What(ever) God has said/decreed/prophesied...That - most surely - will be done/come to pass...

Yes, unlike the rather fatalistic life motto of the late Doris Day (and/or especially her weekday American sitcom of the 1960s) - 'what(ever) will be, will be' - the word of the Eternal carries a 100% cast-iron guarantee of certain failsafe fulfilment...at the time foreseen and so decreed by that selfsame Omniscient and Omnipotent One...

Which unwise and reckless human beings ever seek to second-guess and even precipitate - see, for example, the present efforts and strivings of the current Republican Administration in Washington (D.C.), especially under the 'leadership' of the likes of John Bolton, incidentally a retread of the Bush Junior Administration, which - 'coincidentally' - itself came perilously close to a similar 'anticipation' of 'events grand and awesome' in the not so distant...

Which surely is not only supremely unwise, but criminally provocative...especially in view of what is potentially at stake in any escalation of longstanding and long-simmering Middle East tensions -already simmering off the burner well-nigh to boiling point, and clearly 'requiring' but one more unwise move(ment) to put them into overdrive and precipitative of the long-looked for 'war to end all wars' of Armageddon leading up to the long-foretold Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ...

Though I at least - self-styled and (I believe Spirit-) taught lay biblical scholar that I'd say I am - see no indication whatsoever of such a global World War 111 in those selfsame Scriptures, yet an almost as significant regional Middle East 'war to the finish'...involving the likes of Israel, anyhow - and arguably including 'everyone' from Iran to Turkey to Syria to Russia to China et al to the United States of America...and Libya ('Put') and Ethiopia ('Cush')...seems increasingly 'on the cards' of fate.

And unfortunately, the complete truth be told, if autonomous human beings are hell-bent on a particular course of action, are bloody-minded and determined enough to pursue their own misguided notions through to their ultimate endgame...

...sometimes the Almighty finally decides to desist - withdrawing His gracious, winsome Spirit - and leaves 'em to the fate they have deemed worthy of their efforts...

...when his longsuffering patience has at last finally run out...for good...

And, I hate to break the news to you, folks, but, judging by current 'presenting' conditions both at home and abroad, we're right upon the very cusp of just such a time...

...events (i.e. those surrounding the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to this world) that some, such as the eminent biblical scholar and radio teacher, Chuck Missler - and/or the likes of the Philadelphia Church of God and similar legitimate offshoots/successors of the Worldwide Church of God have 'guesstimated' take up over one-third or so of the entire Holy Bible... 

Yes, folks, we're standing upon the verge of just such momentous times, a day and time of which the Older Testament prophet-sage Daniel forewarned us two-and-a-half some millennia ago...

The writing's now well on the wall for those adhering to 'the faith once delivered unto the saints' - and in the 'free West', to boot...

Yes, as the Master Himself pointedly forewarned us...

When ye see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place/standing where it ought not...

then - you know - or certainly ought to - precisely what to do...

Que Sera, Sera?: Paying Tribute - upon Doris Day's Death-Day - to a song whose tune and lyrics have ever and always been, somehow or other, a part of my life's journey

When I was just a little [boy]
I asked my Mother, what would I be...

...would I be [handsome!], would I be [well-to-do]...[?]

-and here's what she - didn't - say to me:

"Que sera, sera -whatever will be, will be
-the future's not ours to see...
que sera, sera;
what will be, will be."

And unfortunately - or perhaps luckily! (for Yours Truly)
the remainder never applied...

And aside from that, Ms Day's fatalistic maxim itself is distinctly unChristian -

there's no doubt whatsoever about it...

yet as someone who lived a life that was thoroughly 'out there',
ever and only in the glare of the all too public eye...
(from twelve years prior to my dear Mum's own birth -
in that selfsame land of America)...
...and whose private life evidently mirrored - or didn't -
her multi-variegated film/theatrical/'musical' career...

I can only feel for her, much as Elton John's classic hit
about 'Norma Jean' (or Marilyn Monroe), i.e. 'Candle in the Wind';
later reworked for another famous woman, Princess Diana Spencer,
c/o 'England's Rose', following her untimely, tragic death in 1997,

...speaks so very eloquently upon...

All God's Speed ('godspeed') to Aasiya Noreen...as she moves to safer shores

Evidently Mrs Noreen has at last managed to escape her homeland Pakistan,the land of her (ongoing, if now 'only' psychological) bondage/imprisonment, and is now heading for hopefully safer realms (according to BBC World News this very morn)...

...to meet up with and join her two daughters who've already sought refuge and residence in Canada...

One can only wish her all godspeed, and moreover that the good LORD deal - and in no uncertain terms - with and to all those nasty Pakistani people who've pledged to hunt her down there (for the so-called blasphemy she allegedly committed years ago, which saw her subsequently spend years in appalling conditions of confinement in Pakistan)...

As Derek Prince, the longtime radio Bible teacher, fortuitously expressed matters this very morning (in the DP Legacy Radio segment on NZ's Southern Star),

there are some things only suffering can do...it provides the soil [necessary] for...

and sometimes only those who've been through a specially difficult time [can] share [the] special bonding [thus created]...

'things' which 'the sweet psalmist of Israel', (King) David, himself wrote profusely about and graphically of in a number of psalms (poems/sacred songs/hymns) which were themselves prophetic 'forth-tellings' of the experience of his divinely-appointed 'seed', the Messiah or Anointed One Himself...

Give 'Em Bread and Circuses - Galore - and let 'em eat dirt!

Ooh - Ahhh...cootchy-coo...
                                             no, you didn't hear me wrong,
it's time to 'aah' and 'ooo'...

What could such a thing mean?
Folks, I'm glad you asked!

The Duch-ess of Suss-ex's

-only just this ver-y day...

given birth to a bonny wee boy!

Oh, let's all dance in the aisles,
clap our hands and jump for joy...

Why, all's well and good
within our world
once again...
We've no cause at all
for doom and gloom

But that's not all, folks...
not one little bit!
Oh, no sirree...
NZ's PM's just been seen
with - upon her ring finger -
guess what - an engagement ring!

Oh no, you didn't hear me wrong,
things're just exactly as I say
-I kid you not!
And, topping the latter,
I hear a wedding's on the way!

Oh, geeps and creepers
- 'holy molee!'
...what can we say...
oh what indeed?

So, joy to the world
-let the partying begin!
It's almost as if
the Saviour's come again!

It matters not, folks,
no, it really don't...
for 'all is right with our world',
and things're on the up and up...

So, all you cynics, nay-sayers et al,
- those who might be deemed
Misery Guts Inc(orporated) -
don't you fear, for
'a baby's born today'!

Look not upon...
the exponentially increasing
destruction
- on every hand -
of Planet Earth's
biodiversity, ecosystems,
flora and fauna
(150 species globally
each and every day)

Nor the ongoing upsurge,
the never-ending intensification
of flood and fire,
drought and famine,
plague and pestilence,
epidemic and pandemic...

Nor the Doomsday Clock's
inexorable movement
each and every single day
closer and closer
to deadest midnight...

...whether spawned and fed,
pollinated and fertilized,
by climate change
or nuclear war...
or simply pseudo-scientific
human 'ingenuity',
be that drones,
'A(rtificial)I(ntelligence)',
a sci-fi 'space war'
or 'good 'ole' clones...

Yes, the renewed
resurgence
-on every hand-
of all of these
-and so much more-
here and there
and seeming everywhere

tells one
in oh, no uncertain terms
whatsoever...

'It's time to party, folks...
and let's get to it!

But didn't one also say, as follows...

And in that day the Lord GOD
of hosts
Called for weeping and for
mourning,
For baldness and for girding
with sackcloth.
But instead, joy and gladness,
Slaying oxen and killing sheep,
Eating meat and drinking
wine:
"Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die!"

Then it was revealed in my
hearing by the LORD of hosts,
"Surely for this iniquity there
will be no atonement for
you,
Even to your death,"
says the Lord GOD of hosts.

(Isaiah 22:12-14. Scripture taken from the New King James Version. (c) 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.)

Incidentally, I don't believe either the young royals (Prince Harry or Meghan) or, for that matter, Prime Minister of Aotearoa-New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, can be blamed or held responsible personally for the media obsession with such matters...

...though, at the same time, it's a fine point as to whether or not they can be argued as having - however subtly - courted such media obsession (whether now or in times past)...
   

Changing 'G(ross)D(omestic)P(roduct)' to a Wellbeing Quotient? As an old Aussie 'cobber' would've commented: "Get Real!"

And how the heck would you imagine one can possibly measure such intangibles...as loneliness, misery - and all the rest...-no, I - seriously - mean: really?

Budget (Pre-)Delivery Postscript:

But having said all the above...

the current Labour-led Government is certainly *well-intentioned in what it's aiming to do...especially vis-a-vis the long-neglected area of mental health in God's Own, a field - psychoanalysis/therapy to be precise - my own long-deceased Dad not only spent his life in, but even stood for local council in regards to (on behalf of the then New Labour Party, later the Alliance, back in 1989 or thereabouts).

Yes, if it does indeed 'take up' 38 of the 40 recommendations of the mental health task force awhile back - implementing 22 and further investigating another 16 - then it surely can't be any bad thing, can it...

There's much more to commentate upon the topic, but suffice for now to leave you with the thoughts (on many such a matter) of 'me ole mate' John Tamihere, would-be mayor-to-be of Auckland City (alongside his well-chosen deputy mayoral candidate, one-time National Party minister and present-day city councillor Christine Fletcher)...

...who might upon this, as upon many another such matter, have simply said: "Less hu-i and more do-ey!" I.e. the ultimate proof of this particular 'pudding' will be - as per usual - in the eating thereof. As we all know, talk - however grand and hifalutin' even - is, in the final analysis, a rather cheap and easily obtained 'commodity'...it's what we eventually do to effect our fine words that ultimately counts.

*Though didn't some oft-quoted wag declare that the road to hell is paved with such?