Blog 6 - Maori - How Were They Treated

One of the things that I have been pondering lately is what constitutes the truth . We hear various narratives through the media and on the Internet but often these are skewed. If you follow some of the political feeds the average punter tends to take a fairly self interested and jaundiced view of current events. This is a generalisation but even so it is far too often the case.

What I have been thinking about specifically is this, what is the truth that is not often reflected in some narratives. For instance what is the truth about the Treaty of Waitangi and what happened to Maori in colonial times. My view is that immigrants to New Zealand in the first part of the nineteenth century needed land and the Maori owned the land. This caused conflict and some bad things were done to obtain that land.

Initially snake oil salesmen traded everything from beads to guns with the various tribes to buy land from them. Maori did not realise what that they were actually permanently selling their land as they had no concept of that in their culture at the time. In 1840, Governor Grey and Henry Williams and Co., moved to attempt to protect Maori and formalise relations with them on behalf of the British Crown. This was done in part to keep France and Russia out of New Zealand by making her a British Colony. So it was not entirely just about protecting Maori.

At the same time (1840), the New Zealand Company under the leadership of George Whitfield began bringing immigrants to New Zealand from Britain and settling them on that had seemingly been purchased from Maori. This first happened in Tuamarina near Nelson in the South Island and the first boat loads of settlers were involved in a skirmish with Maori which ended with some dead settlers and some very disenchanted Maori who had no recollection of having sold any land to anyone.

Parliament was established in New Zealand in May 24 1854 which was based on the British Parliament’s New Zealand constitution act of 1852. In the early 1860’s the parliament passed three acts which created the environment for a land grab against Maori. These were the The Native Lands Act 1862 & 1863. This act disabled Maori communal land ownership and forced Maori lands into individualised legal titles and created the Maori Land Court which allowed individual Maori to sell land without the consent of Iwi or Hapu. Maori had said they had no desire to sell further land at this time.

The New Zealand Settlements Act 1863 which allowed the Crown to confiscate millions of acres of land on the basis of Maori tribes being said to be in rebellion against the Queen. The Public Works Act 1864 enabled the Colonial Government to compulsorily acquire land for public infrastructure projects like railways and roads.

On the positive side was the Maori Representation Act 1867 which enabled Maori men to vote and formed four Maori seats. Four seats was considerably under-representing the population of Maori in New Zealand at the time by comparison to immigrants in the country.

The New Zealand wars happened from 1845 to 1872 and involved a series of conflicts between the colonial government and Maori. Initially the battles were between dominant Maori and the Crown over disputes involving land and governance issues but by the 1860’s the Colonial Government brought 18 thousand British troops to assist in quashing Maori rebellion.

There were only 4 thousand Maori warriors but they managed to use sophisticated strategies, such as, the use of anti-artillery bunkers, fortified villages and guerilla style tactics. Thereby causing significant difficulty to the British Army and making the war a long an arduous process.

Lieutenant General Sir Duncan Cameron was in charge of the Army in New Zealand between 1863 and 1865. His refusal to attack fortified villages caused him to eventually resign. He fought the battle of Rangiriri in 1863 attacking fortified villages and winning at great cost and loss of life. Gate Pa and Te Ranga where Maori won the Battle of Gate Pa but Cameron’s troops won the next engagement at Te Ranga. His final battle was at South Taranaki and earned him the name the Lame Seagull. He was not happy with the war at this stage and considered it to be based on the unfair acquisition of land from Maori.

The result of Cameron’s campaigns was to see massive post war land confiscations and it was said the Cameron and Governor Grey’s actions changed the balance of power between Maori and Pakeha. This reversal of fortunes led to the cultural and social disenfranchisement of Maori and to the dispossession of of their ancestral lands and ultimately led to poverty, exposure to disease and the decline of their population to forty thousand by the mid 1890’s.

This is a brief description of what I know to be the truth of what happened in the Nineteenth century. The Treaty of Waitangi was put in place to protect Maori but also to enable what happened with the establishment of Pakeha rule and the land grab. The work of Henry Morris translating it signified the importance of his Christian faith to the process of establishing legal protection for Maori.

In recent times Maori Christians have commented on persecution of Christian Maori at Parihaka in the Taranaki and the fact that it is believed that virtually all Maori had converted to Christianity by 1860. That the Colonial Government had interpreted the Treaty in a creative manner and despite the fact that Maori had embraced Christianity they sought to marginalise them as a nation.

Once Maori understood that many of the British didn’t live the faith that they espoused and that their actions did not match their words. They began to fall away from Christianity and I can understand why they have not come back again.

Much has been done in the last fifty years to address what happened to Maori and there is much yet to be done in raising educational and living standards among wider Maori. However, there is a question about at what point do we embrace the future and put the past behind us.

The world we live in is now a very different place. We have 279 thousand people of Chinese ethnicity living in New Zealand and 292 thousand people of Indian ethnicity. There are 3.38 million people of broadly European ethnicity and 930 thousand Maori plus a further 170 thousand Maori living in Australia. There are 442 thousand people of Pacifika ethnicity. The total of all peoples living in New Zealand is 5.361 million.

China and India are both much stronger regional and global players than they have been in the past. This must impact on the profile of immigrants from those two nations. Maori are now 1 million strong when you include those resident in Australia. Pakeha are still a large, if often silent, majority at 3.38 million. Birth rates are quite low across the board at 1.53 per couple average.

Today New Zealand is a multicultural nation with a complicated regional political landscape including two emerging superpowers. We have a variety of different cultures participating in our society and although we have the Treaty of Waitangi and the obligation to Maori as a nation. I do not see how we can divide our country between Maori and everyone else or establish a co-governance structure where the majority fight over resources allowed them by a minority. It is hard to imagine Maori getting the Tino Rangitiratanga, Maori Sovereignty and Self Determination they desire through a democratic solution.

To conclude, Maori were treated poorly in the nineteenth century and in many ways since then as well. This is  historical fact although it is also a fact that efforts have been made by the Crown to address this poor treatment and to honour the Treaty over the last fifty years. The situation of Maori in 2026 is much better than in the past and there is hope for their future. As a Pakeha my own hope is that the peoples of New Zealand can coexist together peacefully and prosperously collaborating harmoniously to the benefit of all New Zealanders including Maori. 

Which brings us to scripture. In this case Acts 17: 26-27 "And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us.." ESV

Blog 5 - May 2026

So, I shrunk my Windows drive on this laptop and loaded Kubuntu Linux because I quite like writing in LibreOffice which is the default Linux office suite. I also like the disconnection from Google Drive and Microsoft Onedrive while saving my work to the hard drive on this machine. It is so peaceful.

I’ve been trying the audio bible function on You Version lately. I find it really easy to listen to and to cover quite a few chapters at a time. It is much easier to close listen than to close read. I have tried the New King James, the New Living Translation and New American Standard 2020. The New King James has a really poetic sounding narrator which is by far the coolest. The New Living Translation is very good at unpacking concepts while the New American Standard is by far the clearest translation and potentially the least inaccurate.

I have found using the audio feature the clearest method of comparing the bible versions that I have ever been able to use. I wholeheartedly encourage anyone who wants to dig deeply into the scriptures to consider using the You Version bible app and give it a shot. A really easy and relaxing method of following the themes in the bible with much greater clarity. It works well beside conventional bible reading methods as well.

I was talking to a non Christian friend at work the other day. He was talking about another man who works at the school and relating his discussion with the man about Trump and the Middle East. It turns out that the other man was a Christian and described the actions of Trump and Iran in Christian terms to my friend.

My friend said that the other man had said that the end of this situation would see the return of Jesus Christ. My friend said if the man had of had the time he would have tried to convert him to Christianity. I didn’t expand on the conversation with him as he had already made up his mind about becoming a Christian or not.

I was impressed with the Christian for making a good attempt to lead my friend to Christ through a discussion of global current events. This all highlights the opportunity to share the gospel with folk through the evolving world situation. Opportunities arise wherever we are.

I must admit I tend to be much more subtle with sharing my faith with my colleagues and I usually only mention the odd bible verse that might apply to a discussion of children’s behavior. An example is that scripture used in Judges about every man doing what was right in his own eyes. This applies so well to many of the youngsters in schools these days.

This all underlines the opportunities that are available to us to witness to friends and colleagues in one form or another. I know I am always looking to share when a possibility shows up and I can add faith to the discussion in a fluid manner.

I guess the extension of this conversation is the world we live in on a daily basis. A world which contains the literal, and living, nation of Israel. An Israel which God has gathered from the nations of the Earth. A world where Islam opposes Judaism and Christianity globally. A world where America and Europe are fledglings of the beast empire to come. A day preceding the coming Day of the Lord and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. A time of great judgment and the establishment of the Kingdom of God.

To conclude: Now is the day of your salvation. Now is the time to hear the gospel and to make a decision for citizenship in the eternal Kingdom of God. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes on Him shall not perish but will inherit eternal life. For He sent His Son not to condemn the world but to save it. For it is also written that there is none righteous not even one and all have sinned, all fallen short of the glory of God. For the wages of our sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.

So, repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and to receive the Holy Spirit. For I am certain that there is no other name under heaven by which you much be saved. For faith is given to you as a gift and salvation cannot be earned by any action of man but only through the shed blood and broken body of Jesus Christ who crucified for the sins of mankind and those for whom it is given by the Father to be saved. Those who believe on the only begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ. This is my paraphrase of some important bible verses.

Blog Four - April 2026

  

The Weather

Writing this blog in the middle of Cyclone Vaianu. At the time of writing it is raining moderately with some gusts of high wind. Ultimately, Rotorua got off lightly with 79mm of rain, a few power outages and tree falls. We had some disagreement in the whanau about how the authorities handled this storm. Did they over react and what constitutes a catastrophic weather event.

There was a bit of angst, but I don’t think that is unexpected given that we have had several strong tropical weather events over the last six months that have brought dangerous amounts of wind and rain to the regions. These storms have caused large amounts of damage, taking lives and leaving an almost continuous aftermath of repair and reconstruction of infrastructure.

You can say what you like, but whether this is human driven climate change or the enactment of Christ Jesus’ words from Matthew Twenty Four. These are not the weather events we used to know. A front would come through and deposit between fifteen and forty millimetres of rainfall. Enough to grow the grass for the next few weeks and keep things ticking over.

Now, we get frequent tropical humidity and the sky seems to drip moisture. Most of the systems that come through are capable of anomalies like tornadoes and frequently dump torrential rain in confined areas causing localised damage in a very unpredictable manner. Whatever, is going on the weather isn’t what it was. The worst part of all this is that it seems to be the new normal.

Iran

Mr Trump and Mr Netanyahu have concluded their attacks on Iran for the moment. Many argue about the value of what the action has achieved. As is so often the case pushing an air superiority campaign often has it’s limits. Iran has had a long time to consider what an allied military action would look like and have put together a decentralised control structure and infrastructure that has shown considerable endurance.

If Israeli and American strategists were as godly as many claim they would know that Persia are an actor in the army which comes against Israel in the Tribulation time (Ezekiel 38:5). Therefore, their actions may limit Iran but ultimately only God can eliminate the threat to Israel that they represent.

According to prophecy, America and the two other super powers are removed to facilitate the rise of the Beast Power (Ezekiel 38,39 and Revelation 16:12). Israel are dominated by that power and the abomination of desolation is performed by the Beast in the yet to be built Third Temple. However, God uses a remnant from Israel to take the gospel to the world one last time and then Jesus returns to establish the Kingdom of God (Matthew 24 and Revelation 7).

How the super powers are removed is open to question. I would imagine America is neutralised by the coalition of Russian and Chinese forces probably through nuclear war. Russia I suspect are considerably depleted by the conflict and China are left the conquerors until they are removed without human intervention (Revelation 8: 8-11 and Revelation 9:15).

The Times

We live in a time where Christians who understand something of bible prophecy would be amazed to see the actors described by the prophets moving into position like chess pieces on a the world stage. I find that seeing prophecy in action makes me feel that there is no longer any point in discussing it in articles like this. The evidence is there for all to see as events play out and lead to the conclusion of this age as the prophecies describe. I have wondered whether I should just let it all play out and switch to sharing the gospel instead.

However, there are still things to say and points to be made. For instance, people have strong opinions about our politicians. Mr Trump is an example of this and people seem to love him or hate him. Most have forgotten his first term and see the actions that he is taking now as those of a crazed old man.

My memories of his first term were that he said and did controversial things which led people to either double down and support him or to condemn him outright. His actions did cause division and lead at that time to near civil war. For his second term he had made plans to control this situation.

As soon as he came to power, he mobilised the national guard in Antifa strong hold states to prevent insurrection. In the second term he has seemed to act without any confusion and has taken decisive actions against Venezuela and Iran and also internally with his many executive orders. As he did in his first term he has challenged allies and enemies alike with a narrative that has caused them to think and act in ways that they have not needed to before.

He uses one tactic very effectively which is to call a specific ally, or enemy, out on a certain point and then allow them to contribute to the narrative. The issue is usually resolved by the ally, or enemy, taking a certain action or by them negotiating with Trump and backing down, as in the dialogue over Greenland. He is also very strong in bringing other parties to the table as he has done with the Iran cease fire. In that situation Pakistan has moved to negotiate the military phase of the action to a rapid conclusion.

Whatever, you think about Trump as a person. He is the President of the United States and has won the position twice with large majorities. He is going to leave a legacy and has made some strong points for the immediate future. Europe have been cautioned that it is time to prepare to defend themselves as the United States moves to confront Russia and China by itself. The message here is simple, Europe may not always have the USA there to protect them in the future as war between the super powers may result in the demise of one or more of them.

The Narrative

In our time one of the most used headlines is ‘The Narrative.’ It is the dialogue of our daily news and constitutes the main discourse. The issues that everyone should know about and believe. One example of this is the idea that American presidents are senile, elderly billionaire plutocrats. Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump fit into this narrative and it has allowed both the news media, and social media, to attack them without mercy in a way which would not have been tolerated in the past.

In my view this is a very dangerous tool. The narrative has always been there but the powers that control the narrative now have refined its use to specifically control what people think about important issues. Cancel culture has been employed in recent years as our society has been motivated to isolate citizens who express views which do not reflect the opinions of the narrative. The problem is that the narrative is portrayed as the view of the majority but we only have the news media and social media’s opinions to back this claim.

My opinion is that it is important that we do not allow the narrative to control our thinking. We need to find the information and make decisions for ourselves about what we think. It is also necessary to be careful about what we reveal about our decisions on those matters. Save it for the polling booth as it were. I know that in New Zealand that there is a silent majority that keep their opinions to themselves about a good many things.

The Gospel

As a Christian I would simply say that this. The Son of God, Jesus Christ, came to pay the price for the sins of as many as will believe. Salvation is a matter of faith and the gospel is reflected in a few simple verses: John 3:16; Acts 2:38 and Romans 6:23

The rest is up to you.

Blog Three – March 2026

It never ceases to surprise me how seasons come and seasons go. Some are seasons of testing and others are seasons of blessing. Some are both although you quite often don’t realise that until the season passes. I find that this is the price of age and wisdom.

Often our times of test involve the people we are close too. Rubbing along with others can be a challenge, particularly when they don’t seem to see any issue with what they are doing and we can see the impact their actions are having on those around them. It is often hard to know what to do? The simple solutions of life are often not appropriate and even talking it out with them can be ineffective if they are not good at self monitoring. My main solution down the years has been to lift my cares to the Lord in prayer and many better Christians than I, have suggested that time spent on our knees is the best solution to every trial in life. Prayer is the way to seek God’s help and has the added benefit of growing the amount of time we spend in communion with God and of growing our proximity to God.

It intrigues me that as an old man now I still look at the things I did as youngster and seek to do them in old age as well. Things like riding bikes and trying my hand at sports like golf or shooting still tempt the heart even though I’m well and truly over the hill. The old joints are shot and the balance isn’t what it was anymore. Fishing is another thing that I often long after but I just don’t seem to have the time. Who knows though perhaps I will have another season to return to some of those long lost pursuits. I suspect that it may have to wait until I cross over to the kingdom for now though.

Way back in 1977 a man called Don Stanton wrote a book called Mystery 666 about bible prophecy in the End Times. He was sure that the End Times were happening in the 1970’s and ‘80’s and that the tribulation period of seven years would happen back then after which the Lord Jesus was going to return and the kingdom of God would be established. Time passed and as has often happened in the past his projections were a bit out.

I was very keen on Don Stanton’s books, as were very many people at the time. He belonged to a group of Christian thinkers called Dispensationalists who look toward a period of judgment called the Seventieth Week of Daniel which will last for seven years and after which Jesus will return. Hazard to say that it will be a rough time and the bible says that were that time not shortened no flesh would survive (Matthew 24).

There are a number of bible passages that relate to this event such as Daniel chapter 9 and Ezekiel chapters 38. It may be that Don Stanton wasn’t so far out and that the prophecy is beginning to be fulfilled at the present. Recent events where the United States and Israel are now making war on Iran may be the beginning of the hostilities that usher a coalition of middle eastern and other nations into being that is described in Ezekiel 38 as bring a great army that attacks Israel. It might also foment a third world war which would bring a world government into existence by removing the super powers and allowing a global coalition of equals to form. Sadly this would happen in the time of judgment and not be the instrument of deliverance people would be hoping for. To sum up these may well be momentous times and as Christians we need to be watchful and focused on sharing the gospel. This is also a time when there will be a great harvest of souls for the Lord.

An issue related to sharing bible prophecy is that of becoming too negative about these kinds of issues. I know that I tend to spend too much dwelling on world events and that others can find this upsetting. I can only suggest that it is a matter of planning to live life for a hundred years but being prepared to face the Lord at any moment. Seek God, pray and strive to share the gospel but be present for the people in your life. Fill their lives with happy occasions, joyful celebrations and daily expressions of love. Most of all let those who know you experience Christ through you and let your footsteps be those of Christ Jesus himself as the Spirit reveals His nature in you. I guess what I’m saying is “Chill out bro…”

See you all next month.

Love B.

Blog 2 - 2026

  

Blog Two - February 1^st 2026

I’ve been hearing about changes in education and comparing them to the changes with the world around us and wondering. We see the controversy that Mr Trump is causing in America with his oligarchical philosophy. I think many think he is somewhat fascist in his reasoning but I think he is actually more of a nationalist with dictatorial tendencies. An American Putin.

The same applies to those leading New Zealand at the moment. The Coalition is powering along making changes in the hope of restoring the New Zealand that used to be? The reality is they are working within a system that is implementing another agenda altogether, again within reason. Education is an example of this.

Last year the government brought out a curriculum update and issued new texts to support it. This has only had one year of operation and a new even more austere update has been rolled out which smacks of nineteenth century Prussian educational dogma. We will make our children a product of the state. Will teach them all what they need to know. Part of this is teaching the same content at the same time every day in every school. Don’t get me wrong, there are benefits of this type of system but it is not the type of system that we Kiwi’s would choose for ourselves. Far too constricted and proscribed.

Christianity is another area that has been undergoing changes in this modern world and has arrived in an odd state of equilibrium. When I grew up the Christian church was strong and virtually everyone, whether a church goer or not, held to christian values. Doing the right thing, bringing up your children in a family with a mum and a dad and with love and discipline in equal measure.

With the advent of secular culture and the focus on godless evolution enshrined in pseudo science. Honestly, you don’t have to go to far into this nonsense to realise that nothing begats nothing and the complexity of life around us, from the cell on up, screams at the top of it lungs “There is a God!” However, the church has dissolved from the inside out and only the cults are left. Adventism, Calvinism and Pentecostalism have inherited the mantle that used to belong to simple bible and gospel based Christianity.

So how does this all fit together. Well when we talk of politics or education or, the Church we are really talking about systems. For me as an older person the systems I grew up with and which seemed to work have changed and in my opinion don’t work so well anymore. I have a feeling that as a kiwi in my sixties this isn’t my world anymore. It belongs to the younger generation. I fear for my children and their children.

Particularly, when you add activist driven biculturalism, rampant immigration and the impacts of one in one hundred year weather events every few months. The systems they are changing and not for the good. One way or another, this little country isn’t the way it was and as change comes in so does the age old question. “Is this my country anymore?”

We have governments that seem to be hell bent on global elitist chaos. We have free education and health systems in deliberate decline. This with the implication that education and health will only be for the wealthy in the future. This goes for the insurance industry as well, as even insuring your house is no longer a given when it used to be a government guarantee.

The church is no longer what it was and in many ways doesn’t do the job of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ anymore. Which is what it is there for. Of course, God has got this and there will be a remnant working in the background and following the great commission. There always has been a group of dedicated Christians obeying Christ.

Matthew 28 verses 19 and 20: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

As an older person I guess these are the types of thoughts are very common. As you pass the age having a real impact on life the world seems to pass you by. However, these are real issues of concern for the next generation. As I mentioned before I worry for them as they face them. The implications of those issues could be life changing.

Blog 1 - 2026

 

What I’m Thinking - Jan '26...

Hear we are at January 13 already. I was thinking I might start a blog about some of the things I’ve been thinking about lately. One of the current news issues at the moment is, if we were to try to put a name to it, “Who is Donald Trump and what do we do with him?”

He recently abducted the Venezuelan president and his administration is saying strange things about taking over Greenland. Europe are up in arms, nothing new there but: What is this Donald Trump fellow up to? I mean the United States does radical stuff all the time. They operate all over the world but usually their missions are shrouded in secrecy. Trump is just such a talker, it must drive the CIA, FBI, NSA and all the other acronyms crazy.

You know Trump is not a traditional conservative, right? As a Kiwi I would cite men like Sir Keith Holyoak, Sir John Marshall and Sir Brian Tallboys as being traditional conservatives. Men who held no nonsense values and favored a hard working life where everyone had equal opportunity. Something like that in any case. No, Mr Trump is a billionaire oligarch like Mr Putin and his friends which is why they get on so well. I’m fairly sure that when they look at you and me they see a herd of cattle or a flock of Emus or something of that ilk. What I’m saying is that they pretend to like us to control us but don’t see us being equal to them.

So how do we assimilate this information. I guess we’ll just have to passively wait and see what happens. The bible tells us that God installs our leaders to keep order and achieve His objectives, paraphrase but you get my meaning. You know what I think anyway. I believe these are the last days of the Church Age and Jesus will return soon but first a time destruction known as the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. Never a dull moment.

Benjamin Netanyahu

So, I recently wrote a few supportive comments about Benjamin Netanyahu on Face-book and encountered a bit of opposition from the alien invasion lunatic fringe muttering about brown haired blue eyed Jesus and a killing children will get you into hell. You know open minded well informed kind of thinking. Interestingly, I was searching up Palestinian DNA the other day to see if they were descended from the Philistines. The blurb said they weren’t but the results might be fudged. However, one article said that the Philistines are thought to have been descended from a European tribe. The Palestinians are genetically similar to middle eastern Jews and Arabs. So the reason they hate Israel; Simply Palestine is Islam and they hate Israel; even though many of the Palestinians could be the same race as the Israelis’. Hard to credit.

As to Ben Netanyahu. Although he is not against Israel being involved in the global economy he is a strong nationalist and a loyal Israeli whilst being at the same time probably the most capable leader Modern Israel has ever known. I believe he is God’s man for the time. Ultimately though, God can defend Israel and he will do so. Therefore we need have no fear, for Israel is here to stay. Despite what all of naysayers and other disenfranchised folk have to say about it. I rather liked this post from face book: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=ben%20netayahu%20amos

Getting Old

I turned sixty five recently and I can tell you that aging is a bit of a concern. You suddenly realise that you may have to retire soon and that the financial ramifications of that are significant. I also seem to be facing hearing which is going into a decline to add to my sight which while being better than 20 – 20 is becoming increasingly long sighted so, I’m blind out to around one meter.

I had a hip replacement some years ago and the fact that the new hip doesn’t match the existing one in gait results in stress on my knee joints and back which leave me in a world of pain. Ligament damage in my left leg causes me to drag myself upstairs with my arms which is causing nerve damage between my shoulders. It all seems to be down hill from here. Oh well, never mind.

Computing

I decided to get back into using Linux just because you have to use the command line a bit more than just clicking install. I started with Neon and Kubuntu two distros by KDE, one of the Linux organisations. I wasn’t that pleased with them this time round and so replaced them with another distro call Arch Linux. Arch is more of a skilled user unit and you have to know what you’re doing to use it, or so I’m assured. I find that there is so much information on the Internet these days you can cut and paste commands and solve problems that someone who knows has fixed before you. You just need to be a bit discerning. I like Linux because it does challenge me and keep my mind active so, it is a part of my anti Alzheimers initiative.

The Weather this Month

The fires are raging in Australia and have been happening in Kiwi-land, as well, over the last months despite what has seemed like a very wet season here. My sister lives in Australia and is in the fire zone so it has been a tense business waiting on the outcomes of alerts and the need to have bags packed and being ready to move. Speaking of fire risk, there is a paddock of rank grass beside our property which isn’t being controlled effectively at the moment.

There is a subdivision up the road from us and a storm water system was needed so the powers that be went to work and after two years had created two large dams and an equally large spillway. The spillway area is being grazed but for some reason the area beside our place is being left fallow. It is covered in rank grass, at the moment, and is a fire hazard. One of the problems with a move away from capitalism is that the signals which cause people to produce more either don’t happen or are ignored in the supposed best interest of something else. Possibly what is happening here… ?

MMP – One Party State

A case in point is the land surrounding Lake Rotorua and the other lakes. This land is under grazing control meaning you can only have a certain number of animals per hectare on that country, The result is a general lack of grazing control and productivity of those farms going through the floor. The land is going to waste. People talk about communism by stealth but when the state controls how land is used at the expense of the economy doesn’t that imply that the government is now more closely aligned to socialism than capitalism. My question is when did this take place. When we changed to MMP did we unknowingly sign onto a one party state. Where political parties are now just sects of the same one party system ??? Is this system socialist?

That’s it…

So, that’s some of the things that are on my mind at the moment. Probably the only thing left for me to mention is “What we are here to do in this life.” I don’t think a lot of people really give a much thought to what they are here for. Most seem to think its about being successful and becoming somebody, or getting your family into a better situation where they are no longer dependent on creating enough wealth to survive.

I am afraid there are over eight billion other people on the Earth who share your aspirations and then we move into the area of social responsibility. Creating a decent level of wealth not just for your family but for everyone. But is this what our existence is really all about? Life is so arbitrary. One minute you’re doing great and then a cancer diagnosis or a car accident and things either change or, suddenly this life is over. Just like that!

Its no great secret that I am a Christian. I believe this life is a temporal and a temporary thing. It is more like a test than a competition. We’re not competing with those around us to be most successful but God is testing us to see if we will seek Him. You see, He wants a people for His own possession, a people who will choose Him and who would want to reign with Him forever.

In that vein, when our first parents disobeyed God and broke their connection to Him. He planned to become a man himself and to take the sins of the world on Himself. Jesus Christ bore our sins on the Cross and shed His blood as the sacrifice for our sins. So that we can believe on Him and receive eternal life. So that we can repent and be baptised in His name for the remission of sins and to receive the Holy Spirit.

You see, if you confess your sins, God is faithful to forgive your sins and to cleanse you of all unrighteousness. Thus, this life is about choosing God or rejecting Him. About, becoming his special people or choosing to forego eternity and to endure the second death. It’s up to you, but it’s not about getting wealthy in the assets of this world rather it is about storing up wealth in the life to come by choosing to obey the one living God, Yahweh Elohim.

There ya go...

 

Do You Have a Hope of Salvation...

I have a friend who has investigated the authenticity of the scriptures to the best of his ability and he has come to the conclusion that King David, King Solomon and Jesus Christ are works of fiction loosely based on several characters who lived at the same times as these central religious figures. This has laid waste to his faith and he no longer truly believes in truth as it is outlined in the Bible.

To me I look at this situation from a certain perspective. I have faith that there is God and that he so loved us that he gave his only son, Jesus Christ, that who ever believes on him will receive eternal life. It makes no difference what anyone says to me I will always believe this to be true. I believe in the trinity: The father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. I believe in God and I dare to say that I have a hope of Salvation.

The devil is the prince of this world and he will attack everything that God says or does in an effort to cast doubt upon it and to discredit it. He is very thorough and will leave nothing undone in his effort to prevent the majority of humanity from finding the truth about God and finding salvation.

If you would search history to find proof of the truth of the holy scriptures and the promises of God you will most likely find much to cause you concern and doubt. There are myriads of similar but substantially different texts that will cause you to be uncertain about the truth of God's word. But these are as ancient as the Torah and the writings of the New Testament and impossible to verify other than the fact that they exist.

The bottom line is that you have to have faith if you are to believe in God. Whatever you think about the voracity of the scriptures there basic tenants that will always hold true.

1. Man is separated from God by sin. 
2. To be spared from the judgement of the law (ten commandments), for that sin. You must meet the conditions of the law.
3. Man in the flesh cannot set himself free from sin.
4. God addressed man's sin debt by sending his own son to live a life of sinless perfection and as a sacrifice to pay that sin debt.
5. To believe God in this matter is to have faith in God and his promises.
6. To have entered into an agreement with God and asked his forgiveness for your sins by believing on his only Son, Jesus Christ, This is to have gained a hope of Salvation.

Regardless of what you know about the scriptures if you believe God and that he will pay your sin debt through the shed blood of Jesus Christ his only Son. Then this is reckoned to you as Faith. To have a hope of Salvation you need only have Faith that God will honor his promises.