http://www.visiblesoul.org/judah/blog One Antipodean view - some thoughts from Down Under. Sun, 07 Mar 2010 09:40:28 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en "Are you OK?" my husband asked cautiously. The concern in his voice caught my attention. I fumbled about and managed to prick my finger. "No, not really," was my slurred response. I managed to get a glucose lolly into my mouth. "But I will be soon," I tried to say. ... http://www.visiblesoul.org/judah/blog/2010/03/07/a-matter-of-balance/ Last night I happened to mention that it was Fat Tuesday. "What's that?" asked my son. I told him how, in the liturgical calendar, it was the day before Ash Wednesday which is the first day of Lent. He thought I was speaking a foreign language since all this was ... http://www.visiblesoul.org/judah/blog/2010/02/17/giving-up/ Those things that a man can not amend in himself or in others, he ought to suffer patiently, until God orders things otherwise. Think that perhaps it is better so for thy trial and patience, without which all our good deeds are not much to be esteemed. Thou oughtest to pray ... http://www.visiblesoul.org/judah/blog/2010/02/07/of-bearing-with-the-defects-of-others/ Throughout my Journal, and on other pages of this website, I have written of my personal spiritual journey so that others who are interested may read of the road along which I have travelled in my faith in God. On this page I have gathered up those vignettes, ordering chronologically ... http://www.visiblesoul.org/judah/blog/2010/01/29/judahs-journey/ I asked the Lord that I might grow In faith and love and every grace; Might more of his salvation know, And seek more earnestly his face. 'Twas he who taught me thus to pray, And he, I trust, has answered prayer; But it has been in such a way As almost drove me to ... http://www.visiblesoul.org/judah/blog/2010/01/14/its-all-about-a-relationship/ Clicking back through my Journal posts on Christmas I came across one for which I can claim no credit as the author, but the message is as meaningful to me today as it was back then... even more so. Some of the words caught my eye... "that which is good ... http://www.visiblesoul.org/judah/blog/2010/01/05/on-with-the-journey/ I'm not really much of a gardener and weeds do rather get away on me. But the Roses are prolific, the Geraniums sure know how to climb, and the Bourganvilia might have managed better had they not been so smothered until just the other week. Luckily the Marigolds, Snapdragons, and ... http://www.visiblesoul.org/judah/blog/2010/01/01/happy-new-year-2010/ My favourite NZ native tree... the Pohutukawa, metsiderosis excelsa, is known as the New Zealand Christmas Tree. This is exactly the time of year that it comes into blossom, and together with its supposedly Christmas colours of red and green, it is not surprising that it is given that name. ... http://www.visiblesoul.org/judah/blog/2009/12/31/christmas-2009/ Just recently I read in the newspaper of an incident that happened between a father and son in the city of Detroit, Michigan. Because of the appalling nature of it, this news item took me deep into the horror of our human condition and haunted me for the rest of ... http://www.visiblesoul.org/judah/blog/2009/12/01/those-troubling-images/ While becoming absorbed in Psalm 139 and allowing those ideas to lead and guide my current journey, its words becoming like the winding roads on a map of the countryside through which one is travelling, I turned some pages and found myself "by chance" in the Song of Songs. This ... http://www.visiblesoul.org/judah/blog/2009/11/26/the-song-of-songs/ Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23,24) It is not a good idea to ask God to do something if you do not really mean it... but a ... http://www.visiblesoul.org/judah/blog/2009/11/24/a-most-daring-prayer/ Psalm 139 1 O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my ... http://www.visiblesoul.org/judah/blog/2009/10/30/healing-by-way-of-a-psalm/ The kiwi bird, you might have heard Has wings so small, about a third The size of normal wings for most Of other birds with wings to boast He hides himself within the dark So shy of all, his life so stark Avoiding scorn that sunlight brings With song of soaring birds that sings The little kiwi ... http://www.visiblesoul.org/judah/blog/2009/09/28/faith-at-a-crossroads/ Way out in the countryside, we both had to laugh. This icon of British communications stood alone, passed by in an age of individual ownership of modern technology, almost an anachronism with noone around. Was it left behind by mistake? Was it even still connected to anything? We didn't need ... http://www.visiblesoul.org/judah/blog/2009/08/29/back-down-under-again/ John Denver's song title makes an apt title for this Journal entry too, probably my last one until mid-August when I return, also on a jet plane - an Emirates Airbus, the giant A380. But unlike the song lyrics, my bags are not yet packed, nor am I ready to ... http://www.visiblesoul.org/judah/blog/2009/06/12/leaving-on-a-jet-plane/ Evil prevails when good people do nothing. Brigette Gabriel, a Lebanese Christian now living in the USA, delivered an important speech at the Intelligence Summit in Washington DC, back in February, 2006. Now Ms Gabriel has written an open letter in response to the speech recently given by President Obama in ... http://www.visiblesoul.org/judah/blog/2009/06/10/brigette-gabriels-open-letter/ Back in December 1989, a tiny kitten, born no more than 6 weeks earlier, was abandoned in the bush and left to die. She was found a day or two later in a pitiful state and taken to a shelter for abandoned animals. A few weeks later a family, the ... http://www.visiblesoul.org/judah/blog/2009/05/30/goodbye-to-much-loved-companion/ It seems like only yesterday! It was summer... those long hot carefree days that, in my childhood fantasy, were destined to last an eternity. We scrambled all over this large dome of rock, knowing every pothole, every safe hollow in which to place a foot and a hand. We would ... http://www.visiblesoul.org/judah/blog/2009/05/21/those-summers-gone/ After 4 years of the same, it was surely time for Judah's Journal to suffer a little redecorating. Those who have visited before, and remembered anything about what they saw, may notice a new header photo, new clickable buttons, and a new appearance to many of the other pages of ... http://www.visiblesoul.org/judah/blog/2009/05/04/redecorating/ I was recently involved in a discussion concerning Freemasons after visiting a museum featuring that international organization, also widely known as "The Lodge". It was just a little museum in a small town west of Nelson, in the South Island of New Zealand. All secrets were to be revealed to ... http://www.visiblesoul.org/judah/blog/2009/04/23/who-is-the-boss-do-you-think/ Well, I would never have thought it! I've been keeping this up for four years now and the ink in my pen has not run dry... or not quite, not yet. Since this time last year, there have been added a further 40 posts and 72 comments. Not great in ... http://www.visiblesoul.org/judah/blog/2009/04/17/judahs-journal-birthday-4/ Jesus was well and truly dead. He had been thoroughly scourged before being nailed to the cross - that is, repeatedly beaten and whipped with a 3-lash scourge that had pieces of bone or metal attached to the ends, tearing into the skeletal muscles to set the stage for circulatory ... http://www.visiblesoul.org/judah/blog/2009/04/12/what-things/ http://www.visiblesoul.org/judah/blog/2009/03/23/choosing-what-to-keep/ Happening to rather like Autumn, I can certainly relate to the poem by the Hoosier poet, James Whitcomb Riley (1849 - 1916), whose second stanza of the poem by the same name as the first half of his last sentence (er, did you manage to understand that?) goes... They's something ... http://www.visiblesoul.org/judah/blog/2009/03/01/the-first-day-of-autumn/ Greetings Charles! If you have found my Journal and are reading this, please know that I am thinking of you. For others who are wondering what this is about, I would like to introduce you to someone who, just a few months ago, was diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, ... http://www.visiblesoul.org/judah/blog/2009/02/27/charles-life/