I have had 80 years worth of being a member of so many congregations that I have lost count. I thought it would be a good time to reflect on all my experiences, good bad and indifferent, and see if this resonates with anyone else’s experience.

I owe a lot to my parents who introduced me to the Christian Faith mainly because my father was a vicar serving in the Church of England which is the established church, but maybe not much longer as an act of UK Parliament is going through the process in the UK of dismembering the church and it’s relationship to traditional Christianity and indeed traditional life in the United Kingdom. I suspect we are all going to be pressured to become Muslims but that is a side issue that I did not intend to write about today.

I know that Jesus died for our sins and created the seeds of an infrastructure where we could build our own community and serve each other or should I say enlighten each other to make this planet a little bit less like the hellhole that it resembles at the moment. He did not create the church, by the way.

I know that civilizations have come and gone, some of them probably quite advanced, but ours is not particularly distinguished in the first place and we seem to be digging deeper holes for ourselves as the decades progress.

Christian values are very valuable to me because they balance the importance of the individual with the importance of the community and describe a situation where everyone has value as part of God. We are given if you will ‘manufacturers instructions’ to show how we can live our life to the best but we seem Hell Bent on ignoring all these and doing things our own sweet way which as it happens is not particularly sweet.

As a vicars son I did rebel quite considerably between the ages of about 16 and my early 30s. Now however the tone of my life had been set when I was very young and I did manage to meet a number of people who had a great influence on my life although they did not know it at the time. My theory is that we all have divinity within us but it is hidden under several layers of concrete and it takes a lot of time for it to emerge in the fresh air.

My standard is the Church of England because that what I was bought up on. I like the Methodists because they are understated and unpretentious and the ladies make the best cakes. I have never been quite happy with the Evangelical Church in all its forms because of the emphasis on asking others if they have been saved and sometimes putting on pressure.

I am put off by people who wave their arms around and speaking tongues and ask loudly for the Holy Spirit to come into them when in fact that’s what happened 2000 years ago, the Holy Spirit did come in to us all and it is freely available for us to use.  Why beg or beseech god for something you already have?. My simple brain cannot understand.

I would rather say to people, have you been educated? Do you understand what life is all about? Is there anybody that you use as a role model? Do you find there is a gap in your life? Are you afraid of death? However I must say that whatever type of church I go to I do love to hear a good sermon. I’m not ready interested in the hymns or the prayers because I cannot concentrate on prayers to save my life, sorry to say, and most hymns are like a dirges although some of the words are good. I like Christmas carols.

I hope I have roughly kept on track in my life but when the reckoning comes what I die and I see my past life I will probably find that this is not correct. However, listening to good sermons keeps me on the straight and narrow and stops me from doing things that would be self-damaging.  R C Sproul who is an evangelical preacher, now deceased in America, spoke about the need for not taking for granted what your partner wants or accepts and learning to keep an open mind and actually talking about things by setting aside time when you focus on each other’s needs and requirements.

On the occasions when I do not go to church or take part in an act of worship I do listen to Trans World Radio which is freely available on Freeview and probably as a radio station as well for all I know. Whatever you say about America they do produce some excellent preachers who really know their stuff and explain often with a sense of humour. Human nature and our relationship to the almighty can be influenced by prayer, discipline, focus and most of all understanding.

Of all the morning TV shows I dislike the least I can say that GB news is up there amongst them and on certain topics BBC News comes the distance second but I do not trust the BBC as far as I can throw them. I tend to listen to TWR (above) to make a godly start to the day. I ALWAYS hear something which inspires me. I cannot say this of the news.

At my age I like to mix with people who have nothing to prove and who have led a full life and are looking forward or experiencing the senior years of their life. Such was the case at Frome men’s group last night Thursday the 13th of June 2024 when I heard Richard Loveless give a personal testimony of his life, how he met his wife, how he worked in Kenya, how he then went to work in Birmingham before retiring and coming to Frome.

It is very important for me to hear someone speaking from their heart and I had spoken about testimonies in the last few days in these diaries. I found myself saying to someone today, if you say what is in your heart, people will know it. Everything else is wallpaper. I need also  to meet and share with people who are actually doing something. It is all too easy to show up at church, say all the right things, actually do very little. I would rather meet a person who has made 10 mistakes and learnt from them than someone who has done nothing for fear of upsetting people.

My ideal occasion, very similar to last night’s men’s group was that I meet someone who has had an interesting life and I’m able to learn something from them but also if I meet someone who is in difficulties then it is my privilege and honour to do my best to help them on their way perhaps even protecting them from the dark side of human life. The most important thing to me is making a difference. That is why I speak to people in the street as I do and have written about frequently.

I also find a wider and wider gap between sheep and goats and by this I mean those who have swallowed and accepted the version of the world that the mainstream Media describes, and what is actually going on behind the scenes and if you look at another of my sites covid-unmasked . net you will see how passionate I am about the truth.

I consider this a Christian duty to try and help people avoid selling their souls and their bodies to something that is designed for nefarious purposes. I am not interested in ‘converting’ any one because I simply don’t know enough about them. If someone asked me a question to my face or why I do things I would happily respond and if that leads to a growth in someone’s face then that is very wonderful but I don’t make preconditions and assumptions when I meet a stranger because you never know what path they have done through and how they have suffered.

In a way I think we are all broken and wounded and it is the way we respond to this by way of showing character that distinguishes our sense certainty draws then to my attention. I don’t have time to waste with people (though I will be polite to them) who are not interested in growth and development and are satisfied with the three dimensional world in which we live. It’s not that I dislike them but I can’t see the point. Jesus said  ‘do not cast your pearls before swine’ and And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.

In other words we have to respect people’s free will and the implication above  is to show by example so I have to ‘let my light shine before all men that they may see my good works and glorify my father who is in heaven’. The act of  sharing, giving time and energy to someone is an act of love that speaks for itself.

I admit to basically a mixture of selfishness and unselfishness but I do manage to do a fair bit for other people and spread the subliminal word of God whenever I can. So to summarize, I don’t want to be with time wasters but those who have already realized the value of having a spiritual life with all the benefits that it gives and I want to spend time with active people moving forward in my understanding. This can happen within and without a church building.