Views From An Island Place

My life did a 90 degree turn off into an unknown and unplanned future when I was diagnosed with severe Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) in 1996. Being "allergic to the 21st Century" leaves you on a small Island in a vast sea of toxic places. A difficult place to work from if you are a writer, poet, photographer, video maker, and apologist. But you get a very different view of the world from here. "Views From An Island Place" is where I can share it with you. I hope you find it interesting.

Thursday, 18 April 2019

Because Easter is the Question to Your Answer

Because Easter is the Question to Your Answer:-

Video: "The Question"

Saturday, 17 February 2018

The Impossible Conception

Available as a shareable image from my SGM download folders at:- https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B_3ClonPVorvOVRzWlViOWhvTFU

#smallgiftsministries #ttpagoTLa

Everyday Christmas

Finally got my Roxio Photosuite program working again. Really good for creating this type of image file.

As with all my other SGM image files a full sized version of this one can be freely downloaded and used from my SGM download folders here:-

https://drive.google.com/…/fol…/0B_3ClonPVorvOVRzWlViOWhvTFU

#smallgiftsministries #ttpagoTLa

Tuesday, 13 February 2018

Will You Enter Here

Now that I don't have to try and make it behave itself as an eBook file I can re-release my PDF format eBook "Will You Enter here?" It has an extra poem and some new pictures as well as a new front cover and other updates. I am quite pleased with the way the front cover turned out having wanted to create something that conveys the essence of the anthology in visual imagery.

As with all my eBooks a copy of the PDF file is freely downloadable from my SGM eBook folder here:-

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B_3ClonPVorvY0Q2X1hBc1dGTUk

It contains the usual SGM permission notice and is a shareable SGM eBook.

As with all my anthologies the Title of the book is also the Tile of a poem that captures the essence of the anthology. This one is:-

WILL YOU ENTER HERE?

Will you enter here and spend time with me,

Between the sheets of the written word?

A private place of fresh-laundered poems.

Will you caress the flesh of a soul laid bare?

Feel the downy silk here,

And the scar tissue there?

Drink in the sight of a naked heart,

The rise and fall of its sensual beat.

Syncopate to the pattern of its complicated rhythms,

Shy not from an intimacy both rare and deep.

Let the sweet resonance join us a while,

Let's forget about form,

Let's forget about style.

For I seek not seduction with my intimate words,

But the pure warm joy of a sensual meeting

Of like hearts far apart

Briefly as one beating.

I hope you enjoy it
D.J. Ludlow

#smallgiftsministries #ttpagoTLa

Small GIFTS Ministries Embraces The KISS Principle

It was quite thrilling to be able to create my own actual eBooks using a freely downloadable eBook creation package. Even the fact that updates meant that what worked one way before didn't work that way anymore did not dampen my enthusiasm. It just meant my next eBook was going to take a bit longer to produce as I tried to figure out the new way of doing things.

It wasn't until I realised how much time and energy it was taking to produce a single eBook, and how much time and energy I did not have that I finally asked myself - why am I creating eBook files when most eBook readers read PDF files just as easily? And PDF files are much, much, easier, simpler and quicker to create. What's more they are readable on just about everything - and are eminently printable.

In fact the main benefit of the eBook specific formats appears to be the ability to control their distribution to ensure pirate copies are not easy to produce, thereby ensuring payment for each copy. Not exactly a high priority for a ministry that encourages the free copying, distribution and sharing of material.

So for the moment my own SGM will be embracing the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid) and producing my future eBooks in simple PDF file format for ease of download, distribution and use. Which means .......

The one I have been trying to get to behave itself for a while now, will be available very shortly.

Hope you like it.
D.J. Ludlow

Tuesday, 5 December 2017

Freedom Is Freedom Is It Not

I note that when it was all about gender freedom the push to have Same Sex Marriage changes rushed in with as little debate and discussion as possible was immense.

But now the issue has become about protecting religious freedom those who had their foot pressed to the floor on the accelerator now have their foot firmly to the floor on the brakes.

BUT a tolerant society is one in which you have the freedom to have and express a different opinion or belief. An intolerant society is one in which your right to disagree or believe differently is suppressed.

If love is love then surely freedom is freedom is it not?

Tuesday, 21 November 2017

Fruit Picking

A full size copy of this Small GIFTS Ministries image, and many more, is freely downloadable from my Shareable Images folder here:- https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_3ClonPVorvOVRzWlViOWhvTFU

Saturday, 4 November 2017

Fully a Man

Ever had those moments when you are reading and suddenly a door opens in your mind and you suddenly find yourself looking at the same scene through an entirely new window. That's how this article started.

I was quietly reading Ravi Zacharias' excellent book "The Grand Weaver (2007) when on page 40 I read:-

"One fascinating verse tells us that the author of our salvation himself has been made 'perfect through suffering' (Hebrews 2:10). I have often pondered this text. How is One who is already perfect, perfected."

I looked up, and a door opened .....

We talk often about Jesus being fully God and fully man and what we say is indeed true. But do we really ponder everything that entails? Jesus was well versed at being fully God. However when He was born of the virgin Mary that was the first time ever that Jesus had experienced being fully man! He was the ONLY - begotten - Son of God . Not only that, but being the only Son of God to be begotten of the flesh nobody else in Heaven knew what it was like either. Everything Jesus experienced in the flesh He was experiencing for the very first time. Pain, exhaustion, hunger, thirst, the emotional havoc of hormones, the weakness of the human body, ... the reality of mortality and the ability to die or be killed. We forget that this was all a new personal experience for Jesus. He who is God was now learning firsthand what it was like to be human. But even more, not just what it was like to be man but what it was like to be A man.

I must admit that I had never before wondered why it was Moses and Elijah who met with Jesus on the mountain and not mighty angels like Gabriel or Michael. But now I think I understand perhaps why. Jesus was soon to face, as a man, great temptations, pain and suffering, and death. Neither Gabriel, nor Michael nor any Angel knew what it was like to face such things as a mere mortal man ..... But Moses and Elijah did!

However I had before wondered what it was in the Garden of Gethsemane that would so distress the Son of the Almighty God that He would sweat as if sweating blood and utter such soul wrenching prayers and pleas. And wondered also when He said "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak" was He talking of His sleeping disciples .... Or of Himself? Jesus was about to endure such, pain, agony, and torment as none in Heaven ever had, and about to taste what no immortal being tastes - death! His soul was willing but would His flesh be able to endure to the end? He who had never suffered pain or death was about to suffer and endure the most horrific, painful, agonising death imaginable ... For the very first and last time.

For as the Son of God, and as the Son of man, Jesus had no more, and no less than any man has - the promises of His Father in Heaven. All that He set aside in Heaven, and all that He endured on Earth, He did solely on the promise of enablement, resurrection and restoration given by His Father in Heaven. Jesus asks of every man and woman no more than what He has been willing to do Himself. To set their selves aside by faith and relying solely on the promises of God be obedient to Him in all things.

And being obedient even to death in both spirit and in the flesh Jesus was made perfect as both Son of God and Son of Man. For as Son of God He had out of obedience, and by faith, surrendered equality to the Father and suffered to be made to become a little lower than the angels that He might experience and endure life and death in the flesh as a Son of Man. So that in His faithful suffering and obedience He might obtain perfection as the perfect Son of God AND the perfect Son of Man and in doing so be the perfect and worthy Saviour and Lord of both the Sons of Men and the Sons of God. The Lamb of God without blemish in either Spirit or flesh. For the perfect Son of God became the perfect Son of Man in order that in Him the imperfect Sons of men might become the perfect Sons of God.

D.J. Ludlow

Author

Provided it is done freely and without charge

"Fully a Man" may be copied, used and distributed

(in its entirety only, including this notice)

by brothers and sisters in Christ

to the profit and glory of The Lord alone (ttpagoTLa)

By special permission of

#smallgiftsministries #ttpagoTLa

Monday, 30 October 2017

Bad Luck Epidemic

(I originally wrote this back in 2015 around the same time that Telstra drained their Bigpond BigBlog swamp and took my first "Views From an Island Place" blog-site with it. Just found it again while rummaging around in my pending blogs folder. Thought I would let it see the light of day seeing as they are still harping on genetics as the incidence rates rapidly climb faster than we change our genes.) ...

I noticed from an ABC news report a couple of years ago (2nd January 2015) that according to John Hopkins University researchers:-

"Bad luck plays a major role in determining who gets cancer and who does not, according to researchers who say two-thirds of cancers of various types can be blamed on random mutations and not heredity or risky habits like smoking."

Basically what they are saying is that about 65% of most cancers (eg. leukemia and pancreatic, bone, testicular, ovarian and brain cancer, etc.) is caused by purely random chance mutation and not by hereditary or environmental and pollution factors.

This is good news for INDUSTRY and commerce. They have everything to lose and nothing to gain in the elimination of cancer causes, but there are huge profits to be made in selling cancer cures. After all you can't sue or slap an injunction on "random chance" for causing your cancer but a lot of people are going to make a good living out of trying to cure you.

The trouble with this idea of random chance cancer is that it is NOT obeying the laws of random chance (aka the laws of probability). The laws of probability declare that if you have the same number of genes as before you have the same probability of them mutating by pure random chance as before. Without getting into the mathematical detail it means that for any given population size the number of cancer incidents you can expect by pure random chance will always be the same. If the probability was 1 per 1,000 before it will still be 1 per 1,000 now. That is because random chance is a NUMBERS game, and in this case it is the number of genes and the last time I checked we all still have the same number of genes we have always had throughout all of history.

BUT we seem to be in the middle of a rapidly escalating epidemic of "bad luck" which is seeing the rate of cancer incidences (ie. not just number of cases but statistically as in cases per 1,000 population) skyrocketing which can only happen if something OTHER than random chance mutation is at play in our modern world. It is interesting to note from another article elsewhere that, "According to French researchers, the INCIDENCE (my emphasis) of cancer is expected to increase by more than 75% by the year 2030 in developed countries, and over 90% in developing nations. The study is published Online First in the Lancet Oncology."

Even more interesting is that among their findings they note that "Even though very high HDI (Human Development Index) countries only contain 15% of the world's population, they accounted for 40% of cancer cases in the world in 2008."

Cancer is rapidly surging forward and bypassing all others as the number one cause of death and illness in most developed and developing countries. If cancer is merely a case of "bad luck" it would seem that the more you are exposed to modern industry, modern pollution, modern technology, and a modern chemical and radiation laden lifestyle, .... the unluckier you get!

It is clear SOMETHING is rapidly changing to rapidly increase the incidence rate of cancers - but it is not the human genome that has been the same for centuries. Nor is it the natural environment (trees are still trees, grass is still grass, rocks are still rocks, etc.).

In fact the ONLY thing that is changing as rapidly as the cancer rates is our MANMADE modern environment. Not sure why our medical experts seem reluctant to make the connection. Is it possible it may be because there is a whole multi billion dollar industry that RELIES (indeed thrives) on people getting sick? After all you can't sell profitable cures to people who aren't sick!

Just sharing my thoughts.

D.J. Ludlow

Tuesday, 10 October 2017

The Non-Entity Church of Jesus Christ

Anybody who hasn't noticed that Christianity is on a direct collision course with the rest of the world has not been paying attention. But while there has always been a spiritual war going on between God and His adversaries a new "theatre of battle" is rapidly emerging as nations are increasingly being deceived. A virulent battle is emerging in the corridors of power and of courtrooms around the world. Churches are being sued, pursued, and reviewed relentlessly in the legal and government circles of all nations, egged on by a rampant media industry that has noticeably not been church or God friendly for a very long time.

But this current battle is only possible because while the world cannot "see" or "touch" the church of which Christ Jesus alone is the head, a church that is in the world but not of the world, all these other churches and religious institutions are both in the world - and of the world. This is because they exist as part of the world system.. They are LEGAL entities that can be taxed, sued, legislated about, fined, audited, and pretty much anything that can be done to a flesh and blood person can be done to a legal entity. Indeed in the eyes of the law they ARE, a for all legal intents and purposes, a single flesh and blood person. They are a corporate - body.

By stark contrast the Church of Jesus Christ is not a legal entity, it is a SPIRITUAL entity. It is the body of Christ that is not defined or operated by a single legal entity but by a single Spiritual entity, the Holy Spirit of God Himself. The Church of which Jesus Christ is the only "CEO" cannot be sued, it cannot be legislated against, it cannot be taxed, it cannot be deregistered, it cannot be stripped of assets, etc., because ... It does not legally exist and never has. They cannot even arrest or fine its CEO because - He was declared legally dead nearly 2,000 years ago.

The Church of Jesus Christ does not require a building, it IS its own spiritual building, indeed it is a temple made of living stones. It does not require a constitution, it already has the word of God to guide it and prescribe how it is to conduct itself. It does not possess physical or financial assets, it possesses the spiritual gifts and power of the Holy Spirit by which it has the power to do anything the Lord requires of it, both the possible - and the impossible.

Legal entity churches, denominations, and religious institutions are creatures of the Earth, they are children born of its legal and financial systems, and just as those legal and financial systems gave them life they can also dramatically alter it or take it away - with the stroke of a judge's or legislator's pen. But the non-entity church of Jesus Christ cannot be touched by either for in the eyes of the law the Church of Jesus Christ does not exist. It is nothing more than a foolish belief by some people who seem to share an invisible and untouchable bond of unity as if motivated and compelled by a single spirit of heart and mind whether they are together or on opposite sides of the world. Whether they are fellowshipping and gathered in one place or isolated in solitary confinement. Whether they are in sickness or health, richer or poorer, male or female, master or slave, Jew or Gentile of any nation, race, or colour., the bond and spirit remains undaunted, undiminished and undivided.

They do not come together to run an organisation, they come together to support and encourage one another in serving a common master who was declared dead and no longer existent by THIS world's legal system nearly 2,000 years ago. Who, in the eyes of the world, is nothing more than an annoyingly persistent and troublesome memory. A person who is both nowhere and yet at the same time everywhere, as He lives and works, even now, in the individual lives of millions around the world be they by themselves or with others.

Legal corporate entities have their practical uses but there is great danger when they become the ends and not the means. When the corporate church is no longer there to serve the needs of its members but the members are there to serve the needs of the corporate church. Corporate idolatry has already happened to many churches where serving the corporate body of the church has been equated with serving Christ thereby making the corporate church equal to Christ and eventually in the place of Christ in the lives of its members. A corporate church must never be allowed to stand between its members and Christ or interfere in or replace, the individual servant / master relationship between a believer and Christ. Jesus, not a church, is our personal Saviour, Lord and King. A follower of Christ follows none but Christ, belongs to none but Christ. They have but one master, Christ Jesus, and one Father in Heaven. A corporate church is not something they belong to, it is but one of a number of tools they use. It is not a body corporate they gather to, but fellow believers they fellowship with and work with as fellow servants who likewise also belong to their Master. A legal corporate entity is a tool they use only when it is needed and readily set aside when it is not.

The world cannot kill a fellowship of the non-entity church of Christ Jesus by deregistering or annulling a legal corporate entity it may be using because that is not where its life is. The heart of a fellowship of the non-entity church of Christ Jesus is not its corporate identity, it is Christ Jesus Himself and its lifeblood is the Holy Spirit of God pumped through the veins of ..... Fellowship.

This bunch of "foolish" people will STILL stand with, fellowship with and serve Christ either together or alone. Whether together or alone they will still dare to stand before the whole world and boldly declare we are the children of but ONE Father in Heaven, live by only ONE word of God, the 66 books of the Bible, are in-dwelt by the ONE and the SAME Holy Spirit, and have but ONE Saviour, Lord and sovereign King, Christ Jesus.

Even without their legal corporate identity you will know them by the love they have for one another and for others. By the fruit of the Spirit within, that is beyond the reach of the world, you will know them. For they will be caring and loving, joyful, peaceful, very patient, gentle and kind, good, faithful, of humble demeanor, and self-controlled, as together and individually they live in obedience and service to their one master, Christ Jesus.

If you really want to know how well your church will fare in the coming times ask yourself where its heart is? If the world steps in tomorrow seizes all your church assets and liquidates them, deregisters your corporate identity and winds you up legally and financially will you survive as a fellowship of the non-entity church of Jesus Christ? Or is everything about your church tied up in its worldly corporate identity, worldly corporate structure, and worldly corporate assets?