Holy

'be holy...' Leviticus 19:1

My life as a Christian has been one long failure in this regard. If I was holy I wouldn't need Jesus.

Sex

'Don't have sex with another man's wife--that would make you unclean...It is disgusting for a man to have sex with another man.' Leviticus 18:20-22 (CEV)

Probably THE most controversial verses in God's Word these days.

Israel

'the people of Israel...' Leviticus 15:1

'Fiddler on the Roof' is one of my favourite movies.

Punishment

'my punishment is from you' Psalm 39:9

Rich

'It is better to be godly and have little than to be evil and rich' Psalm 37:16

The best paying job I have ever had in Japan, for an large eikaiwa that shall remain nameless, (it has shut, thank God), involved me attempting to seduce young impressionable Japanese into parting with huge amounts of cash for an English course that provided dubious results. I left before the year was up because I couldn`t stand it.

Prospering?

'Don`t worry about evil people who prosper' Psalm 37:7

Right-wingers tend to emphasize that 'hard workers get rich' (Proverbs 10:4) and sometimes ignore that the Bible makes it clear that not everyone prospers through virtue. It`s also true that hard work is not rewarded equitably: Teachers usually earn less than professional baseball players, and homemakers earn nothing.

Authority

'the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.' Mark 2:10

Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Trap

'I did them no wrong, but they laid a trap for me.' Psalm 35:7

One of the wisest Japanese teachers I ever had, an old guy that worked for free as a volunteer, once quoted Mother Teresa:

Although Japan is one of the richest countries in the world, spiritually it is one of the poorest.

Maybe losing ground economically to China will be good for its soul. Let's hope so. And lest I be accused of racism, I want to make clear that Teresa of Calcutta was talking about the US and Britain too.

Brokenhearted

'The LORD is close to the brokenhearted' Psalm 34:18

Gall

'wine mixed with bitter gall' Matthew 27:34

The liberals that run Britain are trying to force churches to accept homosexual weddings.

Army

'The best-equipped army cannot save a king' Psalm 33:16

While I would like to see freedom and peace in Egypt, it seems we are not there yet.

AWESOME GOD

Love

'the unfailing love of the LORD fills the earth.' Psalm 33:5

There really is no good reason to be an atheist.

Spit

'They began to spit in Jesus' face..' Matthew 26:67

Watching a film about post-war occupied Tokyo, a unexploded bomb is dressed up in Christmas lights, and just before killing a foreign soldier who has raped her, a woman cries 'Merry Christmas'. Given the history of this country I can understand some of the anger but let me say this:

Jesus never killed anyone. He never raped anyone either.

Fed

'I was hungry and you fed me...' Matthew 25:35

To all those involved in growing and producing food, and delivering it to us, a big thankyou. Thanks to you all, my daughter gets shepherd`s pie for tea. At least it would be shepherd`s pie, but I`m using Chinese and Japanese vegetables, so maybe I should call it East Asian shepherd`s pie. Or French sounds posher, so perhaps 'Hachis Parmentier du Japon'.

Kept

'You kept me from falling into the pit of death.' Psalm 30:3

With God, there are no negative side effects.

You know..?

'You know what it is like to be a foreigner...' Exodus 23:9

So I lost my temper again today. I'm not proud of it, but I met this old lady who had draped her dog in the US flag... this in a country which has had peace, prosperity and democracy for the last 65 or so years partly due to US soldiers being willing to lay down their lives in its defence.

Wait

'Wait patiently for the Lord' Psalm 27:14

I'm not a patient man. What is clear though is that if I wait for politicians to improve my human rights I will wait a long time.