A Fresh Move of God (Re Blogged Podcast 3)

Check out my new video of the "A Fresh Move of God" post from April 2014






Though it was written seven years ago it appears to be more relevant today...

The Jesus Anointing (Ep. 2 Re-Blogged)

The Jesus Anointing. Have done a "Re-Blogged" episode covering one of the earlier, written text, entries on this blog.



Hope you enjoy. Cheers.

Channel Update and KetoLinks Information

Slow progress is still progress.

I keep getting bogged down trying to do research and refining of the topics that I mentioned in the last post. I usually like to do professional presentations as I used to be a preacher. That just doesn't work for me any longer.

So I decided to just do a casual, conversational style video to shake off the rust and reset the channel. I will try to get the ideas out there to stimulate the conversation and to facilitate growth in the leaders of the body of Christ through respectful debate and exchange of ideas.

Unfortunately, I no longer have the personal resources to do the work to back up my ideas and that bothers me. It doesn't, however, bother me as much as the thought of those ideas withering and dying without the chance of being heard.

Half of the world has gone mad through the ideas of Karl Marx which are half-baked and based on a very flawed ideology. In the light of that and the increasing "march through the institutions" of the PostModernists then what do I have to lose? I will just get it out there and hope that someone catches on to what I am on about and runs with it where I can't.

So with that having been said, you can expect a lot of rants and manifestos instead of teaching and research, anecdotes and impressions rather than facts and conclusions, etc. 

Hey! That sounds like fun!
Let's go on an adventure together in God and see where it takes us.

Cheers.
Garth Clarkson.

Keto Links

I have had many people ask me about the ketogenic or low carbohydrate, healthy fat (LCHF) that I have been on, especially when they notice my weight loss or obvious health improvement.

To that end, I have created a document with a simple directory that lists a bunch of resources to help people understand and absorb the huge amount of new information that going down this rabbit hole exposes you to.

Even though it is just slapped together without any deep thought or professionalism, I am finding it very helpful for myself and have received a fair bit of positive feedback about it. I found that I was repeating myself over and over in conversations so now I have just posted it on my website as a PDF document.

https://www.garthclarkson.com/default_files/KetoLinks.pdf

I even include some of my personal recipes that I developed in order to avoid harmful polyunsaturated fats that are so pervasive nowadays.

Cheers.

My Yearly Update

It's a Miracle!!!

No, seriously. It looks like I am not going to die any time soon.

I have had a very busy and interesting time over the last year.

I have discovered that many things that are presented as fact are actually rubbish. This not only applies to the incredibly ignorant and arrogant concept of man-made climate change (not to be confused with pollution) but also to diet.

The official food guidelines are toxic!!! They have been compromised by politics and big money and small, greedy people.

I lost my father in 1972. He was a doctor. A general practitioner and a consulting surgeon. He was an early adopter of the new "health food" standards of the 1950s and 1960s. It took less than 20 years to kill him.

I lost my mother in 1992. She was a nurse. She also operated accounting machines for big firms. She was devoted to the family and was very focused on a healthy lifestyle. She was an early adopter of the "healthy food' guidelines and I remember many books lurking around on the topic as she was an avid reader. Mum was 12 years younger than my father. She suffered from an ongoing, life-threatening illness since the 1970s and finally passed away after her body rejected the liver that was transplanted into her.

I was always struggling with my weight and with sensory issues and focus issues, etc. I tried very hard to achieve what many of my peers did naturally. I suffered from various joint and muscle problems, had a tendency towards depression and had chronic sinusitis. I had my first heart attack at 32. When I was 50 years old I had open heart surgery with a quadruple heart bypass graft.

Five years ago I had more heart attacks and discovered that all that new plumbing was blocked up and that there was no longer anything they could do for me besides medication.

I was being constantly told that I must be eating too much and that I was lazy and didn't exercise enough.

I WAS LIED TO LIKE THE REST OF US!!!

I discovered that all the research about fat and cholesterol causing heart disease is rubbish. It is sugar that causes all the damage. I am not just talking about the white or brown or raw stuff here. Did you know that a slice of bread is worth around half its weight in the "white stuff"? Once it hits your stomach your body can't tell the difference. Hell! Even tomato sauce is over 25% sugar.

All the "low fat", "health food" is killing us. It's carbohydrates. Look at the labels at the supermarket - just about EVERYTHING has not just some but HEAPS of added sugar.

So I was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes a couple of years ago and nearly died in a sugar coma. All the while I was eating "healthy". I was basically then told that carbs are bad and so is fat and so is protein so just starve yourself.

My sister had lost heaps of weight and was looking great after going on a Paleo diet. I have also been following Dr. Jordan B Peterson on YouTube since 2016 and have watched the man transform due to his going on the Carnivore diet. So, I had had a gutful and did some research.

I discovered that a group of HUNDREDS of Australian and American doctors and specialists, research scientists, engineers, and concerned community members were revisiting the data from all the old studies and also conducting new, ground-breaking research into biochemistry and how our diet affects us. They founded the "Low Carb Down Under" channel and are a bunch of brave souls.

Their videos of conferences, lectures and talks has transformed my life. By changing my lifestyle based on their information, I have stopped going downhill. Although the damage to my heart is most likely permanent, I have had a remarkable turn for the better. I have adopted a Low Carb/Healthy Fat (LCHF) diet and lost 20 kg. I am no longer taking insulin or diuretics. All my blood work shows dramatic improvement each time I visit my doctor.

This has caused me to reevaluate just about everything in my life that I took as gospel. Everything that was "established fact" according to the establishment is now suspect. If I hadn't already done my research then that's what I've been up to over the last 8 months or so. If you think I was a cynical, grumpy old fart before, then you are in for a surprise.

There is so much I want to say on this topic but if I do it all at once it will be ANOTHER year before my next blog post.

Cheers.

P.S If you haven't already then you should visit the Low Carb Down Under YouTube channel

Hahaha - Good luck with that!!!

Well, still waiting...

I still haven't produced any content and I have several high-quality camcorders becoming more and more obsolete by the day...

One of my biggest excuses is that I am no longer very photogenic (lol, not that I ever was...) and due to some health issues I am a bit embarrassed about how I look. Heart, diabetes and around 15 medications have somehow affected my skin and I am ready to audition on Z-Nation or Walking Dead.

To that effect, I might try my hand at going back to Flash Animation or interesting stock footage and use more of a podcast format of spoken word or something like that. I get lots of inspiration but by the time I go to record it, it is gone. I would say that I hate this medication but then again I am not quite ready to kick off just yet so I will have to put up with it until or unless I experience a creative miracle.

So in an attempt to get some content happening on my YouTube channel after four years of slackness, I am going low-brow. You should expect to see my unshaven, scruffy, checked-shirt, hoodie-wearing self if you see me at all.

So while I am still raving about myself I will list some of the topics I would like to cover or at least make some throw-away and unscholarly comments about. My passion as a coffee table expert and self-indulgence is what this is all about anyway. I am unable to put in the effort to do the serious research any more. Consider me to be an ex-Berean. If you are interested, then please feel free to challenge my ideas, or support them through your own research and if you are really keen then maybe tell me what you think at pastor@garthclarkson.com.

Ideas:

• Self-image modification techniques
• What they are
• How they work
• Scriptural basis?
• Self-image:
• What is it?
• Does it matter and what effect does it have
• What does the Word of God have to say about it?
• Isn't this just a load of Narcissistic rubbish?
• What can we do about the menace of Calvinism in the contemporary church?
• How come we somehow got stuck in the reformation?
• What aspects of Calvin's teaching are scriptural and good?
• Why did the Protestant world resist Arminius' work and ignore the Remonstrance?
• The roots of organized religious ignorance.
• Grow a beard and buy a gun?
• Why do many classic Calvinistic practices grieve the holy spirit?
• How Calvinism confuses people who try to find balance in the faith/grace vs. works debate.
• How the Calvinistic idea of being one of the "Chosen" breeds pride and contempt for those considered being in the out-groups, leading to racism, religious persecution, self-righteousness, regressive worldview, and in the case of US politics, an unjustified sense of superiority and perceived license to interfere in others' business.
• How has the reformed theology perspective on the gifts of the Holy Spirit stifled revival and introduced serious division in the body of Christ? Has the perfect truly come? I didn't think so. What are they thinking?
• While we are on the topic, on the other hand, what can we do about the experientially based (relationship rather than covenant), seeker friendly trends in the contemporary church?
• Salvation vs. daily walk
• Word of God vs. hearing God's voice
• Door-to-door salesman approach to evangelism - talk up the benefits and ignore the fine print.
• Authority in God
• Authoritarian vs. Egalitarian approaches to church structure and what does the Bible actually say?
• Multiple, parallel authority structures?
• Authoritarian or control freaks?
• Egalitarian or independent and rebellious?
• Godly submission vs. worldly lording it over
• Everybody!!! PLEASE STOP EXPLAINING THE GOSPEL TO NON-BELIEVERS!!!
• We are told to PREACH the gospel, not teach it.
• We are told to DECLARE the good news of salvation.
• The plan isn't to let heathen know what they are missing but to help them to be translated into the Kingdom of God. This happens by faith and obedience, not mental assent and understanding. Besides, Paul said that the natural mind CANNOT understand the things of the Spirit. Once they are spiritually awakened and in the family, then explain it to them.
• We give ammunition to people who hate God. It doesn't bring God glory when we don't live up to their expectations and they use us as an excuse to reject Him.
• People who accept Christ mentally because they don't want to go to hell have a much harder time understanding and living for Christ. It is like their heads are saved but not their hearts. They live a life of torment.
• What is wrong with the classic interpretation of Acts 15's 4 rules.
• Are they the only things we need to worry about?
• Do we throw out Jesus' teaching in favour of Acts 15?
• Are we painting with too broad a brush? Isn't the Council's justification relating to salvation and the baptism of the Holy Spirit in reference to circumcision and the keeping of Mosaic Law.
• Do we also throw out Paul's teaching to the Gentiles? Why not throw it all out if there are just these 4 rules?
• What do the four rules actually mean?
• Wouldn't "strangled meat" also relate to some of our current (but thanks to the proliferation of Islamic and Halal requirements, no longer practiced) abattoir stunning practices?
• Idolatry. Wouldn't the almost exclusive use of Halal Slaughter-men in Australia mean that nearly all of our meat is unable to be eaten by Christians due to having been offered to idols? Islam worships Allah (Arabic moon god formerly known as Ullah and also known as Bel or Baal in Palestine) who is not the creator God but a false god.
• Sexual immorality (porneia). What does it mean? What is the scope and depth of what this means? What is excluded? What does it NOT mean?
• Blood. Just blood? Does it mean drinking blood? Does it include the use of blood-based products like fertiliser, fire fighting foam, serums, vaccines, etc? Does it apply to transfusions like the JWs claim? (If so I am cactus) Or does it refer to the shedding of blood as in violence? Does it mean that we can't join the armed forces?
• We need the legal, historical and cultural background of the Old Testament in addition to the guidance of the New Testament in order to correctly interpret what the Jerusalem Council meant when they gave these rules to us. These laws cannot be interpreted in a vacuum by themselves.
• What is the biblical teaching on gender roles and relationships?
• Is love love or is it something else entirely?
• What are the roles of spouses
• as partners
• as managers
• as parents
• What is expected of children?
• Apart from obedience to the Word of God, why is this important? What are the consequences of a truly egalitarian society without restraint?
• Crime and prison statistics
• Suicide rates
• Divorce rates
• Burden on welfare services and tax rates
• How should scripture be properly interpreted?
• One of the things Calvin did get right is that the Word of God is and should be the final authority for the believer. The only problem is that many of the grave errors of himself and his followers is, that the way in which they interpret the scriptures is simplistic and counter-productive.
• We don't just have one covenant. We have many covenants recorded in the Bible and we need to know what the terms and conditions are for each of them and what does and does not apply to us today. The practice of placing the same weight one each and every verse is damned ridiculous and the root of so much heresy and disunity in the body of Christ today.
• Context rules. How can we just pull out the promises we want without looking at the conditions, purpose and target individuals applying to that promise. Just because He owns the cattle on a thousand hills doesn't mean that we can just go and nick a couple!
• Everything is conditional.
• Now is the only time that applies to anything. We cannot claim future benefits unconditionally. We must be aware of the conditions required to remain in His grace and to appropriate what He has for us.
• How do the unlearned and unstable twist the words of the Apostle Paul and the rest of the scriptures and how do we avoid this (2 Pet 3:15-18)
• How come you can read the Bible over and over and miss half of what it is saying?
• Look at the classic verses that are only read half way through
• Look at the chapters that seem to be invisible to most contemporary Christians
• Supernatural, Power-based ministry
• Requirements
• Qualifications
• Oversight
• Purpose
• Scope
• Practical application
• Consequences of screwing this up
• Does ability to move in the power of God indicate His approval? No.
• Does the ability to move in the power of God indicate righteousness? No.
• Is the ability to move in the power of God a qualification for leadership? Hell no!!! (Look at the old rampant televangelists...)
• Christians and political activity
• Should Christians be involved in politics?
• What kind of political ideologies are compatible with biblical Christianity?
• What kind of political ideologies are NOT compatible?
• How far can a Christian go politically?
• What are the boundaries?
• Covering
• Walls and hedges
• The role of Satan in the world and how we should relate to him
• We are at war. Why does it seem that the church has forgotten?
• Raising the banner
• Faithfulness of Job
• Blood of Jesus
• Angels
• Authorities, principalities and powers.
• Weapons of our warfare are not carnal. What are they then?
• We do not war according to the flesh
• The weapon of forgiveness
• What are the elementary principles of Christ mentioned in Hebrews?
• How can we do as the author says without first being acquainted with them?
• The anointing
• What is it?
• Why do we need it?
• How do we get it?
• How do we use it to build the body?
• Examples of how it relates to the accounts of "sovereign" moves of God?
  

I didn't realise that I had so much on my mind. It appears that it is a good thing to write things down. (derrr) There are other things as well which I can't think of at present but this is a guideline.

Anyway, even if I can't get to do any of it then take it as some really helpful ideas for you to research and bring to the body of Christ and the contemporary church in particular because these topics are sorely needed today. It is like there is a wilful ignorance of these things that needs to be addressed.

Cheers,

Garth. 

Oops. Amazing how easy it is to become distracted...

Hey followers!

Actually, I should say Hello readers because I am sure that the only people who get to see this blog arrived here by accident, especially since my main website garthclarkson.com went down and I haven't posted on this blog for over 3 years.

Anyway, if you are here then I bid you welcome. If you are new then maybe have a look through the old posts. I am sure that if you are a pastor or leader within the body of Christ then you will find some food for thought and/or inspiration if you look hard enough. If you are acquainted with me then I hope to begin to blog again soon so don't forget to come check it out again later. For those who are still with me, I will give a little rundown as to what has been happening in my life in the last 3 years.

About 3 years ago I left Brisbane, Queensland (Australia) where I usually live to go visit my wife and children in South Australia for Christmas. While I was there I assisted my wife in developing a laser skirmish arena and developed the tech from the ground up. I had a ball. I was like a pig in mud. I learned microcontrollers and Arduino IDE and worked with Atmel, STM32 and ESP8266 (before there was English documentation and Arduino compatibility) to build guns and suits and had it all connected via WiFi to a server based game system. This enabled us to change from free for all to teams and back as well as game modes like team deathmatch and we were also in the process of developing other modes like domination, hardpoint and regicide. It was awesome. Unfortunately, we did this in a town of 20,000 people and it was unable to sustain itself. Was fun while it lasted.

I returned to Brisbane about 19 months ago with poor health. I had so much fun with the laser tag that I borrowed on my health and future. It was still worth it though as it was a great time of bonding with my two youngest kids.

I have been involved with a few wonderful churches since I returned and they have been very helpful for my recovery with their love and support. I send a special shout out to the awesome Pastor Brad Power and the top line team from Forever House at Coopers Plains, the amazing Peter and Lindsay Earle and my old friends (especially Richard Oddie) from Networx church in Springwood and my new church family at God's Kingdom House at Woodridge with Pastors Danny and Sarah Pelasio and the great, love filled team and congregation there. I should also mention the wonderful, vision filled mob at Tent of Hope with Pastors Lee and Peta Taberner and their faith-filled supporters. Without them all I would be truly struggling.

About September last year, I was diagnosed with Diabetes and also suffered from an Atrial Flutter which was finally fixed via Cardioversion medical procedure in February. The flutter returned September this year. A bit over 3 weeks ago I had yet another heart attack. I went into QEII hospital where they looked after me really, really well. I made a quick recovery and they sent me for an Angiogram where it was discovered that my arteries are no more cactus than they were 5 years ago which is really good news. The bad news is that they couldn't be any more cactus than they are now, which explains the good news. Oh well, God is good and I am still alive and doing better than I could possibly expect.

I started this blog and my YouTube channel due to thinking I didn't have long to go before meeting Jesus face to face and should record the little bits of revelation that I feel are worth sharing before I kick off.

Through all of this, I still feel better than I did back then. I am probably not actually any better but this feeling better is a bit of a problem as the sense of urgency has gone away and I have stopped producing content by expressing those things which I feel can contribute positively to the Body of Christ. In this light, I intend to discipline myself and start video recording and blogging again. Those who know me well might laugh and say "good luck with that, hahaha" and they would not be unjustified but if you care then pray that the Holy Spirit quickens my mortal body (and clears my heart and mind) so that I can focus on what He wants and make at least some of my life count for something in His economy.

Cheers,

Garth Clarkson.

P.S. I would especially like to thank my dear friend, comrade, paduan and confidante Pastor Stephen Polson (and his beautiful and wonderfully prophetic wife Pastor Dawn Polson) for their undying support and friendship that has gone above and beyond the call of duty for the last nearly 4 years since we reconnected.