ENGLAND 1943! I was not quite three years old.
'Under the Table'
Under the table , John!
Get under the table NOW!
She grabbed me by the hand.
Desperately!
Under the square wooded table I found myself.
My teddy-bear hugged to my heart, wide eyed'
I was hugged also, close to my Mother's heart!
The room was getting dark.
It was early evening,
Outside the street was filled with noise;
Shouting, screaming, sirens.
'Take cover! Take cover!......
I did not know the terror of that moment.
I felt uncertain by my Mother's sudden distress.
But I felt no personal danger.
There was a strange sound in the air above.
A kind of whirring sound.
It seemed to come nearer, nearer -
It was right over us!.
I looked up - the noise stopped!
In the Silence, I heard my mother whimper -
Then an ear splitting explosion of sound;
of breaking fabric, breaking glass,
Fresh air opened up all around us, mixed with smoke;
acrid smoke and dust.
I scrambled from under the table.
My mother and I stood and looked out upon the street.
The sitting room wall had disappeared.
The Old Vic public house could be seen murkily opposite.
People were running, some stopping to peer at us as they passed.
This was a moment etched on my memory.
The flying bomb, or 'doodle-bug'
could have killed us - did kill others.
++++++
NO MORE WAR! Surely no more war. People had declared WAR was ended at the close of the First Great War in 1914/18. But a Second and worse World War was to be unleashed in 1939/45. When I was twenty two, in 1962, and working in the City of London, there came a day when Russia and America were poised on the brink of yet another war - this time threatening to wipe a a good part of the Western World. I remember the day when at Mid-day we might have only seconds to live; people walking during their lunch hour stopped to look up expecting DEATH to pour down from the sky. It was an awful moment - but it passed. Nothing happened.
TODAY the world is once more threatened with WAR and by the 'Brinkmanship' of two world leaders who both are such a mixture of volatile showmanship as to bring the world to anxious nervous tension. And these Powers both have weaponry that can blot huge populations out of existence totally, without survivors, and expose the rest of us to such injury and hurt than even Hiroshima has had to endure - for generations.
It IS a terrible thing that the civilised world seems quite unable to outlaw WAR, and those who might want to make War.
JESUS told us all in the Gospel of Matthew 24v6 - IN THE LAST DAYS - ' You shall hear of wars and rumours of wars - for nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There shall be famines and pestilences, and earthquakes in different places - THESE ARE THE BEGINNING OF SORROWS.
TAKE NOTE my brethren, that these are but the beginning of sorrows. There IS worse to come........
Jesus continues, and says in Matthew 24 v9 . 'THEN shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you, and ye shall be hated of all nations form y name's sake. AND then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, land shall hate one another. AND many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. AND BECAUSE INIQUITY shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold -- BUT he/she who shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
World Society is already making great inroad in rejecting GOD in their thinking and life style. God is in fact more and more VISIBLY attacked on every front. And as we see Christian concepts being set aside, so we shall increasingly find the Committed, believing Christian being seen as an Enemy of the State and of the World. And indeed I believe this will be the experience of ANY man or woman who is sincerely seeking God in their lives.
THIS IS THE TIME for the Believer to HANG ON, and to re-commit themselves to putting GOD, and His Law FIRST, at home, at school, at the work-place, and wherever he finds himself. If we do not encourage ourselves and harden ourselves to taking up our cross and dedicating our life to GOD, then we shall find ourselves induced to run from God, and to even DENY that we have ever known or wanted to know God. WE need to know that when we say we Love God, and His Way for our life, we have to mean it to DEATH even. We should set our face, our life, as a FLINT to go the whole hog, and all the way to the END without despair. We have to REMEMBER that we have to ENDURE to the end, if we want to realise our Salvation.
AND we have NEED to go on REMEMBERING to ENDURE. Things are NOT getting better. They WILL get worse, and I would be untrue to God's Word if I were to say otherwise.
TODAY the world is once more threatened with WAR and by the 'Brinkmanship' of two world leaders who both are such a mixture of volatile showmanship as to bring the world to anxious nervous tension. And these Powers both have weaponry that can blot huge populations out of existence totally, without survivors, and expose the rest of us to such injury and hurt than even Hiroshima has had to endure - for generations.It IS a terrible thing that the civilised world seems quite unable to outlaw WAR, and those who might want to make War.
JESUS told us all in the Gospel of Matthew 24v6 - IN THE LAST DAYS - ' You shall hear of wars and rumours of wars - for nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There shall be famines and pestilences, and earthquakes in different places - THESE ARE THE BEGINNING OF SORROWS.
TAKE NOTE my brethren, that these are but the beginning of sorrows. There IS worse to come........
Jesus continues, and says in Matthew 24 v9 . 'THEN shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you, and ye shall be hated of all nations form y name's sake. AND then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, land shall hate one another. AND many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. AND BECAUSE INIQUITY shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold -- BUT he/she who shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
World Society is already making great inroad in rejecting GOD in their thinking and life style. God is in fact more and more VISIBLY attacked on every front. And as we see Christian concepts being set aside, so we shall increasingly find the Committed, believing Christian being seen as an Enemy of the State and of the World. And indeed I believe this will be the experience of ANY man or woman who is sincerely seeking God in their lives.
THIS IS THE TIME for the Believer to HANG ON, and to re-commit themselves to putting GOD, and His Law FIRST, at home, at school, at the work-place, and wherever he finds himself. If we do not encourage ourselves and harden ourselves to taking up our cross and dedicating our life to GOD, then we shall find ourselves induced to run from God, and to even DENY that we have ever known or wanted to know God. WE need to know that when we say we Love God, and His Way for our life, we have to mean it to DEATH even. We should set our face, our life, as a FLINT to go the whole hog, and all the way to the END without despair. We have to REMEMBER that we have to ENDURE to the end, if we want to realise our Salvation.
AND we have NEED to go on REMEMBERING to ENDURE. Things are NOT getting better. They WILL get worse, and I would be untrue to God's Word if I were to say otherwise.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
THE RAIN has begun, and we are GRATEFUL to God for it. Right now, as I write it is raining, and been heavily raining since mid morning. The sky still looks heavy with RAIN. Hallelujah. Esther and I also Thank God for bringing us through our respective heavy colds - or 'flu. We are both much better than a week ago.
Next week School begins again.
The Primaries for the General Election scheduled for AUGUST have now finished. It has not been, generally, an easy time, but at least, finally perhaps, less violent than expected. We trust that from now on things will settle, and that by the date of the Election the Nation will rejoice in calm and peaceable voting.
The oldest of our two vehicles for the Homes - Nissan Caravan of great age, many times given a makeover - now seems to be at its last gasp. We shall do what little we can to keep it on the road, but we will value your prayers. It has been greatly used and daily in almost total use. It has endured well, and now it really seems to have come to the END. It has earned our Praise and Thanksgiving as a Gift from God.
God Bless you all. Do not allow anything I have written to day depress you or make you feel that we ourselves have lost hope! Our HOPE is at its brightest and most enduring. I write not to depress or weaken your faith, but to ALERT you, and to ENCOURAGE you to STAND FIRM. WE none of us stand alone when we BELIEVE, and He who Stands with us, will never leave our side, and has promised to bring us through.
Our love in Jesus to you all,
John, Esther and Daryl Green
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