h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's cold. Really wintry.

Going to Chanda's tomorrow.

Thassorl.

Oh, and it's time I made an effort to learn Modern Hebrew. I may take a textbook with me to Chanda's.

Dei me ergazesthai en twi ergwi tou Kyriou. All' ouk oida ho ti eie. Ou boulomai aideisthai en tei Hemerai. Ou boulomai hoti zwmiwtheswmai. (dodgy grammar)

Ani matsa'ti et-haQol Yisrael 98.4, statsiyat medinat Yisrael. Heim medibberim be'Ivrit. Ani shomei lastatsiyah lema'an leheitiv bini leshon Yisrael moderni. Hu' lashon na'im me'od le'oznai. Lo meivin et-asher ani shomei'a, aval tov li leshomea et-halashon. Yesh raqi'a 'al et-asher ani uchal liktov.

Dokei moi he mousike en twi radiwi dia tou Bernstein einai. Kalliste techne estin deine te kai poikile. Polychrwmatike estin he mousike. Nai, phainetai tou Bernstein ousa he mousike.

Todah rabbah lekha notein ani, adonai, ki atah yeshuati hayeta.

Estin gar systema tou eidous para tei statsiei evangeliou, quod mihi non placet point. Ou gar tou eidous peripatoumai, alla tei pistews. Ta de tekna tauta peripatousin lalousin te tou eidous, legousi ho ti blepousin, en kakas hegeitai hodous tes krisews. halis noswn egw. Ekhw nyn tes Olgas plegen en twi swmati mou, boulomai eukhesthai hyper auten. Agallioumen hama aute kai egw.

Halis noswn egw tes krisews twn teknwn tou eidous. aisthanomai poly pany ge, delikatny jestem bardzo, ou dynamai ergazesthai meta twn teknwn tou eidous en twi kratei autwn. agapw ta tekna all' ou hypekhw eis ton peirasmon tou eidous hegeisthai. Me blepete pros eme dioti melas eimi! Melas eimi, alla kalos. Hamartian ekhomen pantes. He de hamartia hymwn kalyptetai dia tes agapes tou Kyriou.

Has the Lord shown you everything, my dearest sister? I've just explained it all in the above post, but it's in Ancient Greek, so you might not understand it. But if the Lord has opened your eyes to the realities that I talk about there, then there is no need that you should read it.

We all have sin. But our sin is covered by the love of Jesus. Do not make light of the love of Jesus by failing to look at the least of his servants through the eyes of love. This servant is vulnerable to the gaze of all, be it the gaze of hate, the gaze of judgement, or the gaze of love. Before he came across the children of sight, he was happy in his faith which the Lord had given him. Then the children of sight made him think he was inadequate. Always judging by sight. That was in early 2011. Since then until tonight, the least of the Lord's servants and the chief of sinners, had been ground into the dust by the jackboot of the children of sight. Now he has recovered again and rejoices in the Lord.

But he isn't going to go into the chamber of vision again. Let the children of sight learn to walk by faith and not by sight.

Indeed if I had to get up into a pulpit and speak and teach, I should teach about sight and faith. This has been a perennial topic of consideration for me, for many years, since at least 1996 when I was thinking about it at His People. I should take as my text 2 Cor 5:7, "We walk by faith, and not by sight". There is a sense in which we are enabled to see by the Spirit of God, but even this vision must be given back to God in order that we should receive the faith to see blind. This is because night is coming, when no-one can work, because you cannot see at night. Yet those who have filled their lamps can see by night, because they have faith by which to see, even though they are blind. Hudson Taylor said that when he was a novice disciple, he had plenty of vision, but as he grew in the Lord, his vision became hazy until he could see nothing. Then he had to learn how to see by faith.

Seeing by faith, indeed walking by faith, is better than walking by sight, because sight judges, whereas faith loves. Faith and love go together with hope. Sight always judges, because it discriminates. It sees light and darkness. Faith only sees light. It cannot see the darkness. Sight is about knowing good and evil, as the Bible says, "then their EYES WERE OPENED, and they knew that they were naked". When we do not see, we must walk by faith, and that means: walking in love.

Love covers a multitude of sins. Sight -- exposes a multitude of sins. Then you have to have the faith to cover these sins, that you can see. But few are they, who can see sin, and not judge it. It is natural to us. This is the danger of vision. It brings judgement, because that is how we are made.

So let us ask God to quickly bring us through the time of sight, into the darkness of faith, where we can see with the Father, in the love of faith.

I have had a torrid time since January 2011 until July 2014, it's been a difficult time in many ways, but I hope I can put it all behind me now, the farmakia, everything. And return to the untroubled waters of faith, which I shall know better next time than to let anyone take away from me.

Well, if God ever gives me the opportunity to teach, this might be one of the first messages I teach his children.

It might be entertainworthy to write the sermon, in fact.

Sight and faith, it's an old one I've been preoccupied with for what, nearly two decades. Basically because I'm blind, and have had to walk by faith, it's been difficult, the early years were traumatic indeed. Terrible. Then when I come to God's people I expect to find a welcome, instead, what do I find? Judgement! Not from God's sons, of course, but from the children. Yet these children are given prominence! Babies shall be your leaders! That's a curse that God pronounced on whom? Judah.

Isaiah 3:4, I will given them boy princes, and mischief makers shall rule over them.

Pranksters will rule over them.

Japesters.

OK, so Judah is figurative of God's people I expect, so this is what we see today at places like that station. The kids rule, OK.

It's been traumatic, but we have seen a circle now, I hope Olga is happy and has seen the whole thing now, and no more worries or questions or curse, all done, all gone, all smoothed in shalom. Thank God. It was horrendous. But I can't be blamed. It's just the way things are.

OK.

So, faith and sight. There's a lot. I mean you can talk about eschatological vision... the vision from the future, where everything is meshalleim (?), paid up, completed, finished... the telos, tetelestai, if we see with Christ then we should see everything finished, but we don't, we see temporally, and we give a running commentary on things as they are seen in time.
This isn't the job of God's children, surely? It might be his children's pleasure, but it surely isn't his sons'. His sons do not speak temporally, but they speak from eternity, from the eschaton, from the future finished manifestation of shalom, everything paid up, everything finished, everything concluded. This is love... love sees everything already paid for, already balanced, already made whole. Love is from eternity, or from the future, after all the arge bargy has been accomplished. We don't want to see in time, commentating on the argy bargy. No no no, we want to see everything with the Father, that is, from the standpoint of eternity, sub specie aeternitatis as the scholars used to say.

This is what one expects from a Gospel radio station; one expects vision with the Father, the sight of faith, the sight of the faith of love. But we don't, do we. They are in time, they speak temporally. This isn't for us! this is for others, I suppose, they keep account of the game as it unfolds; we stand at the End of Time, where Jesus says, It is finished, Jesus the Goal of our faith. tetelestai > telos

That is my main reason I don't listen any more. I got fed up with being judged.

In other news, I find I can read the Modern Hebrew exercises in my Hebrew textbook. I need a proper, old fashioned Hebrew primer for intermediate students. I wonder where I might find such a thing. Also a really good Hebrew dictionary. I have an idea what I want, but it's pretty expensive. Available from Amazon. I shall wait until I can afford it. I must get my hands on some more Hebrew, somehow, easier stuff, perhaps mediaeval stuff, I dunno. Too modern and I can't understand it. We'll see what happens.

Just read part of my "book" on Ecclesiastes.

http://rjhillier.net/eccl/contents.htm

It isn't bad, and it says the things I have been saying today. Another circle.

God is good, and just, and merciful.