Reblogged from My thought for today:

Even though it was a beautiful day in July 1968, the stifling humidity meant that all the windows in the house were open, as well as the front and back doors. It was about 5:30 p.m. as a family gathered around the table for their meal. Just as the father was about pass the salad bowl over to his daughter who was sitting to his left and his other daughter to his right with his wife directly across from him, they heard a distant rumble of thunder. Suddenly, everyone just looked at each other and then, the …

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Shirley Anne

Matthew 24

Signs of the end of the age

¹ Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. ²“Do you see all these things?” he asked. “I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

³As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

⁴ Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. ⁵ For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. ⁶ You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. ⁷ Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. ⁸All these are the beginning of birth pains.

⁹ “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. ¹⁰ At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, ¹¹ and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. ¹² Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, ¹³ but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. ¹⁴And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

¹⁵ “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— ¹⁶ then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. ¹⁷ Let no one on the roof of his house go down to take anything out of the house. ¹⁸ Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. ¹⁹ How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! ²⁰ Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. ²¹ For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. ²² If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. ²³ At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. ²⁴ For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect—if that were possible. ²⁵See, I have told you ahead of time.

²⁶ “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the desert,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. ²⁷ For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. ²⁸Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.

²⁹“Immediately after the distress of those days

“‘the sun will be darkened,    and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky,    and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’^[c]

³⁰ “At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. ³¹And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

³² “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. ³³ Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. ³⁴ I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. ³⁵Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

The Day and Hour Unknown

³⁶ “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³⁷ As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸ For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; ³⁹ and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ⁴⁰ Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. ⁴¹Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

⁴² “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. ⁴³ But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁴So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

⁴⁵ “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? ⁴⁶ It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. ⁴⁷ I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. ⁴⁸ But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ ⁴⁹ and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. ⁵⁰ The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. ⁵¹He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Not exactly a nice senario is it? Unless of course you are a believer………

Shirley Anne

Related articles

• Questions about the abomination of desolation (creationconcept.wordpress.com)
• Destruction of the Temple (shirlblake.com)
• Are We Living in the End Times? (blogcritics.org)
• Is 2012 End Of The World? (withalliamgod.wordpress.com)

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It must be the time of year I guess but over the last few days I haven’t been very well, sore throat and catarrh combined with a little listlessness kept me indoors and for the most part seated. I managed a session on my treadmill and was amazed that I could find the energy. It did make me feel good for a couple of hours. On Wednesday I had been doing some electrical work for a guy all of it outdoors except for a small amount in his garage which was just as cold as it was outside. The weather was cold (0-1 C) but dry and I was wrapped up but my toes began to feel it after a while. Now I know people cannot catch a cold because it is cold, it has to be through contact with the virus but I suppose the low temperature lowered my resistance enough to catch it. Yesterday, Sunday, I couldn’t stop sneezing and felt as weak as a kitten. I have been eating well trying to keep my energy levels up but any stored energy I might have isn’t going anywhere. Now it is Monday and I am not feeling much better and certainly not well enough to do any work. My bottom lip and right hand side of my face is swollen and I am seeing the doctor around ten o’clock. I went to bed feeling somewhat better than of late but seeing my face this morning I think I need some medication. One good thing about it though was that I couldn’t stop laughing at my self whilst applying my make-up! Anyway I am off work for a day or so now, I always take the time off whenever I am not feeling well, which fortunately hasn’t been often. I think it is unwise not to. My clients, should I get any, will have to wait a while.

Update: I have seen the doctor who reckons I have an allergic reaction to something and has accordingly placed me on a course of steroid tablets together with anti-histamine tablets for a few days. The thought of taking steroids I do not like but as it is only for a short while I have to put up with it I guess. On the brighter side I had the doctor laughing his head off by the things I was telling him. My usual doctor, a female, retired last year and as yet I have not been allocated another. I have stated my preference for a female doctor when they get round to allocating one for me. When I took my prescription to the chemist (drug store) I had them laughing their socks off too! Well you’ve got to laugh haven’t you?

I’d post a pic to show you what my face looks like but you already know what the elephant man looks like! LOL. I’m still laughing…

Shirley Anne

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• Taking Care of a Sore Throat (everydayhealth.com)

Shirley Anne

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For some unknown reason the girl was running across the yard and there were some people chasing after her. My son called to me and we set about following her. At the other end of the vast yard was what looked like a window but there did not appear to be a building! Inside, that is on the other side of the window was an old man who appeared to be a carpenter of some sort. The girl, who was in fact my sister had disappeared through this window and I was about to follow behind her. Somehow I managed to climb through at high-speed but did not catch up with her. I did not see her after that. I looked around inside what now appeared to be a small room which had been filled with all kinds of cardboard boxes and other items. I could see no way out other than the window through which I had entered. I woke up.

I have a number of dreams like this one which I have placed on their own page for those interested. This one has been added to that list too. I often dream but I cannot always remember them once I wake up. When I do remember them I record them of course as I have done here, perhaps thinking I will discover their meaning but most of them make no sense at all. There are many theories I suppose as to what dreams mean and how they relate to our experiences in life but I feel that dreams are merely our thoughts being randomly processed by our subconscious brain. Whilst we are awake we can make sense of the things we think about, all the information that has been gathered throughout our lives but when asleep all these thoughts become a jumble to the brain in it’s relaxed state. Well that’s what I think anyway. I enjoy dreaming and recalling them when I can and find most of them quite amusing.

Shirley Anne

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The BBC weather service forecast is usually accurate if not dramatic in the presentation. We, as a country were warned of an impending snow storm that was going to cause unwanted disruption. The local forecasts are similar and we on the North West coast were told that everywhere would be affected. As it happens, here in Southport, all we have had all day is rain. The chances of it snowing here now due to the latest passing snowstorm are nil. That is not to say that other parts of my county, Lancashire, haven’t been affected, for they surely have been. If I were to drive away from the coast I am sure I would encounter some snow before I’d gone twenty miles. We have had bad winters before here in the North West and Southport has been snowed in but it is very rare. It is because we are right on the western coast and somewhat sheltered that we seldom get much snow. Last year folk recall that we had it bad but in actual fact it snowed for maybe two days where it froze and was compacted as ice for about two weeks which caused the problem. Tomorrow it will be icy under foot at least first thing in the morning as the temperatures are set to reach down to -1 C but during the day the temperatures are predicted to rise much higher to around 7 C. I hope so, I’m fed up being cold when out.

Shirley Anne

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I was watching a game show on television broadcast late in the afternoon or early evening which many of you in the UK will most probably have seen. It is called ‘Pointless‘. The game itself is based around the contestants returning obscure answers to gain as few points as possible, ultimately to try to win the day’s jackpot. Like many other programs of a similar nature it is an informal affair. The presenter and his assistant, although both wearing suits, do not wear a tie but have an open-neck shirt only. This seems to be the norm for any program which is presented during daytime viewing. However when it comes to presenting programs later in the evening a more formal dress code is usually called for but there are exceptions to this these days where once before it would have been considered a taboo. Old habits are hard to change in some cases though. Take for example a snooker championship event. During the preliminary rounds the contestants often appear with open-neck shirts with no tie but usually with a waistcoat. When, in the evening and especially if it is the semi-final or final set of games, everyone wears a tie. Even the male presenters exhibit the same routine. Why should the final be any different from all the other games? It seems we can be laid-back and informal but think it is necessary to wear smarter attire for the evenings. There is nothing wrong with having a dress code for an occasion but it should perhaps be as a minimum requirement rather than an obligation to formality. We see our behaviour regarding many things in life having a dual standard. Why should it be acceptable for women to be able to wear whatever they like, within reason of course, when the same consideration isn’t given to men? There have to be standards in a civilised society of course but we can be far too politically correct for our own good sometimes. Speaking of political correctness, we take things too far at times. How stupid is Bah, bah dark-coloured sheep? Doesn’t the colour black exist anymore? Too much  bureaucracy, political correctness, unnecessary restrictions and dual standards can make life unbearable on occasion and we can become neurotic about stepping on someone’s toes in case we find ourselves punished for just being sensible. As it stands now some of the things we do really are pointless.

Shirley Anne

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According to the latest news reports the Uk is sending a replacement naval vessel to the Falkland Islands. Supposedly and quite incidentally according to the Government it is a much more capable vessel. This year marks the anniversary of the conflict between the UK and Argentina who claim sovereignty over the islands which they refer to as the Islas Malvinas. The conflict lasted from 2 April until 14 June 1982. Argentina not only claim sovereignty over the Falklands but also South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands which all lie to the east of Argentina in the South Atlantic Ocean, the nearest being more than three hundred miles distant! The residents of those islands which are settled consider themselves to be British subjects and as such the UK have to support them and defend their right to remain so. In a referendum the people of the Falkland rejected the idea of becoming subjects of Argentina. The continuous presence of British naval vessels in and around the islands is a reminder to the Argentinians of the UK’s intentions but is it enough to stave off any further conflict in the area? Who knows what the Argentinians might do in the coming years? They have already declared their position but will they settle for anything other than a total take-over either by peaceful means or by use of force? If by force, could they possibly be better equipped should they make another attempt? Is the UK ready for such an attack again especially in light of the fact that it was caught off-guard the first time? What do we do as a nation? What do we think as individuals, do we support positive defensive action or should we get around the discussion table? Does Argentina have a legitimate claim to any of the islands in the South Atlantic?

Shirley Anne

Related articles

• ‘Protect Falklands’ law ruled out (bbc.co.uk)
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It has been a long time since I wrote about Space travel or Astronomy. Two of my favourite subjects deserve a better airing but I have other things to think about. Humankind has always been inquisitive. It is as though we are pre-programmed to be so but if you think about it, it is hardly surprising. One piece of information leads to another question being asked. Almost everywhere that is habitable on this planet has had at some point human beings living there. Not content with what we have on this world we look toward colonising other worlds. We claim that this world is running out of resources but in reality there are plenty of resources here. It has more to do with mis-management and wastefulness. Assuming humankind eventually colonise another world, and there aren’t that many close enough for it to be a viable proposition presently, what will we do when we get there? Looking at our near neighbours, only one or two of them are candidates for colonisation and even they are hostile environments for human beings. The first place is the Moon. It has no atmosphere which is the first problem. There is little likelihood of water being present there. Mars is a marginally better prospect but even there the atmosphere is extremely rarefied having less pressure than exists on top of Mount Everest! Water probably does exist on Mars but is yet to be proven. Even so, Mars isn’t exactly a human-friendly place either. Massive structures would have to be built to contain a man-made atmosphere on either world or we would have to continuously walk about in a space suit. Then there are the problems of higher radiation, low temperatures and low gravity to contend with. Colonisation of other worlds would be a far greater problem than anything mankind has had to undertake colonising places on Earth. Any colonisation I feel would be simply one dedicated to research for I cannot see the possibility of a mass-exodus from this world ever becoming feasible. Other worlds do exist outside of our solar system of course but they are so far away that travelling there would take generations upon generations to get to them, assuming we found them hospitable in the first place, something very difficult to ascertain from where we are. I like the romanticism of Space colonisation but unless we can develop super speed travel methods we are wasting our time trying. It could be that we are not meant to go elsewhere and that is why the prospect is so limiting. I’ll leave you to decide.

Shirley Anne

Related articles

• Galaxy Should Have Been Colonized By Now (disclose.tv)
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Shirley Anne