Whats In A Name

It was Shakespeare who first penned that much loved and oft quoted line “What is in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” And yet people give an almost magical power to the name “Jesus” even though that is not the name He was actually known by. All the Apostles. His disciples and the first churches they established knew Him by His actual Hebrew name of Jeshua (also rendered as Joshua). Which is also His Prophesied name in Zechariah when he identifies Joshua as the one who bears the name of “the Branch” who is to come:- Zechariah 6:11-12 / AV 11 Then take silver and gold, and make crowns, and set them upon the head of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest; 12 And speak unto him, saying, "Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD:"
And yet today more than ever we find more and more people preaching and teaching, and believing that there is POWER “in the name of Jesus”. That, if we but ask/declare/command/demand/pray/believe/heal/etc. “in the name of Jesus” it must surely come to pass because we have uttered those magical words, “in the name of JESUS!!!!” But they forget those who will come to Jesus saying:-
“... have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I (Jesus) profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” (Matthew 7:22-23 / AV)
For not all who cry “Lord, Lord” shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven but only those who do the WILL of the Father:- Matthew 7:21 / AV 21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. When the Bible tells us to ask "in the name of Yeshua"(Aka Jesus) it is not declaring there is power in the name “Jesus” (Or "Jeshua"). What it is saying is that we do these things as servants of Christ - by the AUTHORITY of Jesus - and not by our own authority. HOWEVER, to act by the authority of Jesus we must first BE servants of Jesus and HAVE His authority to do that which we are doing in HIS name. It must also be God’s will that we should do it. If a person is not a born again servant of Christ, has not been given authority by Jesus to do things in HIS name, or is not acting according to the will and command of God then the words "in the name of Jesus" are just words and nothing more. Not only are they of no effect but they can be dangerous to the one who thinks all you need is to utter the words "in the name of Jesus" as some in the Bible have already found out much to their dismay:- Acts 19:13-16 King James Version (KJV) 13 Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. 14 And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. 15 And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? 16 And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

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Provided it is done freely and without charge

"What's In A Name" 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 

D.J. Ludlow copyright 2019

#smallgiftsministries #ttpagoTLa

Because Easter is the Question to Your Answer

Because Easter is the Question to Your Answer:-

Video: "The Question"

The Impossible Conception

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

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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

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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.

   D.J. Ludlow Copyright 2000.

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

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?

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

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 

D.J. Ludlow copyright 2017

#smallgiftsministries #ttpagoTLa

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

Copyright 2017