“I Told Lebanese Political Leaders We Would Abduct Israeli Soldiers”

Click here for the clip in question.

For those who do not understand Arabic, I hope you find this translation useful in the circumstances.

For comparative purposes, you might also be interested in this one by good old Bibi.

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One of my favourite hobbies is to read people’s comments on the BBC website regarding big stories of the day.

The suggestion(s) by some last week that a strong one-world government / army replace the troubled UN and nationalistic governments / movements in the Middle East got me thinking that we might not be so far off from a Third World War and the end of the world as we know it.

Watching Blair respond to questions at No. 10 a few hours ago, I couldn’t help but entertain the sneaking feeling that he also senses the Middle East will be the one hotspot that will consume us all someday.

Raila out, next is…

With all the drama surrounding the release of the Raila biography, few may be prepared for the idea that we could be heading into a high season of more confessional and / or historical writings, whatever the motives of those who write them.

In the midst of all that is some other upcoming work…not Raila’s autobiography (mouth-watering as it might be)…tiz on the late Brig. John Odongo.

Having met the fellow working on it on some occasions, I can say we have yet to see the last of our national Pandora boxes being openned.

If and when it comes out, some of the busybodies in our politics will have nothing to do but just shut up.

Which isn’t too much to ask for in an age of increased political self-righteousness and skulduggery.

Some of them will have to take Wanyiri Kihoro just a little more seriously than they have in the past, especially if they didn’t read him today.

A promise of protection

Via the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity
Holy Father, protect them… While I was with them, I protected them… I am not asking that you take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. John 17:11,15

In his prayer Jesus asks his heavenly Father to protect his disciples. This is not the kind of prayer request that may be turned down. Jesus and the Father are one in willed purpose. This prayer is promise.

The bible often speaks of God’s protection. The Lord is a fortress, a hiding place, a refuge. But what exactly does protect mean? When the disciples looked back at the end of their lives, where would they have seen God’s protection? James, executed in the early days of the church; Peter, imprisoned and beaten, and probably crucified. They all probably experienced the treatment that Paul lists – flogging and stoning, imprisonment and shipwreck. What kind of protection was this?

Does protection mean that nothing can ever hurt us or tempt us? It is clear from both old and new testaments that we are not taken out of the world and the battle, but that we are protected in it. As we follow him in trust and obedience we are protected from spiritual harm, protected so that we can fulfil his purposes for our life’s service, until we have ‘fought the good fight and finished the race’.

Perhaps we won’t know, until all is revealed, the ways in which he has been protecting us throughout our lives. Where he has pulled us back from the brink of disaster, because our time has not yet come. Where he has protected us from the consequences of temptation and foolishness. Where he has led us down a different path from the one we had chosen, which could have been catastrophic. We don’t know where he has defended and protected us, but I am sure he has.

So when we think about God’s protection, we are called to gratitude for the many ways he has protected us – and will do so. But we are also called to vigilance, so that we do not lay ourselves and our fellow disciples open to attacks from the evil one. When Jesus was tempted to throw himself off the temple, trusting to God’s protection, his answer was, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test’.

Margaret Killingray

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart……

Ancient Irish

tr. by Mary Elizabeth Byrne, 1880-1931,

Versified by Eleanor Henrietta Hull.

Source:  Living Praise, Words Edition, Marshall Morgan & Scott (UK, 1983).

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart; / Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art – / Thou my best thought, by day or by night. / Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom, Thou my true Word; / I ever with Thee, Thou with me, Lord; / Thou my great Father, I Thy true son; / Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Be Thou my battle-shield, sword for the fight, / Be Thou my dignity, Thou my delight. / Thou my soul’s shelter, Thou my high tower: / Raise Thou me heavenward, / O Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise, / Thou mine inheritance, now and always; / Thou and Thou only, first in my heart, / High King of heaven, my treasure Thou art.

High King of heaven, after victory won, / May I reach heaven’s joys, / O bright heaven’s Sun! / Heart of my own heart, whatever befall, / Still be my Vision, O ruler of all.