eg, a leather wallet or briefcase) would make my life a misery. After all, I love chocolate, and here in the UK, confection such as Cadbury's Dairy Milk is as enjoyable as it could ever be, and Easter would be a nightmare for any vegan parents teaching their children what to enjoy and what not to eat, especially when the kids are escorted by Mum through the superstore displays. The same with Christmas, when confection is also high on the family's treats. More so at tea-time when parents make sure to buy biscuits without any chocolate toppings or chips.

But this is the very thing which upsets O'Connor. Why must cows endure forced pregnancy to supply milk for us humans? Then if the calf is female, it will be raised for her to produce milk in the future. If the calf is male, it too will be raised to face the abattoir for beef and veal production. But what really strikes O'Connor as particularly upsetting is the forced separation of the calf from its mother, causing her to suffer over the loss of offspring. If such sentimentality is promoted to make us feel guilty, then to some this might have an effect of converting to veganism.

And that is the central theme of O'Connor's preaching. To convert. And not because eating all animal-sourced products is bad for us. Rather, to convert to veganism from an omnivorous lifestyle is all to do with personal morals rather than nutritional benefits.

Therefore it's my moral responsibility not to touch turkey for Christmas, not to have roast chicken thighs each Sunday, not to accept a succulent roast lamb or stewed beef fillet whilst guests at a friend's home, never to have milk with my morning cereal, just soya instead which doesn't taste so good. And I'll miss eggs too, especially the omelette which my beloved knows how to blend with Red Leicester cheese to give such a tangy taste. And buy dark chocolate only, some, let's face it, taste awful! And if I want biscuits (or cookies), then I have to make sure that they are free from any milk chocolate chips or coating.

Indeed, living to vegan normality would not only be crushingly dull but on the verge of insanity! And I believe that this morality is based on two factors: the elimination of animal suffering, and a move to combat climate change.

Animal suffering in human hands of course! Because in this fallen world, carnivores have no empathy whatsoever for the feelings of their prey. Suffering is the very soul of this fallen world. A cheetah will chase a reindeer or gazelle until the latter is exhausted and then the big cat will bring it down. The meercat is on constant watch, out of fear and anxiety, for the approach of the hyena or leopard. In the ocean, a large school of salmon will hunch into a ball which is targeted by carnivores - whales, sharks, dolphins - and from the air, birds swoop down. Even the fossil record shows the constant suffering and violent death of prehistoric life, a very sobering story which contradicts any molecules-to-man evolutionary theories.

It was not always like this. At the beginning of Creation, all the animals fed on vegetation and all humans fed on the fruit of the trees, according to Genesis 1:29-30. It was the result of the Fall, the entry of sin into the world and death following sin, which brought a massive change within Creation, according to Genesis 3:17-19. Since that awful day, the whole of creation has been subjected to pain, suffering, sorrow and death. No amount of veganism will change anything. There will always be carnivores and there will always be prey, fear, pain and suffering within the animal kingdom along within humanity itself.

And the great Amazon rainforest of Brazil - it decimation is not so much for the breeding and grazing of cattle, as O'Connor would like to think it is. Rather, vast areas of forest are being cleared out to make way for farming, the sowing and harvesting of palm oil. After a while, the area is abandoned and becomes a wasteland. As rainforest provides a high percentage of global oxygen supply, I think it's of far more important for the health of our planet than veganism.

A Future Chat With the Pharmacist.

Alex looked concerned as she checked her prescription supply.

Alex: Sweetheart, can you pop down to the surgery and order another supply of Diazepam and Baclofen?

Frank: Okay no problem. As a matter of fact, my Warfarin is running low too. I have only four day's supply left. It's time to top up. How much do you still have left?

Alex: (counting) I would say four or five days.

Frank: Okay. I'll be back shortly.

As I walk merrily down the tree-lined path into the woods which makes up a corner of South Hill Park, I ponder on how fortunate as a nation to have the National Health Service. Being a short walk, I decided to leave the bicycle behind. By walking, I can look around our unspoilt environment and thank the Lord for his sustained Creation, as well as thanking him for allowing me to see another day in human history.

I approach our local NHS surgery. Ordering prescribed medicine is a simple task. Just tick the boxes printed next to each drug listed on the form, which came with the last prescription, and then to post it through into the renewal box fixed for the purpose next to the Prescription Enquiries window.

As I approached, I began to feel alarmed at the empty car park, which was never free from the four or five cars which were parked there during office hours. As I approached the main entrance, I was suddenly paralysed with shock! I continued to stare at the notice fixed to the glass-panelled door from the inside, which read:
DUE TO PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES, THIS SURGERY WILL REMAIN CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.

Further notice? What "Further notice?" It could be just for a few hours or days. But equally, it could be for weeks, months, years.

I was gripped by cold, naked fear. I broke into a cold sweat and even felt my long hair attempting to stand on end. How on earth are we to renew our prescriptions? Especially with my wife's Diazepam? With her neurotic disorder, without this vital drug, she can go into involuntary fits of muscle spasm, a convulsion of her body which cannot be controlled by the conscious mind. Her daily dose of the medicine keeps her from having such fits and therefore able to lead a normal life.

Quickly and panic-stricken, I make my way to the Drugstore, just less than 150 metres from the surgery. I then asked the Pharmacist what's on earth is going on. She then explained the current crisis of the NHS. Ever since the Tories had regained power at 10 Downing Street back in December of 2019, as well as leaving the European Union soon afterwards, there has first been a trickle of staff deserting the NHS, followed by a flood of those leaving to return to their home countries. She also explained that a large proportion of the Doctors, Consultants and Nurses were from Europe and India, the latter renowned for its children's ambition to qualify as Doctors through dedication to study hard at school and college, without such distractions such as television, play stations, football team support or pop music.

What? I asked. Isn't there a gene pool right here in England for training qualified NHS staff?

Not according to statistics, was her reply. But equally distressing, according to this Pharmacist, was the strangulation of medical supplies, especially from Europe, where a large proportion is made and shipped. Being outside the European Union, such supplies have now to pass through custom and tariff legislation. With such shipping held up and delayed, along with border tariffs, the price of medicine had to rise.

I responded that I'm not too worried about that, for Alex has a pre-paid certificate and since I'm over 65, I qualify for Senior Citizen's State-funded medical supply.

The Pharmacist gave me a rather drawn-out look, then reassured me that she now has the authority to sign for the medicine in place of the Doctor. What a huge relief! When I told her that we need our prescription renewed right away, she took the forms from me and with her fellow staff members, proceeded to prepare the medicines which we both require. About twenty minutes later she appeared holding two packets.

Disturbingly, she began to jab at her calculator.

That will be ninety pounds, please.

WHA-A-A-T!!! I cried. My wife has a pre-paid Certificate and I'm a pensioner. What's going on?

Pharmacist: You should know by now that since recently, the NHS had imploded on itself, it no longer exists. With that, pre-paid certificates are now invalid and every senior citizen has to pay now as well. Look, you asked for three packets of Warfarin, one of Losartan, one of Spironolactone, one of Bisoprolol, and one of Bumetanide. At ten pounds each, that would be seventy pounds. Then your wife wanted Diazepam and Baclofen, adding a further twenty pounds. That totals ninety.

Frank: My wife did not ask for Antidepressants, Oramorph, Co-Codamol, Senna or Laxido, at least not this time. If she had, then the whole shenanigan would cost us both 140 pounds! That's more than the 110 pounds she spent to buy her pre-paid certificate valid for a whole year. 

Pharmacist: I'm very sorry things turned out this way. But our NHS has been on its breaking point for the last several years. Sooner or later something had to give. Hence the closure of all our GP surgeries.

As I left the Drugstore feeling crushed and out of pocket, I was wondering how on earth are we going to manage all this. Fortunately, my Pension income is healthy, we should be able to pull through - just, without the need to tighten our belts too much, although it may mean saying goodbye to taking breaks away, whether it's in the UK or abroad. Or as long as we don't fall ill in need of hospitalisation. Just by calling 999 may itself cost us more than a hundred pounds.

On the walk home, I decided to take a longer route, so I can mull on my thoughts.

"Fear coursing through my whole being. Fear? That's an understatement. It was more like terror - frightened of the future. I guess it goes back to December 2019, the month of our last election. Boris Johnson leading the Conservative Party back into power, hence a majority Government back into Parliament. His new Cabinet also included Jacob Rees-Mogg as Chancellor and Nigel Farage as Health Minister.

"Nigel Farage, the leader of the Brexit Party? Once, yes. But not any more. The Press, especially the Daily Mail newspaper, advised his followers not to vote for a Brexit Party candidate, in case the Brexit issue was split and divided enough to let Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party into power. The result was that the Brexit Party polled so badly - it folded up, leaving its leader to reconcile himself with Johnson and joined the Tories. The Prime Minister saw Farage as a fit enough candidate for Health Secretary.

"How the Media had demonised Jeremy Corbyn! Nicknamed Jezza by the Daily Mail, his "extreme left-wing" manifesto was reputed to have terrified the middle-classes and the high earners into paying higher taxes. By contrast, the newspapers poured endless praise on the Tory Party. With the promise of "getting Brexit done" along for lower taxes for higher earners, Johnson also promised to pour "billions" into the NHS - but following Brexit, there has been a rapid rise of racial and xenophobic threats, with white, English patients throwing insults at foreign Consultants and Nurses, causing them to leave their profession to return to their home countries, along with being bogged down with the catch 22 situation. The more hours they put in, the more taxes they pay and their pension savings robbed.

"I wonder whether I must take a share of the blame. I did not vote for Corbyn's Labour Party in the last election and it was not because I was opposed to some of his principles, but because of his antisemitic stance, or at least reputed to favour the Arabs, including the Hamas, above the Jews. I can't be dogmatic about this, but if true, then I'm convinced that his lack of popularity with the electorate was spawned by his disregard for the Jews and for Israel's right to exist. It seems so ironic. Antisemitism was always the dogma for the far-right. Therefore what was it doing lurking among the Left? Especially when British political history has demonstrated that the Jews were always favoured by Labour, and in all past elections, the Jewish community had played a vital role in putting Labour into power. By contrast, for a long time, the Conservatives had a level of contempt for the Jewish community, and thus, failed to win their vote."

As I kept on walking, the Hilton Hotel came into view, giving me more time to keep pondering.

"As for this present Tory Government, their policy to restrict immigration to a points system which allowed only the most skilled workers into the UK has made me ponder: Does our PM really favour the better educated? Does he want only the professional to enter the UK permanently? Therefore for the plebs to stay out, they're not wanted? Hmm. This seems to have a smattering of eugenics. And what a surprise! Eugenics had its origins here, right here in England, of all places, and by two white, well-educated Englishmen - Charles Darwin and Francis Galton, Darwin's cousin.

Charles Darwin, the real father of eugenics.

"And the return of Dickensian England, so it seems. Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol, a book which featured the young son of a poor family who was left to die of a curable illness while those who were wealthy enough to pay for treatment received it. As the family stood around the grave, watching their son's small coffin being lowered into the ground, who would ever think that it will be a Labour Prime Minister, Clement Atlee, would dream up the NHS centuries later. But by then, for that family, it's a little too late."

I pause to look around as I drew close to my home. Almost there.

"Perhaps it didn't take much of an imagination for Darwin to dream up his evolutionary theories or for his cousin to invent the idea of eugenics. Really, eugenics was already in action for centuries earlier - of some sort. Instead of Hitler's henchmen using it to usher in the Holocaust, it was Mammon which decided who was fit enough to survive, and those who were unfit (that is, the poor) who were left to die of illness. However, this was not Evolution - the development of higher organisms over generations - but man-made Natural Selection through wealth, the elimination of the weak."

I arrived home, dumped the medicine on a nearby table and told my beloved everything that has happened. Then I broke down into tears and wept copiously. While in her arms, she encouraged me to have faith in God, because he knows exactly what situation we're in, our state of health and how the three of us - God, Alex and I will deal together with it like a threefold cord.

Slowly I came to. She is right of course. Having faith in God is the only real solution to all of life's problems.

Do You Want a Pic or the Real Thing?

From time to time our church in Ascot has a post-service lunch specifically to celebrate Holy Communion, or Eucharist, in an environment closely resembling the actual breaking of bread and drinking of the wine which Jesus celebrated with his disciples on the eve of his crucifixion. Often referred to as the Last Supper, back then that's exactly what it was - a meal, where everyone at present reclined, Roman-style, around a table, enjoying a feast. However, it was not an occasion of festive joy but more of sorrow, as all knew that their Lord is about to leave them. It was John who had his head resting on the Lord's chest in sorrow.

Maybe it's this universal sorrow was where the Roman Catholic Church had gotten their idea when the Eucharist should always be observed with silent solemnity. Each Catholic participant receives the Host, a small, coin-sized disc while kneeling in a line in front of the Altar, and whilst fasting. Such was a striking difference from the original supper Jesus had initiated.

Therefore, to make our memorial more of a joyful occasion, we had tables set up within the main sanctuary. The table I sat at was directly opposite an elderly couple, whose wife regularly attends, but her husband, once a member of the music group, had long left the church over a dispute. To protect his identity, I'll call him Jack.

During the meal, Jack and I became locked in a rather serious conversation. He explained to me why he left the church and departed from the faith. On this occasion, I could have gone into a long-winded and fruitless discussion on whether he lost his salvation or whether he was ever saved in the first place. But instead, I had acted as a listening board to hear his side of the story, without trying to forcefully convince him back into the faith.

A keen member of the band, or the music group, Jack gradually became disillusioned with what appeared to be a lack of supernatural occasions, despite hours devoted to prayer. 

Throughout my time here, I have not seen a single case of proper supernatural healing, he protested. I have never seen a miracle performed, not a single occasion where I can say with conviction that this is a work of God.

I began to feel a degree of sorrow for him. I recall some years ago. Jack was in the same team as Mark, who was suffering from leukaemia. As we all watched his health gradually decline, two or three of our Elders actually travelled halfway around the world to the famed Prayer Mountain just outside the South Korean capital of Seoul. After their return, there was no sign of any recovery, and he died sometime later. But even then, a visiting pastor from another church arrived to pray for him to be raised to life again, very much like Lazarus being raised from the dead. But to no avail. According to his testimony, it looks as if Jack had seen it all. 

I felt that I was drawn to the conviction that Jack had a point which tempted me to question the faith I was so devoted to. Furthermore, Jack revealed his belief in Evolution, and therefore, if a belief in God is all hocus-pocus, then it comes as no surprise that he would be very sceptical about divine creation. I suppose such a conversation in a church environment can indeed rock the boat to the point of capsizing. After all, my own wife has been prayed over for years over her debilitating backache which has confined her to a wheelchair. But instead of witnessing a miraculous recovery, earlier this year, the shocking news was delivered that she also has breast cancer.

When I see sense through his testimony combined with my own concerning my beloved, I did feel a temptation to question my faith. And it wouldn't be the first time either. Back in 1994, whilst lying on my bed at a backpacker's hostel in the heart of Jerusalem, I was ready to renounce my Christian faith after going through some very bad church experiences. But unlike with Jack, I felt called back to my faith right there and then whilst still on that bed, a call which I gradually responded positively.

Yet I can imagine Jack likened to a hungry man. He needs food to sustain himself. So someone comes up and gives him something while asking the hungry man whether this would be helpful. What he receives is a page torn from a magazine with a picture of a roast chicken looking so succulent, sharing a large dish with well-cooked Brussel sprouts and roast potatoes, all ready to be served.

I doubt that such a piece of paper would add anything to his nutritional needs! Rather, his appetite, along with his frustration, will both intensify. I tend to think that our present church life is a bit like that snapshot, including Bible reading and knowledge. Very appealing to the eye but of no stomach-satisfying or nutritional value. And it was precisely this which Jack was talking about.

When real food is served, it's a blessing, satisfying both body and soul alike. Like one "picture" of a miracle, I will share here. It's found in Acts 3:1-10. Here we read about Peter and John making their way to the Temple to pray when they spot a paralytic beggar reclining in the vicinity, and the paralytic then calls out to them, asking for some money. The two apostles pause to tell the beggar to look straight up at them. Expecting to be given something, the beggar looks directly up at them. But Peter says, Silver or gold I have none, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!

Peter then reaches down to take his hand and lifts him up. And as he rose, his legs become strong and his healing so complete that he was able to dance and leap about, shouting thanks to God. The miracle was so astounding in the sight of every onlooker that many believed and received salvation, while there was controversy stirring among the Pharisees.

But now I will transfer the incident from ancient Jerusalem to a modern English church situation, expressed here in dialogue form:

Peter and John were on their way to a prayer meeting when they spot a paralytic beggar reclining on the wall.

Peter: Such scum cluttering the environment. Aren't there any hostels for them to sleep in?

John: Don't be so hard on him, Peter. Jesus did instruct us to heal the sick and bless the poor.

Peter: Yea, you're right, John. 

Beggar: Sirs, do you have any small change?

Peter: Look straight up at us. Silver or gold I have none, but what I do have I give you. Here is an extract from the Gospel of Matthew! Good luck and God bless you.

John (to Peter): Don't you think we should pray for him?

Peter: Oh, okay. Nothing to lose. 

(Peter then prays, first in English, then in tongues.)

Peter: How do you feel now? Any better?

Beggar: No.

Peter reaches to the beggar's hand and attempts to lift him up. He then falls back to the ground, hurting his buttocks.

Beggar: Clear off the pair of you! You were of no help. Get out! Get out!

I have heard some say that the reason we do not see miracles performed anymore is that the New Testament is complete and such must pass away. They take this theory from one of Paul's letters to the church in Corinth where he writes that prophesies, tongues, and knowledge, all these will pass away when the perfect comes (1 Corinthians 13:8). These Christians believe that "the perfect" is the completion of the New Testament. However, I once read of a true account of a Dutch evangelist Corrie Ten Boom, who was teaching a group of youngsters near a river. The subject was about a miracle which took place after the Resurrection of Christ. After spending the whole night attempting to fish at the Sea of Galilee and caught nothing, Jesus then appeared and instructed his disciples to throw the net to the other side of their boat. Immediately the net pulled tight as it filled with fish in an instant (John 21:1-6).

One of the boys in Ten Boom's class began sneering, ridiculing the historicity of the miracle. Fortunately, there happens to be an empty bucket standing nearby. Ten Boom told the boy to watch carefully as she picked up the empty pail and carried it to the river. In one swoop she dipped the utensil underwater and immediately raised it back up. She then tipped the whole bucketful of fish right in front of him! Years later, the young man became a well-known preacher and church leader.

However, the New Testament was completed long before that miracle took place. Therefore, "the perfect" could not be the completion of the New Testament. Instead, I take it to mean the Second Coming of Christ.

The motive behind Corrie Ten Boom's miracle proves the point. According to all of Jesus' miracles, the motive behind these works was always to bring his audience to change their minds about him and believe. We call that repentance, from the Greek word metaneo, a change of mind. The Lord himself had made that specifically clear just before raising Lazarus from the dead. Before performing the miracle, he cried out to his Father for everyone who sees the miracle to believe that he is the Son of God and was sent by the Father (John 11:42-43). 

The miracle has achieved its purpose. Soon afterwards, at his Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, crowds were cheering him, crying out Hosanna! A few weeks later, up to three thousand were converted by Peter's first sermon. News of Lazarus coming back to life looks as though it carried far and wide. For those who heard about it, it was quite possible to connect the Resurrection of Christ with that of Lazarus - and believe.

How long to see our church in Ascot perform miracles! Along with all other churches. How I long to see my beloved wife restored to full health, like the slim athlete I met and married. But God is not likely to answer such prayers unless it's to bring the crowds into believing that this Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the risen Son of God. According to the Bible, miracles are only performed as a witness to God's existence and for the veracity of his revelation.

Most likely it was this which Jack has never brought himself to realise. Instead, all he saw was unanswered prayer after another, a kind of a failed Heavenly Health Service - except that the Divine Physician was never at his desk to receive the plethora of requests passed up to him. Little wonder that over a time his faith had floundered.

The only way I have found to keep my own faith intact is to know the Bible well and know it thoroughly, and to have a Bible-teaching church to call my spiritual home. Fortunately, Ascot Life Church is my spiritual home and I thank God for it. I hope to see it grow in both in maturity and in numbers.