Part Five; John the Baptist and the meeting [Baptism of Jesus]

John the Baptist was a man who went through Galilea Baptising people and asking them to change the ways [There, has been many jokes about him. The typical one is a man standing on the street with a placard saying, “ Repent for the end is nigh”. A much maligned and ridiculed character] Then again John the Baptist, not to mention repent etc, goes on to play an important role in Jesus’s life and teachings.

Not to get ahead of myself, what is crucially missed is the fact that Jesus and John’s Mothers were related?

Birth Announcement of John the Baptist Luke ch1 v5 onwards

The man whose blog that I follow, decided to spend two, months are so in Goa, to escape the worse of the winter weather. Commented on the country and how things were, several replies to his blog one of which I publish.

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Interesting JW. It is good to travel and look an different cultures. It is also good in some case to have a ticket home when you want to leave, but if you have to live their permanent things might not be such a bed of roses.

As you say we can learn a lot, and are doing so from India.

What is civilisation and culture?

Civilisation is what the majority accept and rules their lives. Appears when a culture is near its peak. Reason being;

Umrah is definitely a spiritual journey which is a dream of all the Muslims. Al Hijaz is the company which has designed many Umrah Packages for the Muslims of UK. All the Muslims can perform Umrah throughout the year other than the days of Hajj and that is the reason, Al Hijaz tours keeps on providing the best Umrah Packages throughout the year. We ensure that we take care of all the things during the arrangements and provide the best resources along with the best deals. Al Hijaz is approved from Ministry of Hajj Saudi Arabia and that is the reason we don’t compromise on even the smallest things while making arrangements for the Umrah Pilgrims. 

The horrific news about 7 year old Zainab, raped and murdered in Kasur, Pakistan, has created a public outcry across Pakistan and beyond.

I hope and pray the monster who did this gets what he deserves and Zainab and her family receive justice.

If there's one thing we can all do after this tragic incident is to talk to our children about sexual abuse and it's signs.

The idea of talking to your kid about sexual abuse probably seems worse than even talking to them about sex. But talking to them about sexual abuse is probably one of the most important discussions you will ever have with them.

And dont forget your Christian brethren that are being oppressed in the holy lands.

If you have any questions, see how Christians in Bethlehem are treated and what their wishes are.

It’s nearly Christmas

It is nearly Christmas, and as the late John Lennon said. And what have we done, another day older and a New Year nearly begun. Will we take the opportunity to think about the past year and what we shall do differently in the New Year?

My opinions of Jesus’s missing years.

There as been lots of speculation of Jesus’s missing years, did he just live a quiet life with his parents, did he travel round Judea as a jobbing builder, there are even theories that he travelled to India and met Buddhist monks? I have my own opinions that I will share with you.

I am allowed to do this [speculation] but this as not always been the case, a Christian had to agree with the official doctrine and interpretation, or face blasphemy charges and punishment [not by God] but by the religious hierarchy. I suppose a bit like Islam today?

Bombs that changed Britain

There has been a series being shown on the BBC about the bombing of Britain in the war 1939-45. instead of the usual, “didn’t we all pull together and we showed our British stiff upper lip, singing patriotic songs etc”. This as been done to death that people now just switch off.

What is different in this series is it takes individual bombs? Then plots either lives of individuals, or how the authorities coped and what the results of that coping led to both locally and nationally. It also shows a snapshot of how life was like for the ordinary working classes at that time.

The Holy Family returns to Galilea

Joseph is told [in a dream] that Herod TG is dead and that he and his family can return to Galilea.

As mentioned before Jesus’s birth is only mentioned in two of the four gospels [Mathew and Mark] the other two gospels [Luke and John] don’t. Why?

The first thing is that they were written from different viewpoints

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccuinnElnSs

Its an interesting take.

The choir sounds amazing.

But I do wonder if they know what they are reciting or are simply treating it as a piece of music.