A long time has been passing between my times of either logging in or even so much as glancing at this blog. Today I saw a serious downside to checking it so seldom: It had been hacked.
Somehow a spammer or spammers had learned how to make and post comments to this blog without my approval, after I had removed the link for them to even submit comments.
As a result there were nearly 300 undesirable and offensive comments posted, all of which were advertisements for offensive things.
They have all been trashed and I will make a note to check this blog much more frequently and to consult with the person who built this site, about other actions to take.
If you have seen any of those offensive comments, I apologize for my inactivity here, which allowed them to go unnoticed by me.
The comment/contact link access has been removed because there was just too much spam sent to it, no matter how “bot-proof” my dear website builder made it. But here’s an email address at which you can write to me. It is a disposable address, so if it starts to get too much spam, it will be deactivated. It is [email protected] and if you send actual email to it, specify how you would like for me to respond to you, if you would like any response. The two options are 1. to post your question and my response in a subsequent post here or 2. to reply to you directly via email (though if I do that, I’ll have to respond from a different, non-disposable email address, so you would not know what email address to expect my reply from and it might go into your “junk” or “spam” email folder until and unless you entered it into your email contacts list.
On a different, more important topic, which I’d rather write about: Do you know what the vine usually symbolizes, in the Old Testament of the Bible? If you said “yes,” then you might know that it refers to Israel.
On that topic: Are you aware that Jesus, in the New Testament, declared that he, himself is the vine? See John chapter 15 for that. Jesus is the vine now; Jesus is Israel. Those who believe in Jesus are the branches, as Jesus said.
The Kingdom of God is not of this world. It begins and ends with Jesus, who is the vine who gives life to all who believe in him and those who believe in him are the branches.
Worth thinking about, especially in light regarding what’s happening in the world these days.