Watching the News, or Choosing not to

This is another HOLD THE PRESSES in that Col did NOT go metal-detecting on Thursday. He took himself and his cameras off to Ditchling Common instead. It was something to do with a footie match that was on at 5.00 that he had to be back to watch.  And he found, and photographed, a Black Hairstreak, though the photo above is of an Orange-tipped Nest moth, taken on a previous occasion by my resident photographer. I may be able to capture the Hairstreak pic in a further blog.

And what a good thing it is I have a resident photographer, otherwise my blog would be headed by pictures of: my thumb, my lens cap, and/or the odd seascape with a strangely tilted horizon.

Our 2024 Convention is entitled: DECLARE THE GOOD NEWS!  This seems very timely as there was apparently an interesting news item recently claiming that many people, worldwide, have given up watching the News because it is so bad, so depressing.  Or maybe, like me, they just watch the headlines nowadays.  

Maybe more and more people are realising that there is nothing we can do about this, there is no human government that can or will solve the problems we have.  It is only the Kingdom of God that can and will, and that is the good news we want to declare to everyone.

It is the best news possible - and it is so close now. Soon that Kingdom will, as God has promised, put an end to the times we are living in now, times during which "man has dominated man to his harm".

Daniel 2:44 makes this promise:  In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed. And this kingdom will not be passed on to any other people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it alone will stand forever."

This is the Kingdom of God, the heavenly government for whose coming we are praying for when we say The Lord's Prayer.

Can we believe this promise though?   This is why it is so important to study the Bible, and Bible prophecy. Which, for all I had an intensive religious education in my convent schooldays, we never did.  But if you do study the Inspired Scriptures you will find how much of Bible prophecy has already been fulfilled.  For example, did you know that the Seventy Weeks prophecy in Daniel not only told the Jews the year the Messiah would arrive, but warned them what would happen afterwards. As it did.

I had no idea.  But I was very grateful to be shown this. It gives me such confidence in God's word.

I was out on the balcony on Tuesday afternoon, doing my studying and enjoying the view and the gentle weather, warm but not hot, very still, the Channel calm, and the scent of Nemesia. I was wondering how much longer I am going to last, and thinking about it all going on without me - as it all went on without me for how many millions of years before I arrived.  Who knows?  We know, from Genesis, that Adam was created just over 6,000 years ago, but it does not tell us how long the earth had been there before that.  And when and if I die, I will not be conscious of it going on without me.

But of course I am hoping that if I do, then Jehovah will remember me, keep me safe in his memory, and wake me up, the other side of Armageddon, during the Thousand Years. If so, I will next open my eyes in the restored earthly paradise.

It is so lovely now.  How lovely will it be then?  I hope we will all be there to find out.