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Ashvin! Karibuni nymbani na familia ya Mungu Baba na Mwanawake Yesu Kristo!
I’ve been reading TAE since Sept 2010 and enjoy, not that that’s always the right word depending on what’s being discussed/revealed, it very much. Thanks so much for all the effort and likewise to Ilargi and Stoneleigh too (who I saw/heard in Hamilton, New Zealand, but didn’t meet personally due to work time constraints).
I sensed something was happening with you as metaphysical themes became of more interest to you and am not at all surprised to hear that our good Lord was behind your quest for the truth. Jesus found me out 40yrs ago at age 6 and despite my own lack of understanding what He was really about until more recent times (severe suffering was a huge part of that – thanks Lord!) I have found Jesus Christ to be absolutely faithful to His promises.
Great to see you have the guts to nail your flag to the mast as you set about sharing your journey with us at your new blog. And big kudos to Stoneleigh and Ilargi for agreeing to post your post despite, I would guess their probable ideological opposition to it. I love their take on so much stuff. TAE encouraged me along the path I was already on. I’ve never borrowed money, have always waited until I had the cash. Patience really is a virtue despite nearly everyone mocking those who practice it. I refused to borrow not from fear but because I thought that too often the system rewarded the wrong behaviour. Behaviour ultimately harmful to society. I’ve learnt to be content with little or much.While your revelation has severely ruffled the feathers of many TAE readers censorship is never the solution if truth is truthfully being sought. As a writer and rational thinker you surpass me but I do own a science degree along with many years applying it in farming in both NZ and Tanzania. I’ve also done years of practical volunteer community development work in NZ, Tanzania and Uganda.
This work taught me how badly so many Christian organisations do at ‘helping’ in a big picture lasting way as well as in the short term. We make blunders at the micro and monumental level. But that is OUR fault not God’s. In fact, despite liking my colleagues and the locality a lot, I resigned from my last position in Uganda due to them persisting with methods that my decade in Africa showed me don’t work. So your post on ‘white saviour guilt complexes etc’ did not insult me. As always peoples true motives are often unknown to themselves as well as others. That said, Christians still do some good at times and, generally speaking here (there are always exceptions), they are the only ones doing it as soon as it becomes remote and underpaid. The different UN development orgs are in my experience the most conflicted and corrupted and self-interested in the development religion world. My how humanism can be a racket beyond all rackets.
Right now I’ve been working a year helping reintergrate released prisoners back into NZ society. Again, the majority of those working as volunteers are folk serving Jesus Christ. The men I help have, in some cases, done violent despicable things that would repulse me to the core if it were not for my knowledge of my own sins being covered by the grace of God through Christs atonement for them. I’m amazed at the love for these guys (from many different races, age groups, cultures, beliefs and religions) that God has enabled me to have and the complete lack of fear I can have because I know God has me here for His reasons not mine. It’s never to late to repent, but if they don’t care to we still love them however we can practically and relationally. Yes these men have been, or still are, terrible creeps and predators but if our justice system says they have paid their debt then we must all support them in many ways when they come out of prison not just leave them alone to fail. Love always involves risk.As far as the claims against you now, re the lack of ‘rational’ thinking, I suggest checking out these sites, amoung others, for those thinking we God believers and creationists are mental writeoffs.
Perry Marshall is an electrical engineer and for quite some years now a world expert on Google Adwords marketing. I met him extremely briefly at a conference in Australia in 2004 where he was presenting. He is no slouch as his challenge re information theory will show. https://www.cosmicfingerprints.com/dna-atheists/
Glenn Miller is also an electrical engineer and IT man. His site looks ancient because it is 🙂 Guess he’s too busy to revamp it. https://christianthinktank.com/
Creation.com is a good resource site. I’ve met Dr. Jonathan Sarfarti who has a few books out easily debunking the likes of the very loud Sqwaukin’ Dawkins https://creation.com/the-collapse-of-geologic-time
As for your own personal spiritual growth Ashvin, pray and study scripture and also read anything by A.W. Tozer, Os Guiness, Andrew Murray’s “Waiting on God, J.I.Packer’s “Knowing God” and John Piper’s works re the Supremacy of Christ. And don’t miss Henry Blackaby’s “Experiencing God” – God used this to open my spiritual eyes and ears which, together with God speaking directly to me by various ways, has changed my life quite radically. Plenty more of course…but most importantly keep knowing Jesus Christ as your goal in all you do!
And people totally misunderstand Paul – he wrote the letter to the Galatians to help them avoid ‘religion’ and all it’s associated performance of works to please God. In Phillipians he counts all that religious stuff in his past as ‘rubbish’. His overarching desire was to know Christ and the power of His resurrection life. He was a totally rational man as well as a very spiritual one (he had visions etc – any reader who considers themselves more spiritual; can you claim such as well as still argue rationally). Both go together like the two oars on a rowboat. Pulled together you head somewhere, but on their own you just go around in circles.
This has got long so I’ll post some simple thoughts of mine re truth on your new Pictures of Christ blog rather than here. Once again thanks Ashvin! My best regards to all commenters and lurkers too.
Monbiet’s book ‘No Man’s Land’ about the plight of the Barabaig tribe in the Hanang/Lake Basuto area of Arusha Region (now Manyara) in Tanzania was an eyeopening read back in the mid-late 90’s. I was teaching sustainable agriculture at a rural training centre a couple hours drive away near Dareda. Good book showing the foolishness of the Canadian wheat project that resulted in the Tanz Govt snatching 100,000 acres of prime grazing land and turning into a dozen wheat growing farms replete with huge modern farming technology in the 80’s. A few years later, in a different job, I went there for 6wks to manage the harvest of one of the farms for my dutch export seed company boss. He’d had to lease the farm for free as the only way to get back money owed him by the Govt project for inputs they’d got on credit. Once the Canadians handed over the project (after 10yrs training locals etc) it soon collapsed due to corruption.
Anyway, GM’s story was right but having worked in Tanzania and got to know the tribes and a little of their ways there was also another side to it that he never covered (the ongoing and fairly recent historical injustices of the Barabaig towards their immediate neighbours due to their culture meaning they had zero allies to speak for them).
Anyway the Canadians have eventually made things right, as far as possible, for the Barabaig and some credit must go to GM’s book for revealing the injustice done there. Bravo.Since then I look out for his writing but, while insightful at times, overall he seemed to jump onto bandwagons far too quickly and enthusiastically e.g. the whole global warming fiasco. He deals more in symptoms rather than the deep underlying causes unlike Stoneleigh & Ilargi and certainly has scant idea of the interplay between ponzi finance and (lack of) future energy resource availability etc. Which is why I’ve been (mostly) lurking here for just on 2yrs now.
Thanks, very sobering (not that I was really expecting any better would come from such a corrupt state once the truth finally leaks out; as it always does). China’s just another dud horse in the race. Might outrun the other nags but still suffer a fatal fall before the finish line.
Real life is stranger than fiction. How many people the world over has this Pon Zi demon possessed?!!Thanks for passing through Hamilton earlier this week. Nice to have faces to put to names. I enjoyed (if that’s the right word!) Stoneleighs presentation despite it being a roundup/summary of what I’ve learned here the last 20mths. Had to get back to work during question time so wasn’t able to meet you – but thanks for doing what you’re doing. As far as the above craziness goes; well it’s pretty impossible to respect authority that doesn’t respect us. Lies = disrespect. We need leaders who are servants of the truth whatever the personal/professional cost to themselves.
Woohoo! So you are coming to NZ after all 🙂 Auckland will be close enough if you’re not doing a presentation in Hamilton(?). I’ve been reading TAE since Sept 2010 and found it very insightful. I was already cashed up prior to Lehmans (not because I was smart but because of doing voluntary work o’seas) and ready to play wait and see and TAE reinforced that and stopped me doing what the herd has been. I’m from a farming background – very grateful for such knowledge and skills and that community I could slot back into (relationships ARE everything!), although if power and fuel supply networks go down or get too expensive farmers will be very seriously in the poo too.
Now I work helping reintegrate released prisoners back into the community. These guys typically have no assets, socially and materially, just hate to think what it’ll be like for them if the S really HTF. I worked a few jobs in rural East Africa over a 10yr period and have seen first hand what no capital and no cheap easy energy supply is like.
As for NZ folk, most don’t want to hear ‘negative’ talk as they all believe in the current way of life so what to do except help my own small circle – some of whom I may be able to motivate to attending these talks. Always thought I must be strange for refusing to borrow for anything (God doesn’t say “the borrower is servant to the lender” for nothing) but right now I’m happy to have ‘missed out’.Hope to be meeting other NZ readers of TAE soon 🙂
