I went out and did some litter picking on 30th December on the motorway entrance that is near my church. The road in question had been plagued by a massive amount of junk, cans, bottles and sandwhich packets, to name but a few of the items. Since I had the whole morning to myself, I had a choice, vacumn the house or litter pick, and I was determined to get rid of all the rubbish at the road once and for all. It took around two trips between the road and home to produce 10 separate bags of litter which has been left around the back entrance of my house. It wasn't comfortable to brave through the thorn bushes which caused my several nicks and scratches on my hands and arms. Before my second return to home to deposit what I picked up another person actually approached me offering some help, which I accepted. After my lunch of turkey soup, which my Mum encouraged to have, to have something warm in my stomach and taking a pair of gloves. I returned to pick up even more rubbish, to find the man at the bottom of the road picking up rubbish nearer to the church. Unfortunately, he soon told me his grabber broke and resorted to pick up with his hands. I didn't stop until around 4:00pm as it was getting dark and therefore not safe to continue, the road in question gets busy, especially at that time and there are no side pavements. I picked up another 5 bags, while picking up a metal pole, a bucket and other junk. The only thing that was still there, beyond the odd packet or such was a pair of tyres that are almost completely green with mose on one side where there are thorn bushes and a fence to bar the way the to and on the other side where the trees are there is a wooden pallet that is usually used in warehouses
After all this I phoned Steve, who I remember was one of the council members, only to end up talking to his wife leslie. When I told her the amount of rubbish I picked up her first word was "disgraceful". My father is intending to create an article on the local newspaper addressing the situation and expressing gratitude to me for cleaning up the area.
Sadly, I suspect that it will not be long before litter will return to the road in question. In fact when I drove by the same road on my way to work I saw a coke can that surely wouldn't have been there this morning, otherwise I would've picked it up. I also know that there is another road that is in deperate need of clearing up and not just lots of soft drink cans and bottles but may also have many items that are rusting in the dirt. Unfortunately the road in question is even more dangerous then the road near the church as it has multiple blind turns and no pavements.
While I love to clean up streets and areas that have been used as dumping grounds for multiple gatherings and such, I find the whole problem of litter just disgusting, why do so many people seem content on just chucking their litter out of their car or just dumping it on the side of the road? It really sickens me. I hope to clear up more litter in other places in the near future.
At any case Happy New year.
Thursday, 31 December 2015
Monday, 21 December 2015
I've Donated to the homeless
On Saturday morning I managed to get my family to donate a total of £300 pounds, £100 of each to the Maidstone Charity for the homeless. We are hoping that the money would be used to feed the homeless that have to struggle with survival.
I did this because as I stated earlier I believe Christmas has become less about celebrating the birth of Jesus (even though I stated earlier that December 25 was not likely the birthday of Jesus) and instead has become a mass marketing and commercialistic season with many shops apparently getting 1/6 of their yearly income from Christmas alone with more money being spent on toys and such rather then the homeless.
However, I feel like I also went the other way making myself feel a little bit hypocritical: I also went to HMV. The purpose was to buy a film I haven't seen in a while. I went in to buy one, I end up buying six. That and Mum and Dad bought three albums that in the end I payed for them. We also went into a bookshop where I discovered a compilation of 4 Percy the Park Keeper episodes in one book at an Oxfam shop. I had a brief nostalgia trip but I didn't buy the book in the end. I regret that decision.
On Sunday I told my fellow church goers and they were very proud of me. It did feel good to tell them among other people. I also talked to my vicar about Jeremiah Chapter 10 and how I believed it was related to the Christmas Tree. He disagreed, believing it to be related to making idols out of trees not necessarily decorating them like we do as tradition. I recently saw a video from Bible Flock Box that also seem to concur with what my Vicar said.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuvWd5ddBjo
I still need to write that essay about my understanding of the origins of Christmass as he and I have different opinions and interpretations of how our Christmas traditions came into place.
After telling everyone there was a nagging feeling that while what I did was the right thing I ended up bragging about it. Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith, and not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. 9. not of works, lest any man boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Jesus Christ for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in.
My understanding of this is that we need to place our faith in Jesus Christ as our saviour to be saved. We can't earn our salvation ourselves regardless of what we do. Does that mean we should live our lives and just "believe" in the Lord Jesus Christ? No, I believe that it would be in the best interest to live as much of a sinless life as we can and we need to study the Bible and let it guide us.
I did this because as I stated earlier I believe Christmas has become less about celebrating the birth of Jesus (even though I stated earlier that December 25 was not likely the birthday of Jesus) and instead has become a mass marketing and commercialistic season with many shops apparently getting 1/6 of their yearly income from Christmas alone with more money being spent on toys and such rather then the homeless.
However, I feel like I also went the other way making myself feel a little bit hypocritical: I also went to HMV. The purpose was to buy a film I haven't seen in a while. I went in to buy one, I end up buying six. That and Mum and Dad bought three albums that in the end I payed for them. We also went into a bookshop where I discovered a compilation of 4 Percy the Park Keeper episodes in one book at an Oxfam shop. I had a brief nostalgia trip but I didn't buy the book in the end. I regret that decision.
On Sunday I told my fellow church goers and they were very proud of me. It did feel good to tell them among other people. I also talked to my vicar about Jeremiah Chapter 10 and how I believed it was related to the Christmas Tree. He disagreed, believing it to be related to making idols out of trees not necessarily decorating them like we do as tradition. I recently saw a video from Bible Flock Box that also seem to concur with what my Vicar said.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuvWd5ddBjo
I still need to write that essay about my understanding of the origins of Christmass as he and I have different opinions and interpretations of how our Christmas traditions came into place.
After telling everyone there was a nagging feeling that while what I did was the right thing I ended up bragging about it. Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith, and not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. 9. not of works, lest any man boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Jesus Christ for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in.
My understanding of this is that we need to place our faith in Jesus Christ as our saviour to be saved. We can't earn our salvation ourselves regardless of what we do. Does that mean we should live our lives and just "believe" in the Lord Jesus Christ? No, I believe that it would be in the best interest to live as much of a sinless life as we can and we need to study the Bible and let it guide us.
Sunday, 13 December 2015
What happened yesterday and today
I played football on Saturday for the last time this year. We played a real match straightaway with no warm up exercise. I played as a goalkeeper as I usually do. Long story short my team won 7-6 with a score at the last minute of the game. My coaches and other players said that I performed very well as a goalkeeper this time. I also believed that I did exceptionally well to the point where I wanted to tell my football manager, but I couldn't as she was at the time going bowling with the junior team.
Afterwards Mum and I went shopping to buy stuff for my kitchen such as a new bin, a drainer, placemats a chopping knife and chopping boards to name whats on the top of my head. I also took my Mum to the shop and we had toasted sandwhiches and salad. When we left the shop we heard the alarm go off, I assumed that we didn't pay for everything because the girl at the till didn't do a good job in being thorough with our shopping. The staff never came out to sort out the reason for the alarm going off, and Mum assured me that the reason the alarm went of was because the knife's security magnet was not properly removed. Nevertheless, I decided to do a roll call on what products we purchased and discovered that I didn't pay for the roll of white swing bins and a packet of cleaning wipes which was less then £2. My parents say its not worth lamenting about, but in the end I decided to go back and pay the products that I walked out by mistake as I was thinking that no amount of circumstance changes the fact that I could've committed theft if I didn't make amends to this, but I meant to keep silent about it because Mum and Dad would say that the staff will think that I'm being really weird, but I didn't keep silent about it and when I told Mum about it there was annoyance but in the end she said that she forgives me because she knows me very well, I on the other hand feel like when I do things like this I can't really forgive myself. Mum told me that had the alarm never gone off I would never checked to see that I've paid for everything.
I went to work for my job at the warehouse on Saturday night. During that time at one point, I went into thought overload about everything; the conspiracies about the Illuminati, the problems that are going on around the world and how I and how just is the final judgement and starting thinking angry thoughts about God, then I went like "What am I thinking?!?" and actually felt like a stake went through my heart and immediatley I asked God for forgiveness. Lunch break did make me feel somewhat better as there was pizza available, although I only had one cheese slice. Like I said before there are times where I am not always able to forgive myself and try to say that its gonna be okay.
After work and returning home, Tikki my neighbour came over to take me to Boxley Church where we watched a play that reenacted the Birth of Jesus and it was a lovely play, though I couldn't remember if its 100% from the Bible such as the idea that Jesus was born in a meager or that Mary rode a donkey, but oh well. Before I went to work I told Tikki about what happened involving of a Biblical scripture that she never noticed, specifically Jeremiah 10 verses 1-5 1. Hear ye the word which the Lord Speaketh unto you, O house of Isreal and be not dismayed: 2. Thus Saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of Heaven, for the heathen are dismayed at them. 3. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. 4. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. 5. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: They must needs be born, because they cannot got. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good.
To me the biblical scripture reminds me of the Christmas Tree and why I'm not so sure about having a Christmas Tree in a church, or anywhere for that matter, is a good idea anymore.
At 4:00pm Mum, Dad and I went to Church to sing Christmas Carols. Afterwards we awarded June the Villager of the Year Award. When it was over I talked to people about my knowledge about the origins of Christmas with the Pagan origins and I also told them about Krampus, as there was a recently released horror movie that is about Krampus. Ultimately, the community thought that an essay about the origins of Christmas that could be printed on our Village News magazine for next month would be a fantastic thing to help me get the message. However, as mentioned in my previous blog post, my understanding of the origins of Christmas have caused me to have serious concerns about Christmas becoming a point where I really believe that God finds the whole holiday displeasing and dishonourable. Both my parents are starting to get fed up with me expressing these concerns, believing them to be nothing more then thoughts influenced by propaganda spewed out by American Christians who believe that they are in the right and we are in the wrong.
I've already started research into the origins and I'm trying to find information about Christmas that will not seem...arrogant I suppose. Still, I do have a lot to say and I can't shake the feeling that most of it won't reach the News Magazine for reasons X,Y, and Z.
Afterwards Mum and I went shopping to buy stuff for my kitchen such as a new bin, a drainer, placemats a chopping knife and chopping boards to name whats on the top of my head. I also took my Mum to the shop and we had toasted sandwhiches and salad. When we left the shop we heard the alarm go off, I assumed that we didn't pay for everything because the girl at the till didn't do a good job in being thorough with our shopping. The staff never came out to sort out the reason for the alarm going off, and Mum assured me that the reason the alarm went of was because the knife's security magnet was not properly removed. Nevertheless, I decided to do a roll call on what products we purchased and discovered that I didn't pay for the roll of white swing bins and a packet of cleaning wipes which was less then £2. My parents say its not worth lamenting about, but in the end I decided to go back and pay the products that I walked out by mistake as I was thinking that no amount of circumstance changes the fact that I could've committed theft if I didn't make amends to this, but I meant to keep silent about it because Mum and Dad would say that the staff will think that I'm being really weird, but I didn't keep silent about it and when I told Mum about it there was annoyance but in the end she said that she forgives me because she knows me very well, I on the other hand feel like when I do things like this I can't really forgive myself. Mum told me that had the alarm never gone off I would never checked to see that I've paid for everything.
I went to work for my job at the warehouse on Saturday night. During that time at one point, I went into thought overload about everything; the conspiracies about the Illuminati, the problems that are going on around the world and how I and how just is the final judgement and starting thinking angry thoughts about God, then I went like "What am I thinking?!?" and actually felt like a stake went through my heart and immediatley I asked God for forgiveness. Lunch break did make me feel somewhat better as there was pizza available, although I only had one cheese slice. Like I said before there are times where I am not always able to forgive myself and try to say that its gonna be okay.
After work and returning home, Tikki my neighbour came over to take me to Boxley Church where we watched a play that reenacted the Birth of Jesus and it was a lovely play, though I couldn't remember if its 100% from the Bible such as the idea that Jesus was born in a meager or that Mary rode a donkey, but oh well. Before I went to work I told Tikki about what happened involving of a Biblical scripture that she never noticed, specifically Jeremiah 10 verses 1-5 1. Hear ye the word which the Lord Speaketh unto you, O house of Isreal and be not dismayed: 2. Thus Saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of Heaven, for the heathen are dismayed at them. 3. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. 4. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. 5. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: They must needs be born, because they cannot got. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good.
To me the biblical scripture reminds me of the Christmas Tree and why I'm not so sure about having a Christmas Tree in a church, or anywhere for that matter, is a good idea anymore.
At 4:00pm Mum, Dad and I went to Church to sing Christmas Carols. Afterwards we awarded June the Villager of the Year Award. When it was over I talked to people about my knowledge about the origins of Christmas with the Pagan origins and I also told them about Krampus, as there was a recently released horror movie that is about Krampus. Ultimately, the community thought that an essay about the origins of Christmas that could be printed on our Village News magazine for next month would be a fantastic thing to help me get the message. However, as mentioned in my previous blog post, my understanding of the origins of Christmas have caused me to have serious concerns about Christmas becoming a point where I really believe that God finds the whole holiday displeasing and dishonourable. Both my parents are starting to get fed up with me expressing these concerns, believing them to be nothing more then thoughts influenced by propaganda spewed out by American Christians who believe that they are in the right and we are in the wrong.
I've already started research into the origins and I'm trying to find information about Christmas that will not seem...arrogant I suppose. Still, I do have a lot to say and I can't shake the feeling that most of it won't reach the News Magazine for reasons X,Y, and Z.
Saturday, 5 December 2015
My thoughts on Christmas
As Christmas is around the corner a lot of things are going around my mind.
On every Christmas I've always had an advent calendar with chocolate in each door, well my Mum has given me two this year. I rememeber when she gave a calander which was a Playmobile version which had no chocolate and I was very upset. I was a boy at the time and I loved sweets to the point that I wouldn't have accepted anything else.
This Christmas my family have decided "not" to hang up the Christmas tree or have presents, at least not in the quantity that we've always had. Instead, we are thinking of relaxing ourselves on this occasion and spend the money we would have spent on Christmas presents and instead on helping the poor and homeless. This is probably a good thing as a recent study showed that the average American spending on Christmas gifts in November has jumped to $830 this year. The third highest amount spent on record, the first only $866 in 2007.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/186620/americans-plan-spending-lot-christmas.aspx
Still the desire of certain items like Klonoa: Empire of Dreams still linger around in my mind like the form of a Christmas Wish list.
But I've developed some concerns about Christmas, in particular its origins which have a lot of Pagan influences and may not be anything to do with Jesus Christ. My understanding throughout my life was that the original intention of Christmas was to celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ. There is only one small problem: Was Jesus really born on December 25th? Not according to the Bible, or its scholars and certainly not according to historical experts, saying he was most likely born in the Fall, not December 25th.
http://biblelight.net/sukkoth.htm
http://www.christiananswers.net/christmas/mythsaboutchristmas.html
As mentioned earlier, Christmas in fact has a lot of Pagan influences and infact has been known to celebrate other Gods outside Christianity.
The day December 25th was chosen to worship the birth of Jesus because the Roman Catholic Church to Christianise the Pagan Festivals and the Wiccan Winter Solstice. E.g. in particular the festival of Saturnalia. Saturnalia involves the Roman God Saturn who was the God of Time and Harvest. During that time Roman Laws were lifted and Romans engaged in various behaviours that included property damage, sexual harassment and even human sacrifice which included children.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkGfcwY5yKI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAj3VMhtfVQ
Christmas also seems to worship Nimrod the very individual responsible for trying to construct the Tower of Babel, which God prevented from completion by confusing the languages so that communication was impossible.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimrod
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Babel
Some Bible believing Christians have also labeled Santa as the Anti-Christ, when I say Anti-Christ, I don't mean that you're against Christ but rather you are in place of Christ. Beyond the fact that rearranging Santa's name makes it Satan, Santa has many characteristics that are borrowed from Jesus.
http://www.cuttingedge.org/news/n1132.cfm
Overall I've only described a tiny fraction of the origins of Christmas and why I have doubts onto whether I should celebrate it anymore. Everything about Christmas is considered displeasing to the Lord and He would call his people to come out of "Babylon". However, I can't convince my family about the truth about Christmas and I feel like I don't have the strength to walk away from it all.
On every Christmas I've always had an advent calendar with chocolate in each door, well my Mum has given me two this year. I rememeber when she gave a calander which was a Playmobile version which had no chocolate and I was very upset. I was a boy at the time and I loved sweets to the point that I wouldn't have accepted anything else.
This Christmas my family have decided "not" to hang up the Christmas tree or have presents, at least not in the quantity that we've always had. Instead, we are thinking of relaxing ourselves on this occasion and spend the money we would have spent on Christmas presents and instead on helping the poor and homeless. This is probably a good thing as a recent study showed that the average American spending on Christmas gifts in November has jumped to $830 this year. The third highest amount spent on record, the first only $866 in 2007.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/186620/americans-plan-spending-lot-christmas.aspx
Still the desire of certain items like Klonoa: Empire of Dreams still linger around in my mind like the form of a Christmas Wish list.
But I've developed some concerns about Christmas, in particular its origins which have a lot of Pagan influences and may not be anything to do with Jesus Christ. My understanding throughout my life was that the original intention of Christmas was to celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ. There is only one small problem: Was Jesus really born on December 25th? Not according to the Bible, or its scholars and certainly not according to historical experts, saying he was most likely born in the Fall, not December 25th.
http://biblelight.net/sukkoth.htm
http://www.christiananswers.net/christmas/mythsaboutchristmas.html
As mentioned earlier, Christmas in fact has a lot of Pagan influences and infact has been known to celebrate other Gods outside Christianity.
The day December 25th was chosen to worship the birth of Jesus because the Roman Catholic Church to Christianise the Pagan Festivals and the Wiccan Winter Solstice. E.g. in particular the festival of Saturnalia. Saturnalia involves the Roman God Saturn who was the God of Time and Harvest. During that time Roman Laws were lifted and Romans engaged in various behaviours that included property damage, sexual harassment and even human sacrifice which included children.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkGfcwY5yKI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAj3VMhtfVQ
Christmas also seems to worship Nimrod the very individual responsible for trying to construct the Tower of Babel, which God prevented from completion by confusing the languages so that communication was impossible.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimrod
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Babel
Some Bible believing Christians have also labeled Santa as the Anti-Christ, when I say Anti-Christ, I don't mean that you're against Christ but rather you are in place of Christ. Beyond the fact that rearranging Santa's name makes it Satan, Santa has many characteristics that are borrowed from Jesus.
http://www.cuttingedge.org/news/n1132.cfm
Overall I've only described a tiny fraction of the origins of Christmas and why I have doubts onto whether I should celebrate it anymore. Everything about Christmas is considered displeasing to the Lord and He would call his people to come out of "Babylon". However, I can't convince my family about the truth about Christmas and I feel like I don't have the strength to walk away from it all.
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