Differences between the sexes

The differences between men and women are many and varied. And anyone who says differently, and thinks we are all the same, or that a woman can act like  a man in todays’ world is probably a sandwich short of the picnic!

And in how we view our pets is one aspect it will come out. I was watching a sit-com in the wee small hours last night. And as best of my ability memory wise this was the dialogue when a lost dog had turned up on an older couples doorstep, and they thought about keeping him,

Mother: "what shall we call him?"

Father: "who said we’re keeping him?"

"He wants to stay here. Its obvious. How about ‘Gerald’?

Father "Dogs need calling sometimes and If you think I’m going around the park calling "Gerald" then think again."

"So we can keep him?"

"I’ll sleep on it"

Father has a nap in the chair and wakes up to find the dog resting his chin on his knee.

Mother: "Oh look, he’s waiting for you to say if we can keep him."

Father: "Why on earth would he do that. He has no idea what we are talking about!"

Mother: "I’m sure he wants to stay  here."

Father: "How do you know? Has he written you a  note saying so?"

Mother: "You can see it in his face."

Father: "behind that mound of fur you can barely see his face!"

Mother: "so, can we keep him?"

At that point the dog sits in front of father with its  most pathetic appealing look.

Mother: "see? He wants to stay"

Then  a claim was made upon the dog at the local police station by the dogs rightful owner and the policeman was bringin the person who had made the claim to the couples house.

 

Mother, in hushed tone: "Do you think he knows?"

Father: "what are you whispering for?!"

Mother: "In case he hears us."

Father: "He can’t understand what we say"!

Mother: "dogs are  meant to be psychic. He can probably understand every word.  Why don’t you go and sit with him, in case he’s upset that someone could be taking him away."

Adult daughter enters the room and goes and sits on the floor and pets the dog:

Mother: "Awww..look, its ok, X is sitting with him."

Second daughter enters the room and also sits on the floor by the dog.

Mother: "awww..look, X is sitting with him too."

Mother to husband:

"do you want a cup of tea?  I wonder if he would like a cup of tea. do you want some tea darling?" to the dog.

Husband sigh and rolls his eyes and asks sarcastically: "would he like it in a mug or a cup?"

 

 

Owen's call to the unconverted

And I think there is great warrant to believe that that applies to many within the visible church, as well as those outside of it.  Christ himself said as much. (Matt 7:21) As there’s a huge difference between sincere, and heart felt repentance and belief, and some profession that never really changes anything much. I think the puritan value of examining ourselves is very much neglected in these days of the "new Gospel"  As long as we all feel good, that’s all that matters! 

Consider the infinite condescension and love of Christ, in his invitations and calls of you to come unto him for life, deliverance, mercy, grace, peace and eternal salvation. Multitudes of these invitations and calls are recorded in the Scripture, and they are all of them filled up with those blessed encouragements which divine wisdom knows to be suited unto lost, convinced sinners.… In the declaration and preaching of them, Jesus Christ yet stands before sinners, calling, inviting, encouraging them to come unto him.

This is somewhat of the word which he now speaks unto you: Why will ye die? why will ye perish? why will ye not have compassion on your own souls? Can your hearts endure, or can your hands be strong, in the day of wrath that is approaching.… Look unto me, and be saved; come unto me, and I will ease you of all sins, sorrows, fears, burdens, and give rest unto your souls. Come, I entreat you; lay aside all procrastinations, all delays, put me off no more; eternity lies at the door … do not so hate me as that you will rather perish than accept of deliverance by me

These and the like things doth the Lord Christ continually declare, proclaim, plead and urge upon the souls of sinners … He doth it in the preaching of the word, as if he were present with you, stood amongst you, and spake personally to every one of you.… He hath appointed the ministers of the gospel to appear before you, and to deal with you in his stead, avowing as his own the invitations which are given you in his name  [John Owen's Death of death]

Owen's call to the unconverted

And I think there is great warrant to believe that that applies to many within the visible church, as well as those outside of it.  Christ himself said as much. (Matt 7:21) As there’s a huge difference between sincere, and heart felt repentance and belief, and some profession that never really changes anything much. I think the puritan value of examining ourselves is very much neglected in these days of the "new Gospel"  As long as we all feel good, that’s all that matters! 

Consider the infinite condescension and love of Christ, in his invitations and calls of you to come unto him for life, deliverance, mercy, grace, peace and eternal salvation. Multitudes of these invitations and calls are recorded in the Scripture, and they are all of them filled up with those blessed encouragements which divine wisdom knows to be suited unto lost, convinced sinners.… In the declaration and preaching of them, Jesus Christ yet stands before sinners, calling, inviting, encouraging them to come unto him.

This is somewhat of the word which he now speaks unto you: Why will ye die? why will ye perish? why will ye not have compassion on your own souls? Can your hearts endure, or can your hands be strong, in the day of wrath that is approaching.… Look unto me, and be saved; come unto me, and I will ease you of all sins, sorrows, fears, burdens, and give rest unto your souls. Come, I entreat you; lay aside all procrastinations, all delays, put me off no more; eternity lies at the door … do not so hate me as that you will rather perish than accept of deliverance by me

These and the like things doth the Lord Christ continually declare, proclaim, plead and urge upon the souls of sinners … He doth it in the preaching of the word, as if he were present with you, stood amongst you, and spake personally to every one of you.… He hath appointed the ministers of the gospel to appear before you, and to deal with you in his stead, avowing as his own the invitations which are given you in his name  [John Owen's Death of death]

The heart of Calvinism

Salvation is of the Lord. We can do nothing of ourselves:

 

Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night:

Thine eye diffused a quickening ray;
I woke; the dungeon flamed with light;

My chains fell off: my heart was free:
I rose, went forth, and followed thee

The Arminians have a different God of course; a God less powerful who needs our help.  I don’t claim to be any theological giant, but I do know Calvinism is the only system of doctrine that makes sense to me, as its the only system of doctrine that has a GREAT God.  Not a God who needs help, or couldn’t accomplish by Himself,  all He did accomplish  or it was somehow incomplete. system of doctrine that has Christ as a perfect Saviour.  And it stands to common sense.  That the True Living God, can ONLY be a Great God. Or He would not be God.

The Cross of the Christian

When thou art in any pain of body or sickness, think how light these are, compared to the agony and bloody sweat, to the crown of thorns, and nails of Christ. When thou art wronged in word or deed by any man, turn thine eye to the cross, consider how meekly he suffered all, abused for the most part in silence and prayed for them that crucified him. When thou art tempted with pride or vain-glory, consider how for thy proper sins Christ was despised and mocked, and condemned among thieves. When anger and desire of revenge inflame thy heart, think how Christ gave himself to death to save his enemies, even when they did most cruelly treat him, and shed his blood; and by these meditations, especially if they be mingled with faith, thy mind shall be eased. [William Perkins]

Peculiarly blagless

I’m peculiarly blagless at the moment. Just stuff, life and death and eternity  taking up my time at present.  I put this song on my blog yesterday, as its quite one of my most favourite recent songs.  The girl singing won the X-Factor last year, and she has no idea of her talent, is so unassuming and natural, and hasn’t gone the way of most people in her shoes even at this early stage of Lads  mags and stuff. I hope she keeps her feet on the ground because its a very sweet part of her appeal, that she is so natural and unassuming. It almost adds an air of innocency to her; which is rare in celebrity land.   But I like this song, just as I used to love Whitney Houston’s "One moment in time" as I believe everyone at some point in their life has a defining moment. Where something wonderful, life changing and only good happens, and its a lasting thing. It  may not be love as in the song, but I still believe every single one of us has that defining moment.  Which seems like my Hobsons choice I am currently thinking about. So,  I shall go on thinking and ponderizing about it; and may be pecularly blagless (for me) a little longer.

Providentially I came across this blog post today, which seems to speak very much to my Hobson’s choice. God always seems to give you something when you need it most.  But it may be useful to some of my readers too.

Conditioning

We have become conditioned as a society to think and believe that Cancer is the worst disease on the planet.  It may be the one that claims the most lives–I lost both my parents to it, and know how bad it can be–but I wouldn’t by any chalk of the imagination consider it the worst. There are plenty of other conditions as bad or maybe worse, as far as living with them goes.  I remember when HIV/AIDS was first in the headlines years ago, the only way they could make the gravity of its affects on the sufferer was to say it was a type of cancer.  Yet the HIV patient, or person even with full blown aids, can live in that condition of suffering terribly for many, many years. A cancer patient, if its not "curable" or operable, will have a short while of dying and suffering to that extreme.  The condition I have is most commonly aligned as like living with full blown AIDS, for the affect on the sufferer, and I used to be kind of paranoid about getting cancer, yet since being sick,  the fear is not there like it was in any shape or form.   The pain I have is already more than many cancer patients will have, even if they are dying,  and its already from head to foot, so what’s to fear?

Cancer affects a high degree of the population; I don’t think there’s anyone who  hasnt been touched by it in some way. Either themselves or a loved one they’ve lost.  And once you have the disease,  if it goes into remission, there is always the dread of it returning hanging over the persons head. But in the time, until or if it does, they can and will lead perfectly normal lives for the most part, and not in any way, (or minimally in most cases) their quality of life reduced from before they had the disease. 

Society conditions us to think about things a certain way; the media helps it at every turn. We mustn’t call homosexuality as anything other than an "alternative  lifestyle."  If the shizoprhenic runs amok and takes many lives its because they are mentally ill and "didn’t know" or "had no control" over what they were doing.  They "couldn’t help it" and "are not responsible for their actions."  Society must take pity on them, rather than condemning them or judging them.

 

Cancer is just another one of those things we have become conditioned to view in a certain light.  Yet its far from the truth. Ask me ten years ago, I would have named it for sure as the worst disease known to man. But many other illnesses and conditions are much worse in many many cases.  There’s no remission, no recovery, and the sufferer of them will spend the rest of whatever time they have left,  which can sometimes be decades, with their body  dying as much as the cancer patient will who dies in six months.  When ones autonomic nervous system is failing, your body doesn’t come under any description of the word "normal" as far as functioning. What’s true for you, will likely not be true for me.  Things that our bodies regulate all of their own accord, by the internal  clock we have, no longer controls them.  We will be freezing cold when its a hundred degrees outside, and  boiling hot in snow.  Our hormones will gives us affects just like menopause for many years before we’re anywhere near the meopause. As our bodies cannot regulate our hormone levels.  Our heart rate will either be too rapid or  much too slow. If too rapid it may go onto be life threateningly dangerous, unless its stopped before it gets hold.  We don’t sneeze, we sometimes can’t cry tears, or have crocodile tears so we only weep with one eye;  We have no control over our toilet habits; and often a simple visit to the bathroom can turn into a hospital emergency.  We can’t breathe without consciously thinking about it, and often can’t get our voices to work at all so we can’t hold conversations. Our bodies do not control our blood pressure, or glucose levels or anything else that it is supposed to take care of automatically, including your blood flow. So you will feel rough because your blood is not reaching the parts it should reach in a normal way, and  your brain will often be blood and oxygen starved.  Add many other things that I havent named into the Autonomic Nervous system failing, life becomes a challenge every single day. Not just to survive, but to not  want to find a way out of your trapped body.  To believe that this is for your good and God’s glory,  while your body is screaming in agony at you.    So, yes, I’m sure the way we have been conditioned in our societies to believe that Cancer is the very worst disease there can be; even while it may be the one that claims the most lives,  take it from one who knows, and has watched loved ones die from cancer too.  There are many other conditions that are as bad or worse; they are much rarer of course.  But,  someone has to draw the straw that will be struck with the unusual and rare and not norm. Which makes not just the medics response to it,  lethargic at best, as even they do not understand how your body is now working because its not like its supposed to do when ones ANS is failing.  But we become a mystery to friends, family, loved ones often. And rather than being a comfort, they too become part of the trial by their ignorance and lack of understanding of what is outside the norm.  You maybe can understand why they are like that,  but  its not helpful to the person who longs for their once normal body back.   But if we had cancer,  everyones response would almost be the same. One of help, support, and understanding.  Yet the very opposite is true, if you are one of the ones by Providence, who has the disease that no one understands, yet to live with, is far worse or as bad, as Cancer ever can be.

Medicine

Giving my cat medicine, makes me seem to her, like we are tempted to think of God when we are in affliction or suffering. I suddenly become a monster or tryant to her; whose making her do things she doesn’t want to do. I become a terror to her.  Yet I’m the one she depends on to survive; and  if she didn’t have it, she would get sicker and sicker, bit like we would with sin if God didn’t humble us by afflictions.

I think when we have pets, its the nearest human resemblance to the covenant we have with God.

Kitty on the go

I have to take my cat to the cat doctor tonight!  Nothing major or illness or anything; just a skin condition that leaves her mightily uncomfortable.   She was treated for it a few weeks ago, and it cleared up nicely, but its returned!  I have called a friend to see if she can help me with it, and she can.  I’m not sure at this point I shall actively make it myself;  I was too sick to go to the doctors yesterday!! (sheesh!) but I know if that’s the case my friend will take her for me. As she’s used to cats. But what I would like to know is, how does one even attempt to get a kitty in its travel basket,  without it scratching you and freaking out, huh? My cat has the sweetest nature. She’s not scratched me or anything even once since she moved in. Even the other day, when for the first time I either ran over her paw or bumped into her, or both in my wheelchair, all she did was meow to let me know she was there!

My vets is not the most wheelchair friendly place and I couldn’t manage to take her their on my own in any case. But,  getting this kitty in her cat basket, seems a bit of a lot to ask if you ask me.   Answers on a postcard please!

Fatih, more than a mere act of the intellect

A man may be bonus ethicus [a moral person in outward religion] and yet not bonus Theologus [a sincere hearted Christian] [William Ames]