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

Well unless I am very much mistaken, F got saved at 22:15 on Sunday November 30th 2014 local time (South Bend). This morning I drove to the studios and gave the receptionist two copies of Words, one apiece for Sean and Jonathan. The receptionist looked at me like I was a bergie. He was reluctant to leave me in Reception in case I stole anything. Amazing hey. Then it occurred to me that I'm on the 5th day of a moth bender and have just had my 4th night without sleep, am in the same clothes I've worn for ages, that they are the "pyjamas" that I am constantly criticised for wearing, and that indeed, I look like a bergie. Well as the Bible goes out of its way to teach, it doesn't matter how you dress. It's your heart God is interested in. If it mattered how you dress, half Cape Town would be excluded from heaven's halls. Anyway, so I gave the receptionist the books for Jonathan and Sean, and hoping to hear about them on the radio, but they might decide I need a further lesson on humility and fail to mention them. I don't mind any more.

Well I'm also capable of scratching the place between my top lip and my nose, Mr C.

Not really bothered either way any more.

I could do with some coffee.

Getting insulting and cheeky uphill from Theo the caretaker. Suddenly I've entered into a newness of freedom and boy, don't people know it.

It's fun. Got no-one to share it with though. Well there's always Jesus, in fact the Three are my constant bosom-friends.

All right, I spent about ten minutes on hold, only to be told I had gotten through to the wrang department. He has put me through to the right one, now I'm groovin' to the funky sounds of Electric Telephone Construction No. 5 by Swarovski the well-known composer of such classic hits as Lift Music For Department Stores, Lift Music For Hotels and the unforgettable Toilet Musics For Malls, which critics unanimously agree to be the pinnacle of his career's achievement.

OK, I went this morning to Telkom to get my line upgraded from 4 to 10. They said, You must speak to your ISP first. So I've just phoned my ISP, and he said, You must speak to Telkom first.

This is quite normal in South Africa. It is so normal, I haven't even lost my temper.

Now I'm going to go back to Telkom. With an axe.

"Come tomorrow..." said she. I'll try to get there before the show. Hoti ei ou dexomai filian gynaikos en takhei, pepausomai.

OK it's December the First and as the first line of which play begins, "hekw"?

No this site cannot reproduce Greek.

Panta rhei. Panta metaggallousin. It's interesting.

I haven't slept for four nights. Is it surprising that things should have become strange and different?

Don't worry, apparently. It has been very strange lately. The whole Lynwen thing was way too much for me to handle. Apparently she wasn't aware of what she was doing. And God knows what spirit I was talking to. Oh well. My instincts are to stay well away from there.

The lack of communication is frustrating. Is no-one able to summon up any common decency? I don't refer to Mr C but Olga surely must be able to encompass events. F's salvation - that was the last major event I remember. Now I appear to have 'come through' and am earnestly entreated not to smoke any more China.

I have mentioned the Victory of Jesus much in my writing.

Val upstairs wants a copy of my book.

Oh well.

Tonight, tonight. Words are flames of fire, sent to minister to those who are to inherit salvation. God is Word. There's a lot always about Matyika. It's the End of the World one more time... one last night.

Hey ho. Then I must get some sleep. People respect me by staying away until all Pat's crap, and the worm with its associated bilges, has been removed. That's fair enough I suppose. Although why it couldn't - but that's mataia bazda.

Lynwen didn't know she was serving the Most Low. She makes me ache with sadness, but I must leave her alone.

Advice is to do something particular until you do it so well people are prepared to pay you to do it. Well I'm a writer. And we'll soon find out whether people want Words or not. The township people are prepared to pay for it, thanks to Theo's disobedience. Except I don't see a cent.

I suppose that's just, in a way. But we'll get some proper discipline into this chap and find out how things go then.

Well this is the final bender. And I'm having a great time. After this, it's a couple of days' sleep, then the ladies in Khwezi Park.

Lord, protect.

Won't you keep me company this one last time? One last time? Go on, for old times' sake. One more night of meaninglessness and family fun, one more night of poetry and devotional theology, one more night of Lethe and Pathos, followed by Pothos, followed by something I don't like to think about, called life alone, stranded on a desert island supported by people who care about me.

Oh. I don't care about people, I think about people. That's what they say.

He's loaded. That's literally all they say. Everything else takes a distant second place. Such a shame. Perhaps if I gave it all away, leaving only enough to fund - well that's basically what I'm doing now, with enough for some travel and so on. Gaudeamus igitur, libri dum sumus. Now he has a girl with a gun holding it to his head and she's not going through all that again.

Ha... a search engine screen from yesteryear. Interesting.

The Devil says "she's mine, and I've got Scriptures to show it". I thought he was supposed to be a master of irony and stuff. I suppose not even the devil himself stands much of a chance against a Jewish Creator.

While you're in the Twiglet Zone, you must be ever so careful not to believe anything you see or hear. Most importantly of all you must not believe a word spoken by the evil one or any of his servants.

He's rattled, he's come back to secure his stolen property.

She's loving it of course. But it's time for justice for God's children.

"The truth," apparently, "is only knowable to women." So they think. At least one young lady of my acquaintenance is in for a big surprise.

One December evening in the town of Jordisville, Kentucky, Mr Wonderly was sitting in his parlour-room eating biscuits. Then suddenly there was a tap on the door. Knock, knock. He got up with a start. Yes? he cried out in alarum; for he had been quietly pleasuring himself underneath a blanket which he had procur'd in Simpsons for that very purpose. "Move away from the window," cried out a woman's voice in a woman's voice; "we would enter!" Soon the three were sitting convivially around Mr Wonderly's juicing-room table, cooking together the most wonderful and fabulous repast ever eaten in those parts of the globe. They spoke of many things, and beautiful; the daughter of Mrs Green was there, as was Mrs Green in attendance, upon Mr Wonderly, who was affianced to her daughter Grace. And Mr Wonderly loved Grace very well, as did Grace love Mr Wonderly. And blissful were the two together in perfect, Platonic communion; and Mrs Green marvelled that her daughter should be so happy with a mere man of adequate proportion and a tonic head.

Mr Wonderly was a man of love. But his greatest earthly love was Mrs Green's daughter. He loved her so well, he wasn't at all sure whether he was quite fully aware of how much he loved her; and this worried him, from time to time, until he remember the place in the Good Book where it is written, in the eighth chapter of Paul's first epistle to those naughty saints at Corinth, the axiom of knowledge which he used to amuse himself with as a small boy. And he was comforted from his distress.

Enough of suffering! he cried in a tremendous voice, waking up the birds in the yellow trees over the tonic water river of the town.

That's interesting. There's no need to be embarrassed about anything or ashamed, as long as you keep a clean conscience before God, because everything is already known to all, and all is open to all, and there is no hiding-place. So all is known, and going red is just a con trick on the sensitive to stop them exposing the actual shame of those present who (imagine themselves to) have something of which to be ashamed. Pity that poor witch boy who was awash with shame when I saw him last, in Aberdeen; well and truly deceived was he, sloppy round the gills with it.

I shall nod off afore long.

Groovy then.

Now Griselda has turned up demanding money with menaces.

Wottabore.

Still, if it helps the tractation of the tracts.

And if co-operation is mysteriously removed, well, what does it matter any way.

From now on, no more hand-outs, no more timewasters, no more pretenders.

And there is STILL no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

All the reality offerers are out in force now, trying to push me back into their respective prisons and calling me evil for not going back. Therefore I rejoice. You see, I have a secret, let me share it with you: I have read the Sermon on the Mount.

So, he keeps them in line by threats. That's how Saul used to operate, before he became Paul. Yeah the discernment is bang on; I'm getting it from the Accuser of Muizenberg now, who is trying to frighten me by accusing me of being ... I forget.

It seems to me that the Father is telling them, Let him on for half an hour a week to teach. Or possibly longer, I dunno, it's a bit late at night to think about teaching hours now. One could easily come up with stuff to fill in the time. One would have to decide the register, the theme, the intended audience, etc.

What would I do, if offered, say, five half-hour slots a week, on weekdays, at a time to be determined?

"Take Captive Every Thought"

Think Positively

Changing our Negatives to a Positive

This is a basic technique which we will look at in detail and which needs to be studied and assimilated so that it becomes an automatic habit of thought. The basic method God uses is he lets us do as much as we reasonably can - stretching us to the precise amount we need, which differs from person to person - before taking over the steering-wheel and flooding us with his Glory, and then we are transformed.

Salvation comes in all shapes and sizes and God works differently in everyone, but there are basic training methods which have been tried and tested and found useful over a long period of time in many different places. Such are what I present here.

We emerge out of the world blinking into the light of the Kingdom with our minds still unrenewed. That is why Paul tells us to be transformed by the renewing of the mind. This is a vast topic which comprises manifold different kinds of lesson, but we offer some basic guidelines which we have found useful in being led by the Spirit in the paths of the renewing of the mind.

Take Captive Every Thought

The metaphor Paul uses here is a military one; the verb for "take captive" means literally "spear on a spear-point". This may suggest different things to different people but for Paul to say that we must spear every thought on the point of a lance, implies that we are the masters of our thoughts. We control our thoughts, our thoughts do not control us.

To the Obedience of Christ

Meaning, Christ's obeying of the Father. (Hebrews etc) Just as Christ had to learn obedience through discipline and strong crying etc, so we follow him, yet not in our own strength,

to love the beauty of grace

for the renewing of the mind is not about thoughts, but love.

SO before we do any specific discipleship work there are some basic revelations to be had and to be identified for meditation at will.

The beauty of his grace.

This is the beauty of freedom.

One might think of a ballet dancer, how she glides seemingly effortlessly through the air, free even of gravity, but certainly of any impediment to the free movement of her arms, her legs, etc. Or if we consider a man walking in a field, there are no wag-'n-bietjie-bome etc, or piles of rubbish littering the floor.

The human being is made in the image and likeness of God, whose Grace is beautiful; and when we are free, we cannot help but shine with the glory of this divine beauty in all our faculties, in our speech, in our thoughts, in our prayers, in our actions.

Compare a man walking in freedom with a man who is handicapped by obstacles to his freedom of movement. A man so prevented from walking freely will not exhibit any grace in his movements. Put a ballet dancer in a room with a very low ceiling and she will not be able to perform the gracious floating gestures and steps she can use when there is no ceiling holding her down.

A man is made free by known truth.

b) What is the purpose of Love?

Love is the shape of the dynamic of the Trinity. It is therefore the shape of the dynamic of everything the Trinity does, including Creation, friendship, family, teaching, travelling, money, wisdom, power, success, furniture, ethnic cooking, postage stamps, poetry, space travel, zit cream.

Visibly moved, he thanked her with a trembling voice as she finally dies to herself and to sin and to everything that was holding her back from growing into the beautiful, gracious woman of God, the 'eishet chayil, or woman of valour, spoken of in the Old Testament.