AUSTIN, Texas – A team of prominent scientists
gathered in Texas today at a climate summit to declare that fears of
man-made global warming were “irrational” and “based on nonsense” that
“had nothing to do with science.” They warned that “we are being led
down a false path” by the upcoming UN climate summit in Paris.
The scientists appeared at a climate summit sponsored by the Texas Public Policy Foundation. The summit in Austin was titled: “At the Crossroads: Energy & Climate Policy Summit.” Climate Scientist Dr. Richard Lindzen, an emeritus Alfred P. Sloan
Professor of Meteorology at the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and
Planetary Sciences at MIT, derided what he termed climate
“catastrophism.”
"The forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace." Ephesians 1:7
Charles H. Spurgeon
Could
there be a sweeter word in any language than that word "forgiveness,"
when it sounds in a guilty sinner's ear, like the silver notes of
jubilee to the captive Israelite? Blessed, forever blessed be that dear
star of pardon which shines into the condemned cell, and gives the
perishing a gleam of hope amid the midnight
of despair!
Can it be possible that sin, such sin as mine, can be
forgiven, forgiven altogether, and forever? Hell is my portion as a
sinner--there is no possibility of my escaping from it while sin remains
upon me--can the load of guilt be uplifted, the crimson stain removed?
Can the adamantine stones of my prison-house ever be loosed from their
mortices, or the doors be lifted from their hinges?
Jesus tells me that I
may yet be clear. Forever blessed be the revelation of atoning love
which not only tells me that pardon is possible, but that it is secured
to all who rest in Jesus. I have believed in the appointed propitiation,
even Jesus crucified, and therefore my sins are at this moment, and
forever, forgiven by virtue of his substitutionary pains and death. What
joy is this! What bliss to be a perfectly pardoned soul! My soul
dedicates all her powers to him who of his own unpurchased love became
my surety, and wrought out for me redemption through his blood.
What
riches of grace does free forgiveness exhibit! To forgive at all, to
forgive fully, to forgive freely, to forgive forever! Here is a
constellation of wonders; and when I think of how great my sins were,
how dear were the precious drops which cleansed me from them, and how
gracious was the method by which pardon was sealed home to me, I am in a
maze of wondering worshipping affection. I bow before the throne which
absolves me, I clasp the cross which delivers me, I serve henceforth all
my days the Incarnate God, through whom I am this night a pardoned
soul.
We have recently been reading through Matthew Dickerson's A Hobbit Journey: Discovering the Enchantment of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2012). Dickerson is an example of the growing coterie of Tolkien scholars whose work is making the Tolkien corpus more and more accessible to modern readers.
There are many biblical and theological themes woven into Tolkien's work. One of them is the nature of evil itself. Tolkien rightly sees that evil is personal, a will of malice and hatred towards others. Evil is not a mere impersonal misfortune that might occur from time to time. It is a living will which desires the enslavement of all others. Behind all evil acts, deeds, and schemes stands a living person of immense malice: subtle and cruel beyond our reckoning. The very subtlety of its exercise makes the malice more evil and more cruel.
Tolkien's representation of evil is consistent with Scriptural teaching, where Satan's malice is revealed in such a way that--were it not for our Saviour delivering us from his realm--we would all be subject to an eternal bitterness and a bondage to an immensely evil creature who hates us utterly.
Below is a story from the UK which is deeply disturbing on two counts. The first is yet another manifestation of Islam--that grand religion of peace, according to our politicians--dealing to an ex-Islamic Christian convert. The second issue is the complicity of the police and other UK authorities in the crimes.
British Christian Brutally Beaten Outside Home By Muslim Neighbours Who Labelled Him a ‘Blasphemer’
A British Christian man has been attacked on the streets of
Bradford, England, by men wielding a pickaxe handle – because he
converted from Islam to Christianity over a decade ago. The attack is
the latest incident in a long campaign of violence and intimidation
directed against the man and his family, who have been labelled
“blasphemers” by their Muslim neighbours.
Father of six Nissar Hussain was brutally beaten by two hooded thugs
outside his home in Mannigham in an unprovoked attack, at about 5pm on
Tuesday, suffering a broken kneecap, a fractured forearm and a
concussion. Police have confirmed that they are investigating the
incident as a targeted attack and a religious hate crime.
The violent beating was captured on Mr Hussain’s own CCTV, set up in
response to a sustained campaign of intimidation wielded against the
family over the last few years.
Screwtape expands on developing church participation for evil ends:
Surely
you know that if a man can’t be cured of churchgoing, the next best
thing is to send him all over the neighbourhood looking for the church
that ‘suits’ him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches.
The
reasons are obvious. In the first place the parochial organisation
should always be attacked, because, being a unity of place and not of
likings, it brings people of different classes and psychology together
in the kind of unity the Enemy desires. The congregational principle, on
the other hand, makes each church into a kind of club, and finally, if
all goes well, into a coterie or faction.
In the second place, the
search for a ‘suitable’ church makes the man a critic where the Enemy
wants him to be a pupil. What He wants of the layman in church is an
attitude which may, indeed, be critical in the sense of rejecting what
is false or unhelpful, but which is wholly uncritical in the sense that
it does not appraise—does not waste time in thinking about what it
rejects, but lays itself open in uncommenting, humble receptivity to any
nourishment that is going. (You see how grovelling, how unspiritual,
how irredeemably vulgar He is!)
This attitude, especially during
sermons, creates the condition (most hostile to our whole policy) in
which platitudes can become really audible to a human soul. There is
hardly any sermon, or any book, which may not be dangerous to us if it
is received in this temper.
The text below illustrates what happens when a laser-like focus upon national defence gets perverted into imperialistic geo-political ambitions. Or, to put it another way, the text below--sent through by courtesy of one of our readers, which in turn originated from Canada--illustrates the inevitable rotten fruit of Progressive internationalism. It also helps explain why the United Nations resembles, and ever will be, nothing more than a Monty Python satire.
I HOPE THIS CLEARS UP ANY CONFUSION YOU MAY HAVE
A highly restricted briefing document on Syria....
President
Assad ( who is bad ) is a nasty guy who got so nasty his
people rebelled and the Rebels ( who are good ) started winning (hurrah!).
But
then some of the rebels turned a bit nasty and are now called Islamic
State ( who are definitely bad!) and some continued to support democracy
(who are still good.)
Can the Euro fantasy survive? Over the past three years it has come under enormous strain financially as member states have had to bail out countries in the Med-zone. In effect, the EU has blinked and decided to kick the can further down the road for someone else to deal with. But the strains, the doubts, and the tempers were real enough.
Now terrorism is the crisis d'jour. An increasing number of European countries have decided to go ahead and implement their own border controls, effectively rejecting the Schengen system, where all within the Schengen zone were allowed to travel freely across borders through the 26 member states.
Member states have acted unilaterally (albeit temporarily) until Brussels can come up with an appropriate solution. France and other states have pointed out the obvious: at the borders of the Schengen zone, checks are so ineffective that terrorists are able to get into Europe like water passing through a sieve. Therefore, nation states are going to police their own borders.
It is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. (2 Corinthians 4:15)
John Piper
Gratitude
is joy toward God for his grace. But by its very nature, gratitude
glorifies the giver. It acknowledges its own need and the beneficence of
the giver.
Just like I humble myself and exalt the waitress in
the restaurant when I say, “Thank you,” to her, so I humble myself and
exalt God when I feel gratitude to him. The difference, of course, is
that I really am infinitely in debt to God for his grace, and everything
he does for me is free and undeserved.
But the point is that
gratitude glorifies the giver. It glorifies God. And this is Paul’s
final goal in all his labors: for the sake of the church — yes; but,
above and beyond that, for the glory of God. The wonderful thing
about the gospel is that the response it requires from us for God’s
glory is also the response which we feel to be most natural and joyful,
namely, gratitude for grace. God’s glory and our gladness are not in
competition.
A life that gives glory to God for his grace and a
life of deepest gladness are always the same life. And what makes them
one is gratitude.
Janet Daley, writing in The Telegraph shows that she just does not get it. In considering and evaluating the Enemy, she draws the conclusion that the soldiers and irregulars of ISIS are insane.
Whatever this is,
it is not a clash of civilisations. The concept of “civilisation”
scarcely comes into it. Nor is it a struggle between competing sets of
values, or a religious war, or a battle with an alien culture. There is
no debate here – as there was in the Cold War – about how it is best for
men to live: the enemy has stated explicitly that it does not revere
life at all. On the contrary, it is in love with self-inflicted death,
which it sees as the highest moral achievement.
This is not even war in
any comprehensible sense. Where are the demands, the negotiable limits,
or the intelligible objectives? It is not the modern world versus
medievalism, or the secular enlightenment trying to deal with
fundamentalist religion. It isn’t anything that can be encompassed in
the vocabulary of coherent, systematic thought in which we are now
accustomed to describe the world. This is just insanity.
By insanity, we expect that she means the Caliph of the Caliphate, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is without reason and quite mad. We also expect that she thinks all his followers likewise are insane.
In fact, Daley is arguably the one deluded and living in a make-believe world.
Many years ago, when President Obama was first elected President of the United States, a good friend opined that Obama was an "empty suit". He is certainly suffering now the frustration of being seen (already) as a failed President, possibly the worst of modern times. We say this not because we are carrying water for Republicans. You have to wonder about an electorate which thus far makes a bogan like Donald Trump it's most popular choice for the Presidency.
Political ideology is not irrelevant when someone holds political office. Once sworn into office, the holder has the opportunity to put in place policies consistent with their world view. If the world view is wonky it will eventually be made to suffer a full body slam by reality. Thus, President Obama.
Here is one account of Obama's failures--this time over Islamic terrorism.
"For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." Romans 9:15
Charles H. Spurgeon
In
these words the Lord in the plainest manner claims the right to give or
to withhold his mercy according to his own sovereign will. As the
prerogative of life and death is vested in the monarch, so the Judge of
all the earth has a right to spare or condemn the guilty, as may seem
best in his sight. Men by their sins have forfeited all claim upon God;
they deserve to perish for their sins--and if they all do so, they have
no ground for complaint. If the Lord steps in to save any, he may do so
if the ends of justice are not thwarted; but if he judges it best to
leave the condemned to suffer the righteous sentence, none may arraign
him at their bar.
Foolish and impudent are all those discourses about
the rights of men to be all placed on the same footing; ignorant, if not
worse, are those contentions against discriminating grace, which are
but the rebellions of proud human nature against the crown and sceptre
of Jehovah. When we are brought to see our own utter ruin and ill
desert, and the justice of the divine verdict against sin, we no longer
cavil at the truth that the Lord is not bound to save us; we do not
murmur if he chooses to save others, as though he were doing us an
injury, but feel that if he deigns to look upon us, it will be his own
free act of undeserved goodness, for which we shall forever bless his
name.
How shall those who are the subjects of divine election
sufficiently adore the grace of God? They have no room for boasting, for
sovereignty most effectually excludes it. The Lord's will alone is
glorified, and the very notion of human merit is cast out to everlasting
contempt. There is no more humbling doctrine in Scripture than that of
election, none more promotive of gratitude, and, consequently, none more
sanctifying. Believers should not be afraid of it, but adoringly
rejoice in it.
In the mid-thirties, Germany was rapidly re-arming--in clear breach of the Treaty of Versailles. Britain, however, was caught in a malaise of pacifism and anti-war sentiment. It refused to see the growing elephant in the room.
Winston Churchill was one of the few MP's who devoted this part of his career to crying, "Wolf". He warned consistently of the dangers, and urged a much greater commitment to defence spending. He was mocked and pilloried in public, if not private. To this day it is remarkable to reflect on the indomitable spirit which enabled him to persevere and persist. Such conviction and moral courage over matters of public policy are rarely seen.
Finally, the House of Commons began to wake up to what was happening in Germany. It decided to increase spending on the Royal Air Force. When Churchill stood up to speak in favour of the measure, he warned the House of the inevitable vociferous reaction of the disarmament and pacifist elements of UK society. He warned the members of the torrent of abuse which would be unleashed upon them. Even now it is difficult to conceive the strength and power of idealistic pacifism which held the Britain in its grip at the time.
Suicidal
ennui: when the best lack all conviction, and are therefore no match
for the invading hordes of those who are full of passionate intensity.
“What’s that tiresome noise at the gates? Somebody send Sadie to go
see.”
The massacre in Paris has brought two things, already obvious, into
high relief once again. We are observing, in slow motion, a collision
between two very diseased cultures. The diseases are quite different but
seem, in some respects, to be made for each other. One disease is
listless and the other aggressive. One has no organizing principle, no arche,
and the other has the wrong organizing principle. One is idolatrous and
polytheistic and the other is idolatrous and monotheistic. One believes
that no gods should be honored in the public square while the other
believes that only one should be, but that is a false one. One used to
be Christian, and must become Christian again, while the other must
become Christian.
Our sympathies and prayers are obviously for France in this, but
those sympathies operate on two levels.
In the last days
there will come times of stress. For people will be lovers of self,
lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents,
ungrateful . . . (2 Timothy 3:1–2)
John Piper
Notice how ingratitude goes with pride, abuse and insubordination.
In another place Paul says, “Let there be no obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking . . . but rather thanksgiving” (Ephesians 5:4). So it seems that gratitude is the opposite of ugliness and violence. The
reason this is so is that the feeling of gratitude is a humble feeling
not a proud one. It is other-exalting, not self-exalting. And it is
glad-hearted not angry or bitter.
The key to unlocking a heart of
gratitude and overcoming bitterness and ugliness and disrespect and
violence is a strong belief in God, the Creator and Sustainer and
Provider and Hope-giver. If we do not believe we are deeply indebted to
God for all we have or hope to have, then the very spring of gratitude
has gone dry.
So I conclude that the rise of violence and
sacrilege and ugliness and insubordination in the last times is a
God-issue. The basic issue is a failure to feel gratitude at the upper
levels of our dependence. When the high spring of gratitude to God
fails at the top of the mountain, soon all the pools of thankfulness
begin to dry up further down the mountain. And when gratitude goes, the
sovereignty of the self condones more and more corruption for its
pleasure.
We were reading a post from another Kiwi blogsite, when we came across this representation of a book on Islam:
In the book 'Islamic Imperialism - A History' (Efriam Karsh, Professor of Mediterranean Studies, King's College, London) it is explained thus .... "As
a universal religion Islam envisages a global political order in which
all humankind will live under Muslim rule as either believers or subject
communities. In order to achieve this goal it is incumbent on all
free, male, adult Muslims to carry out an uncompromising struggle in the
path of Allah or jihad. This in turn makes those parts of the world
that have not yet been conquered by the House of Islam an abode of
permanent conflict (Dar al-Harb, the house of War) which will only end with Islam's eventual triumph".
There it is in black and white ... radical Islam's end game. [Italics, ours.]
Actually, "there it is" should be applied to the intellectual sleight of hand that has just occurred in the above quotation, with the insertion of the word "radical" by the blogger to denote a sub-set of Islam--a denomination, if you will--whereas Karsh's piece deals with Islam's historical and traditional position. It is the most common mindset towards Islam found throughout the West. Efraim Karsh has written a piece on historical Islam's imperialist ideology arising out of its religious doctrines. He argues that the goal of world conquest by Islam is the doctrinal norm, not the exception, when Islam is considered in its historical manifestations.
Spare a thought for poor Jeremy Corbyn. We take no pleasure in his humiliation. What humiliation, you ask. He has been gravely shamed not just by his own party, but by columnists in his own newspaper, The Guardian which has decided that Corbyn is a bridge too far.
It's a bit unfair really, since the Labour Party has historically been led by deep sea divers catapaulting into the pool of pacifism. Jeremy is merely diving in after the example of his greater forbears. Now he is being mocked by his own--or what he thought were his own.
The Guardian calls Jeremy a "lonely figure" in the House of Commons:
Labour MPs back their leader … David Cameron
Jeremy Corbyn cut a lonely figure in the Commons as his party
appeared keen to distance itself from man whose pacifism is out of step
with the public mood
Jeremy Corbyn: the kind of leader who would politely request a terrorist
to sit down for a nice cup of tea and talk through his anger issues?
Photograph: PA John Crace
Jeremy Corbyn
may have misgivings about shoot to kill, but few of his own MPs seem to
share them. Sitting next to the leader of the opposition for the prime
minister’s statement on the G20 summit and the Paris attacks was Hilary
Benn. The normally mild-mannered shadow foreign secretary gave every
impression he was trying to eliminate his boss with mind control and a
rictus smile. Disappointed to find Jezza still breathing, he left
without saying goodbye after 45 minutes.
Other Labour MPs chose to kill their leader by vocalising their
whole-hearted support for the prime minister’s tougher stance on
terrorism. One by one they rose. Pat McFadden. Mike Gapes. David Hanson.
Chris Leslie. Emma Reynolds. Chuka Umunna.
Anne Coffey. Ian Leslie. Even the usually on-message Sarah Champion. Et
tu, Sarah? There would have been more, had not the Speaker curtailed
the debate. Not even in Iain Duncan Smith’s darkest hours had a leader
been turned on so openly by his own party in parliament.
Gravitas isn’t something that comes easily to David Cameron
but, just this once, he was allowed the chance to feel what it might be
like to be a statesman. A father not just to the Conservatives but also
to a Labour party keen to distance itself from a leader whose pacifism
has failed to capture the public mood. A father to the nation.
Having begun the session in low-key deferential fashion, promising to
take due note of the foreign affairs select committee’s concerns before
embarking on military action in Syria, the prime minister was almost in
the mood to start the bombing immediately by the end. Such was the
universal hawkish acclaim he was receiving. “We’ve got better weapons
than the US,” he boasted. “We’ve got the Brimstone missile that can take
out jihadis just like that.”
For Corbyn, it was more a case of sinking to the occasion. In recent exchanges with the prime minister, the Labour
leader has more than held his own but now he was hesitant, stumbling
over his speech long before many of the poisoned arrows had struck him.
“Um ... er,” he said, coughing nervously and regularly losing his place
and train of thought.
What would successful military action look like? Is bombing a country
into rubble the best way of building a new democracy? These important
questions went almost unheard. After his remarks to the BBC on Monday,
Jezza is finding it hard to shake the impression that he is the kind of
leader who would politely request a terrorist to sit down for a nice cup
of tea and talk through his anger issues, even as he was reloading his
AK-47 to gun down some more civilians having a quiet night out.
The onslaught took its toll. Minister after minister abandoned Corbyn on the frontbench until the only people left were Diane Abbott
and a totally bewildered Barry Gardiner, a junior shadow minister for
climate change. Having got up most of her colleagues’ noses by catching
up with her correspondence at a meeting of the parliamentary Labour
party the night before, it was too early for Abbott to start on her
Christmas cards. So she just stared stony-faced into the abyss. What she
saw was too frightening even for her, so she too upped sticks. Though
not before roping in a reluctant Jon Trickett to take her place.
Gardiner passed the time by ostentatiously tapping away at his iPad. A
tip, Barry. Passive-aggression has never been a worthwhile tactic when
playing Call of Duty. He nudged Corbyn to let him know the baddies had
just killed him for the umpteenth time in a row before he had had a
chance to save his game at the checkpoint. Jezza knew the feeling. Shoot
to kill had just claimed its first parliamentary victim.
The Teacher explains our power to choose:
‘There are only two
kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,”
and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are
in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No
soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those
who seek find. To those who knock it is opened.’
Following the recent Paris attacks and President Hollande's immediate declaration of war we wrote expressing scepticism about the will of France to conduct war against Islamic guerilla fighters or what used to be called irregulars, or commandos. We pointed out that the "fronts" of that war are actually found in Europe, not in the Middle East. Military strikes on ISIS--which constituted the initial French response--are largely irrelevant at this stage.
To go to war against the guerillas operating in Europe would require a resolve and discipline of France and its people actually to wage war on home soil. We were, and remain, sceptical of the resolve of Europe, in general, and France in particular to undergo the privations and difficulties of fighting on the domestic front. France, we suggested, was far too wedded to the comforts of chardonnay and the cafes to proceed with any kind of militancy requiring mobilisation for the armed forces for war in France. Therefore, we reasoned, Hollande's "declaration of war" was likely little more than a theatrical, rhetorical flourish.
Over the past week, however, the French authorities have been very active in tracking down and killing those involved in the military strikes against French citizens in Paris.
If we're not talking about theology we're not really talking about the problem.
by David Harsanyi The Federalist Why
is it that so many of the same people who are skeptical about exporting
liberalism (count me as one) are perfectly content with the idea of
importing illiberalism?
Even as the terrorist attacks in Paris were happening, a predictable
debate broke out over the millions of Islamic refugees now pouring into
the West from the Arab world. We were once again asked to pretend that
Islamic terrorism materializes in a vacuum that has absolutely nothing
to do with theological beliefs of the majority of people in the Middle East and thus nothing to do with brutality and oppression that prevail in the region.
One of the most common talking points regarding refugees has been this:
"Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep." Hosea 12:12
Charles H. Spurgeon
Jacob,
while expostulating with Laban, thus describes his own toil, "This
twenty years have I been with thee. That which was torn of beasts I
brought not unto thee: I bare the loss of it; of my hand didst thou
require it, whether stolen by day, or stolen by night. Thus I was; in
the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep
departed from mine eyes."
Even more toilsome than this was the life of
our Saviour here below. He watched over all his sheep till he gave in as
his last account, "Of all those whom thou hast given me I have lost
none." His hair was wet with dew, and his locks with the drops of the
night. Sleep departed from his eyes, for all night he was in prayer
wrestling for his people. One night Peter must be pleaded for; anon,
another claims his tearful intercession. No shepherd sitting beneath the
cold skies, looking up to the stars, could ever utter such complaints
because of the hardness of his toil as Jesus Christ might have brought,
if he had chosen to do so, because of the sternness of his service in
order to procure his spouse--
"Cold mountains and the midnight air,
Witnessed the fervour of his prayer;
The desert his temptations knew,
His conflict and his victory too."
It
is sweet to dwell upon the spiritual parallel of Laban having required
all the sheep at Jacob's hand. If they were torn of beasts, Jacob must
make it good; if any of them died, he must stand as surety for the
whole. Was not the toil of Jesus for his Church the toil of one who was
under suretiship obligations to bring every believing one safe to the
hand of him who had committed them to his charge?
Look upon toiling
Jacob, and you see a representation of him of whom we read, "He shall
feed his flock like a shepherd."
Edward Said must be turning in his grave. His greater son, Barack Obama has turned out to be a colossal wreck.
Said was one of the leading edge academics who is said to have greatly influenced the young Barack Obama, whilst the latter was studying at Columbia. Said was the Orientalist who stared down the guns of Western imperialism in the Middle East (and elsewhere), and demanded that Oriental traditions and cultures be accepted on their own merits.
His most famous acolyte, Barack Obama is proving to be an inept student. How disappointing. What is clear to most by now is that Obama has been unable to shuffle off the besetting arrogance of the West when it comes to dealing with the Islamic world.
In addressing the topic of child sexual abuse, we must begin by
distinguishing between abusers who represent the system and abusers who
work free lance. The free lance abusers are usually despised by all, but
the despisers frequently support outlandish systemic abuse themselves,
and to such an extent that if anyone objects to the abuse, then he
is the one disciplined. Think of what would happen in the Obama
military if an American soldier intervened on behalf of an Afghan boy
chained to an Afghan officer’s bed. Who is disciplined? Right — the
soldier who intervenes.
Back home, coming back to our version of the same kind of travesty, a recent uproar concerns
two workers at a Texas daycare getting their pink slips because they
refused to call a little girl a boy. The girl is apparently a trannykid,
and the daycare had obtained this important information from the girls’
two fathers. Does anyone see a pattern starting to develop here? We have these shirts in all sizes, including infant onesies . . .
One of those workers, Madeline Kirksey, said that her religious
liberty rights were violated when the center gave her the sack, and so I
would like to get that issue out of the way first. At first glance,
this looks like it is actually not a religious liberty issue. The center
is privately owned, or so the argument goes, and if the owner only
wants to employ crazy people, that is the owner’s prerogative. If the
owner wants to employ people to take care of little children all day,
but wants employees who do not know the difference between boys and
girls, then said daycare should have the right to fill their roster with
such highly-qualified individuals.
But does a daycare have the right to require its employees to look
the other way in cases of sexual child abuse?
“Fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help
you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10)
John Piper
When I am anxious about some risky new venture or meeting, I battle unbelief with one of my most often-used promises: Isaiah 41:10.
The
day I left for three years in Germany, my father called me long
distance and gave me this promise on the telephone. For three years, I
must have quoted it to myself five hundred times to get me through
periods of tremendous stress.
When the motor of my mind is in neutral, the hum of the gears is the sound of Isaiah 41:10.
When I am anxious about my ministry being useless and empty, I fight unbelief with the promise of Isaiah 55:11.
“So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return
to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall
succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
When I am anxious about
being too weak to do my work, I battle unbelief with the promise of
Christ, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in
weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
When
I am anxious about decisions I have to make about the future, I battle
unbelief with the promise, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way
you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you” (Psalm 32:8).
When I am anxious about facing opponents, I battle unbelief with the promise, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).
When
I am anxious about the welfare of those I love, I battle unbelief with
the promise that if I, being evil, know how to give good things to my
children, how much more will the “Father who is in heaven give good
things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11)?
Further to our piece yesterday on the promotion of sexual libertinism in government schools, we reproduce a recent post from Bob McCoskrie, National Director at Family First.
PARENT ALERT
'Sexuality' and 'Gender' Education in Schools:
Polluting the Minds of Our Children
Hi
We
are constantly being contacted by concerned parents and being asked our
opinion on the sex education curriculum in NZ schools.
We continue to warn ALL parentsabout:
* the new sexuality education guidelines which schools are now having professional development on,
* any programmes being run by Family Planning and Rainbow Youth,
* the new sexuality programme ‘Inside Out’, funded by the Government.
We have written to all school principals warning them about these programmes. They have also received copies of our reports mentioned below. We've had great feedback!
The fact that the Ministry of Social Development and the Ministry of
Education are funding and pushing this agenda with little parent
involvement should concern us all. At the bottom of this special newsletter, we show you what you can do as a parent to protect your children.
I’m
not sure that Donald Trump understands redemption. I’m even less sure
that he understands how to win Evangelicals. But I’m certain that his
mockery of Ben Carson’s redemption story shows a lack of understanding
of the Christian faith.
Speaking yesterday at a rally in Iowa, Trump launched what is best
described as an extended rant against Carson, attacking the core of his
redemption story (that Carson sought God’s grace and forgiveness after
attacking a family member with a knife) as both impossible and
implausible: Impossible because if Carson had truly had a “pathological
temper” he could never have overcome it, and implausible because Trump
simply can’t believe Carson attempted to stab someone, only to have the
blade blocked by a belt buckle.
In other words, according to Trump, Carson is either still pathologically angry or he’s a liar.
Prudence means practical common sense, taking the trouble to think
out what you are doing and what is likely to come of it. Nowadays most
people hardly think of Prudence as one of the ‘virtues’. In fact,
because Christ said we could only get into His world by being like
children, many Christians have the idea that, provided you are ‘good’,
it does not matter being a fool. But that is a misunderstanding.
In the
first place, most children show plenty of ‘prudence’ about doing the
things they are really interested in, and think them out quite sensibly.
In the second place, as St Paul points out, Christ never meant that we
were to remain children in intelligence: on the contrary. He told us to
be not only ‘as harmless as doves’, but also ‘as wise as serpents’. He
wants a child’s heart, but a grown-up’s head. He wants us to be simple,
single-minded, affectionate, and teachable, as good children are; but He
also wants every bit of intelligence we have to be alert at its job,
and in first-class fighting trim.
The fact that you are giving money to a
charity does not mean that you need not try to find out whether that
charity is a fraud or not. The fact that what you are thinking about is
God Himself (for example, when you are praying) does not mean that you
can be content with the same babyish ideas which you had when you were a
five-year-old. It is, of course, quite true that God will not love you
any the less, or have less use for you, if you happen to have been born
with a very second-rate brain. He has room for people with very little
sense, but He wants every one to use what sense they have.
A friend of a friend of a friend has just sent this through. It promotes the latest sexual perversions-du-jour being officially promoted by the government in New Zealand. The official government vid came with an instruction:
Please just take 3 mins to watch the first bit of this video-aimed at
year 7 & 8 students and funded by the Ministry of Social
Development. Simply staggering. Imagine playing this to your students!!
A great deal can be learned if we just take the effort to
make sense out of things that make no sense. Of course, we can never
make sense of the nonsensical, by definition, but we can learn why
things that make no sense are nonetheless happening. Every absurd
conclusion is, at some level, a valid derivation from absurd premises,
but enough about any given screen shot of the Drudge Report.
Slut walks provide a great example of this. Once we trace the absurdity
back upstream, we might learn something about the premises — premises,
incidentally, that lurk in the minds of many Christians. I have seen it
come up — many times — in trying to disentangle relationship snarls.
The point of slut walks is ostensibly a simple one. It is that dressing
in any particular way in no way justifies rape. Put in a less
sympathetic way, it is that dressing provocatively must never be
considered a provocation. Let me defend the first expression of this and
blow raspberries at the second. The reason we must do this is because
there is a deadly doctrine that underlies the second, and it is a deadly
doctrine that winds up paving the way for all manner of outrage. A theology of slut walks, despite a great deal of indignation directed at
rapists, turns out to be a theology of rape.
In order for any two people to engage in moral argument, there must be a
shared standard overarching the two of them.
It
is not "The Lord is partly my portion," nor "The Lord is in my
portion"; but he himself makes up the sum total of my soul's
inheritance. Within the circumference of that circle lies all that we
possess or desire. The Lord is my portion. Not his grace merely, nor his
love, nor his covenant, but Jehovah himself. He has chosen us for his
portion, and we have chosen him for ours. It is true that the Lord must
first choose our inheritance for us, or else we shall never choose it
for ourselves; but if we are really called according to the purpose of
electing love, we can sing--
"Lov'd of my God for him again
With love intense I burn;
Chosen of him ere time began,
I choose him in return."
The
Lord is our all-sufficient portion. God fills himself; and if God is
all-sufficient in himself, he must be all- sufficient for us. It is not
easy to satisfy man's desires. When he dreams that he is satisfied, anon
he wakes to the perception that there is somewhat yet beyond, and
straightway the horse-leech in his heart cries, "Give, give."
But all
that we can wish for is to be found in our divine portion, so that we
ask, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I
desire beside thee." Well may we "delight ourselves in the Lord" who
makes us to drink of the river of his pleasures. Our faith stretches her
wings and mounts like an eagle into the heaven of divine love as to her
proper dwelling-place. "The lines have fallen to us in pleasant places;
yea, we have a goodly heritage." Let us rejoice in the Lord always; let
us show to the world that we are a happy and a blessed people, and thus
induce them to exclaim, "We will go with you, for we have heard that
God is with you."
Ben Carson, campaigning for the nomination to be the Republican candidate for the United States, is running into the buzz saw of liberal left-wing progressive media. Which is a good thing. It shows that his campaign has got well beyond the butt-of-jokes stage. He is now being taken seriously.
The normal enmity and disingenuous concern for public rectitude is now on display. There have been several hit pieces on Carson's back story and his biography. The objective is to convince readers and watchers that Carson is at best an embellisher, at worst a rank liar. Carson appears to be handling it pretty well. He says he has always expected it would come. He is certain that such hostility and gutter journalism wins him support: down home folk get so outraged they want to stand by him.
We admire Carson--have done for years--long before this latest "career move". We are thankful for his life and testimony. We rejoice at his firm repudiation and condemnation of abortion. On the other hand we remain sceptical of his grasp of world affairs, of economics, and of his experience and sophistication in such maelstroms. But we are more comfortable with Carson than with what Sarah Palin calls the "swamp-dwellers" of establishment Washington. New brooms sweep clean, our parents once taught us. Carson is a man of integrity and a sharp mind. As the ultimate outsider, we have no doubt his broom would sweep exceedingly clean.
In the meantime, The Federalist provides an example of the unprofessional journalism, dripping with foetid cant, disguised as genuine public concern, which is now snapping at Carson's heels.
Media stars and public celebrities are usually not the smartest pins in the cushion. But their antics and views are celebrated and worshipped as if they were demi-gods. Thus passes the fatuousness of the age. Hans Fiene,a Lutheran pastor in Illinois has got stuck into Scarlett Johansson, for her participation in an asinine attack upon the Bible.
He seeks to offer some coaching, so that if she and her coterie wish to malign and attack the Scriptures and the Christian faith they should get much more serious artillery.
Scarlett Johansson, Sexing Up The Bible Won’t Defeat Christianity
As a Christian, I don’t know
if it’s good form to give tactical advice to those on the other side of
the spiritual warfare battlefield. Since I don’t desire Christianity’s
destruction, I probably shouldn’t offer any pointers for how to
accomplish this to those want to raze the world’s sanctuaries and tango
atop the rubble.
On the other hand, Jesus did promise that the gates of hell will not
prevail against his church, so giving despisers of the faith a more
effective strategy to accomplish a goal they’ll never accomplish is a
bit of a sanctified brag, a holy boast in the Savior whose supposed
weakness is infinitely stronger than the strength of his enemies. So, in
response to Scarlett Johansson reading sections of the Bible in a “porn voice” on “Saturday Night Live” writer Mike O’Brien’s upcoming comedy album, let’s go with the other hand.
The voice of God indeed daily calls
to us; calls to the world to abandon sins and seek the Kingdom of God
wholeheartedly. O that we may all hear the call of the Father and,
sometime, at last be converted to the Lord. . . . In silence and in
meditation on the eternal truths, I hear the voice of God which excites
our hearts to greater love.
Naive, vacuous humanitarianism--the West's prevailing ethic--makes us easy prey. The established wisdom in the West is that mankind is without sin. All human beings are intrinsically good. All evil, if it exists anywhere, is environmentally caused--insufficient food, clothing, shelter; inadequate education; disease, and so forth. A change in fortunes or circumstances, and, hey presto, more perfect, immaculate, sinless creatures emerge from the cocoon. It's a case of "build it (right) and they will come (to righteousness)"
In facing the mass migration from (often) war torn devastation in the Middle East, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Africa, European nations are easily gulled. The world-view of humanitarianism sets them up. None of this, of course, is to gainsay charity and compassion. But humanitarianism is a denial of genuine love and compassion. Genuine love is always based upon truth. Humanitarianism, however, pushes away truth and realistic assessments based upon its view of evil as being a mere irritant caused by superficial, environmental, circumstantial trivialities. Evil is easily overcome according to a naive and foolish West. Throwing money at the "problem" goes a long, long way to achieving redemption.
The West can be compared to a gullible householder responding to a knock on the door, late at night. The visitor at the door pleads for help. "I need protection. If you have a gun, please give it to me." The gullible householder hands over his varmint gun, whereupon, the visitor promptly shoots him, and ransacks the house.
There have been voices raised questioning the wisdom of allowing masses of migrants being able, literally to walk into a country. Some stubborn recalcitrants have even suggested that amidst the masses, serious, committed jihadis might be infiltrating as enemy agents. And they were right.
We accept that most, if not all, mainstream media are of a secularist and Progressive bent in New Zealand. When one of the establishment newspapers, however, writes an editorial so critical of the current, relatively new Labour leader, things have to be in a bad way in Camp Labour.
With friends like the Dominion Post, who needs enemies?
But Christ is faithful over
God’s house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our
confidence and our boasting in our hope. (Hebrews 3:6)
John Piper
The
church of Jesus Christ is the house of God today. Which means that
Jesus this morning — not just back in Moses’ day or in his own days on
earth — but this morning is our Maker, our Owner, our Ruler, and our
Provider.
He’s the Son; we are the servants. We are the household
of God. Moses is one with us in this household, and he is our fellow
servant through his prophetic ministry. But Jesus is our Maker, our
Owner, our Ruler, and our Provider.
And the text concludes by
saying we are his house — we are his people, we are partakers of a
heavenly calling — “if we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in
our hope.” The evidence that we are part of the household of God is that
we don’t throw away our hope — Hebrews 10:35 says, “Do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward”—we don't drift into indifference and unbelief.
Becoming
a Christian and being a Christian happen in the same way: by hoping in
Jesus — a kind of hoping that produces confidence and boasting in Jesus.
What
are you hoping in today? Where are you looking for confidence? In
yourself? In shrewd investing? In physical fitness programs? In hard
work? In luck? The Word of God to you today is, “Consider Jesus.”
And hope in him. Then you will be part of his house and he will be your
Maker, your Owner, your Ruler, and your Provider.
Catastrophism is a peculiar state of mind which sees the end of life as we know it drawing near. Whilst the phobia is certain that the end is coming, the precise form of the threat can change.
In the 1970's Paul Ehrlich was warning us that overpopulation was going to destroy the planet. The decade before that, Rachel Carson was solemnly declaring in Silent Spring that DDT was going to poison us all. Nevil Shute was sketching out nuclear Armageddon in his dystopian novel, On the Beach. And then, in the eighties, there was the threat looming of a new Ice Age which would devastate the planet and see us all off to frozen graves. But by the end of the next decade in the nineties the end of life as we knew it would come about through global warming. The planet was going to cook to death. And, of course, there was the multi-decadal threat from space asteroids hitting earth.
As I write, Paris is under curfew for the first time since the German
occupation, and the death toll from the multiple attacks stands at 158,
the vast majority of them slaughtered during a concert at the Bataclan
theatre, a delightful bit of 19th century Chinoiserie on the boulevard
Voltaire. The last time I was there, if memory serves, was to see Julie
Pietri. I'm so bloody sick of these savages shooting and bombing and
killing and blowing up everything I like - whether it's the small Quebec
town where my little girl's favorite fondue restaurant is or my
favorite hotel in Amman or the brave freespeecher who hosted me in
Copenhagen ...or a music hall where I liked to go to hear a little jazz
and pop and get away from the cares of the world for a couple of hours.
But look at the photographs from Paris: there's nowhere to get away from
it; the barbarians who yell "Allahu Akbar!" are there waiting for you
...when you go to a soccer match, you go to a concert, you go for a
drink on a Friday night. They're there on the train... at the magazine
office... in the Kosher supermarket... at the museum in Brussels...
outside the barracks in Woolwich...
This is what we're going to be talking about when the mullahs nuke us.
Almost. When the Allahu Akbar boys opened fire, Paris was talking
about the climate-change conference due to start later this month, when
the world's leaders will fly in to "solve" a "problem" that doesn't
exist rather than to address the one that does.
Faith
untried may be true faith, but it is sure to be little faith, and it is
likely to remain dwarfish so long as it is without trials.
Faith never
prospers so well as when all things are against her: tempests are her
trainers, and lightnings are her illuminators. When a calm reigns on the
sea, spread the sails as you will, the ship moves not to its harbour;
for on a slumbering ocean the keel sleeps too. Let the winds rush
howling forth, and let the waters lift up themselves, then, though the
vessel may rock, and her deck may be washed with waves, and her mast may
creak under the pressure of the full and swelling sail, it is then that
she makes headway towards her desired haven. No flowers wear so lovely a
blue as those which grow at the foot of the frozen glacier; no stars
gleam so brightly as those which glisten in the polar sky; no water
tastes so sweet as that which springs amid the desert sand; and no faith
is so precious as that which lives and triumphs in adversity.
Tried
faith brings experience. You could not have believed your own weakness
had you not been compelled to pass through the rivers; and you would
never have known God's strength had you not been supported amid the
water-floods. Faith increases in solidity, assurance, and intensity, the
more it is exercised with tribulation. Faith is precious, and its trial
is precious too.
Let not this, however, discourage those who are
young in faith. You will have trials enough without seeking them: the
full portion will be measured out to you in due season. Meanwhile, if
you cannot yet claim the result of long experience, thank God for what
grace you have; praise him for that degree of holy confidence whereunto
you have attained: walk according to that rule, and you shall yet have
more and more of the blessing of God, till your faith shall remove
mountains and conquer impossibilities.
The terror attacks and mass fatalities in Paris over the past days have been long predicted and expected. We believe there will be many more attempted; some successful. The West is in disarray.
The French President, Hollande somewhat fatuously pronounced, "We are at war". Sadly, and so characteristically, this was likely little more than a rhetorical flourish. Certainly, Hollande had not had the time to go through the constitutional processes required in order for France as a nation to declare war. Being at war has become fashionable, and somewhat meaningless, with declarations of wars being pronounced on poverty, discrimination, disease, immigration, poverty, excessive wealth, illiteracy, global warming, and Mum's Apple Pie. Consequently, the West appears to be fighting many wars, of which this is just one. The concept of war has been inflated to meaninglessness.
Sadly, we suggest that Hollande does not know much at all about war--genuine war--and he, along with all other ostrich-head European politicians, will merely pontificate away. Consequently, as long as this state of affairs continues, Islamist terror attacks will continue in Europe and the West. Europe has sought to build a utopian paradise upon an idolatrous four headed ideology (secularism, atheism, materialism, and humanitarianism). These ideologies, taken together, do not persuade a nation to fight. In the end, they have no higher cause, no absolute law which they must respect. They do not provide the spiritual or mental fortitude to go to war.
As neighbouring Norway becomes so safe police are preparing to hand
in their firearms, Sweden is riding on the crest of a migrant gun crime
wave fuelled by bloody gang wars.
Not only is gun crime in Sweden higher than all other Nordic nations
combined, but such violence in just one city is enough alone to beat
Sweden’s neighbours. Third largest city Malmö, in Sweden’s south-west,
and just a ten minute train ride from Danish capital Copenhagen over the
border, has recorded 63 people shot in the past five years.
In next-door Copenhagen, the number is 30. In Oslo and Helsinki, the
capitals of Norway and Finland respectively, just ten people have been
shot in the past five years each. Already multicultural paradise Malmö
is higher than these three capitals combined, but this number is dwarfed
in turn by gang warfare trouble city Gothenburg, where 109 people have
been shot.
In Sweden’s own capital Stockholm, 189 people have been shot in the same time frame, reportsAftonBladet.
The latest of these attacks was on Saturday, as a 37-year-old man was
killed in a Southern Stockholm suburb. Shot 14 times in the chest and
back, the Expressenreports
he had previous convictions for drug dealing. This shooting came less
than 24-hours after a 26-year-old man was shot to death in Gothenburg,
western-Sweden while he played hockey on a school field. A sub-machine
gun, pistol, and hand grenade were later found discarded nearby.
“If you turn back your
foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call
the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you
honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or
talking idly; then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make
you ride on the heights of the earth.” (Isaiah 58:13-14)
John Piper
It
is possible to pursue God without glorifying God. If we want our quest
to honor God, we must pursue him for the joy in fellowship with Him.
Consider
the Sabbath as an illustration of this. The Lord rebukes his people for
seeking “their own” pleasure on his holy day. But what does he mean? He
means they are delighting in their business and not in the beauty of
their God. He does not rebuke their hedonism. He rebukes the
weakness of it. They have settled for secular interests and thus honor
them above the Lord.
Notice that calling the Sabbath “a delight”
is parallel to calling the holy day of the Lord “honorable.” This simply
means you honor what you delight in. Or you glorify what you enjoy.
The enjoyment and the glorification of God are one. His eternal purpose and our eternal pleasure unite.
Most of our readers would likely hold the view that the established media are full of guile and shameless. The profession of "reporter" or working in the media is pretty close to the barrel bottom scraping lows of politicians in the common mind. Not that you would notice in some quarters. The cult of celebrity has been steadily nurtured by the media and by politicians. The two slimy eels entwined symbiotically at the bottom of a greasy barrel is an apt metaphor for the two professions.
The fundamental problem with media and the personnel who work therein is disingenuousness. The self-image is one of professionalism--objective, neutral and unbiased--approaching the gravitas and disinterestedness of a judge. The reality is that the media are players in the ideological spectrum. They have axes to grind, and plenty of them.
The entire world of unbelief lies under the sway of the
wicked one. Given how the god of unbelief operates — which is through
accusation — it should not be surprising what kind of energy makes the
system go. That energy lies in the strength of accusation. The devil is
an accuser, accusing the saints day and night before the throne (Rev. 12:10). The name Satan means adversary, and he makes his accusations from behind the bench of a pretended righteousness. And a very indignant form of righteousness it is too.
Satanic religion is not a matter of severed goat heads, or guttering
candles on the floor of some goth teenager’s bedroom. Satanic religion
is self-righteous, and aspires to be holier than God (2 Cor. 11:15). When Satan tempted the Lord, one of the ways he did it was by showing him all the kingdoms of this world and their glory (Matt. 4:8). The devil was not in charge of some shantytown kingdom.
I hope no reader will suppose that ‘mere’ Christianity is here put
forward as an alternative to the creeds of the existing
communions. . . . . It is more like a hall out of which doors open into
several rooms. If I can bring anyone into that hall I shall have done
what I attempted. But it is in the rooms, not in the hall, that there
are fires and chairs and meals.
The hall is a place to wait in, a place
from which to try the various doors, not a place to live in. For that
purpose the worst of the rooms (whichever that may be) is, I think,
preferable. It is true that some people may find they have to wait in
the hall for a considerable time, while others feel certain almost at
once which door they must knock at. I do not know why there is this
difference, but I am sure God keeps no one waiting unless He sees that
it is good for him to wait.
When you do get into your room you will find
that the long wait has done you some kind of good which you would not
have had otherwise. But you must regard it as waiting, not as camping.
You must keep on praying for light: and, of course, even in the hall,
you must begin trying to obey the rules which are common to the whole
house. And above all you must be asking which door is the true one; not
which pleases you best by its paint and panelling. In plain language,
the question should never be: ‘Do I like that kind of service?’ but ‘Are
these doctrines true: Is holiness here? Does my conscience move me
towards this? Is my reluctance to knock at this door due to my pride, or
my mere taste, or my personal dislike of this particular door-keeper?’
When
you have reached your own room, be kind to those who have chosen
different doors and to those who are still in the hall. If they are
wrong they need your prayers all the more; and if they are your enemies,
then you are under orders to pray for them. That is one of the rules
common to the whole house.
We
are constantly being contacted by concerned parents and being asked our
opinion on the sex education curriculum in NZ schools.
