Mad Max in New Zealand

The Inter-Generational Tsunami of Violence and Dysfunction

We often hear claims about the breakdown of the nuclear family and the allegedly devastating effect it is having upon society.  No fault divorce has meant that husband and wife, father and mother are fluid relationships.  The state has intruded more and more upon families and family structures.  Parents have been told that if they discipline their children with an open-handed smack on  the child's hand or bottom they will be prosecuted by the State and have their children removed.  

This extremist measure--known as the Anti-Smacking Act--was passed with the objective of reducing family violence.  What it has actually done is help build a tsunami of violence that will roll over and engulf New Zealand society in about fifteen years time.  The problem is now inter-generational and self-perpetuating.  The state is incompetent to parent children for the simple reason that the state and its organs are not parents--a rather obvious reality which the state refuses to acknowledge.  Politicians and organs of state still assert with religious fervour that the government is indeed competent--all it needs is more taxpayers' money and it will morph into a genuine uber-parent.

What's it like on the front line?  The truth is starting to emerge in state schools.

Daily Meditation

Crucify Our Tempers

God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry?  Jonah 4:9

Charles H. Spurgeon

Anger is not always or necessarily sinful, but it has such a tendency to run wild that whenever it displays itself, we should be quick to question its character, with this enquiry, "Doest thou well to be angry?"

It may be that we can answer, "YES." Very frequently anger is the madman's firebrand, but sometimes it is Elijah's fire from heaven. We do well when we are angry with sin, because of the wrong which it commits against our good and gracious God; or with ourselves because we remain so foolish after so much divine instruction; or with others when the sole cause of anger is the evil which they do. He who is not angry at transgression becomes a partaker in it. Sin is a loathsome and hateful thing, and no renewed heart can patiently endure it. God himself is angry with the wicked every day, and it is written in His Word, "Ye that love the Lord, hate evil."

Far more frequently it is to be feared that our anger is not commendable or even justifiable, and then we must answer, "NO." Why should we be fretful with children, passionate with servants, and wrathful with companions? Is such anger honourable to our Christian profession, or glorifying to God? Is it not the old evil heart seeking to gain dominion, and should we not resist it with all the might of our newborn nature?

Many professors give way to temper as though it were useless to attempt resistance; but let the believer remember that he must be a conqueror in every point, or else he cannot be crowned. If we cannot control our tempers, what has grace done for us? Some one told Mr. Jay that grace was often grafted on a crab-stump. "Yes," said he, "but the fruit will not be crabs." We must not make natural infirmity an excuse for sin, but we must fly to the cross and pray the Lord to crucify our tempers, and renew us in gentleness and meekness after His own image.

Daily Devotional

Crucifying our Temper

"God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry?"
Jonah 4:9

Charles H. Spurgeon

Anger is not always or necessarily sinful, but it has such a tendency to run wild that whenever it displays itself, we should be quick to question its character, with this enquiry, "Doest thou well to be angry?" It may be that we can answer, "YES." Very frequently anger is the madman's firebrand, but sometimes it is Elijah's fire from heaven.

We do well when we are angry with sin, because of the wrong which it commits against our good and gracious God; or with ourselves because we remain so foolish after so much divine instruction; or with others when the sole cause of anger is the evil which they do. He who is not angry at transgression becomes a partaker in it. Sin is a loathsome and hateful thing, and no renewed heart can patiently endure it.  God himself is angry with the wicked every day, and it is written in His Word, "Ye that love the Lord, hate evil."

Far more frequently it is to be feared that our anger is not commendable or even justifiable, and then we must answer, "NO." Why should we be fretful with children, passionate with servants, and wrathful with companions? Is such anger honourable to our Christian profession, or glorifying to God? Is it not the old evil heart seeking to gain dominion, and should we not resist it with all the might of our newborn nature?

Many professors give way to temper as though it were useless to attempt resistance; but let the believer remember that he must be a conqueror in every point, or else he cannot be crowned. If we cannot control our tempers, what has grace done for us? Some one told Mr. Jay that grace was often grafted on a crab-stump. "Yes," said he, "but the fruit will not be crabs." We must not make natural infirmity an excuse for sin, but we must fly to the cross and pray the Lord to crucify our tempers, and renew us in gentleness and meekness after His own image.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

June 7

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Then was kindled the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the kindred of Ram: against Job was his wrath kindled, because he justified himself rather than God. —Job 32:2

Devotional:
If a man be angered by a fleshly passion, he has respect to himself, and intends to maintain himself. Again, if he shows special favor to his friends, this is respect of persons, and he is really seeking his own advancement. We should rather be angry with ourselves, if we desire God to recognize our anger and permit it.

And how is that done? It is when a man enters into his own conscience, and searches himself earnestly, and does not look at others as much as at himself, to condemn himself, and to fight against his own passions.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

A World of Right Reason 

Money, Love, Desire - On Scandal
Written by Douglas Wilson
Monday, 18 February 2013

When the apostle describes a generic condition of unbelief, it is interesting how he does it. When we lived in unbelief, what was the atmosphere we breathed continually?

"For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another" (Tit. 3:3).

For Paul, putting off the old man, the old way of being a human, involves shedding the snake skin of malicious snark. "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice" (Eph. 4:31). He says something very similar in Colossians. When we lived in the world of unbelief, all such things were natural. "But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth" (Col. 3:8).

This is not limited to the apostle Paul. It is not one of his personal hobby horses. James tells us that the spirit in us veers off toward envy (Jas. 4:5), but hastens to reassure us that God gives more grace. The implication is that apart from such grace, malice and envy are the normal default settings for us.

Meditation on the Text of the Week

The Glory of Being Slow

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak,slow to anger.
James 1:19

God is:

Exodus 34:6
"The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, 'The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.'"

Numbers 14:18
"The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation."

Nehemiah 9:17
"You are a God ready to forgive,gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them."

Psalm 86:15
"But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness."

Psalm 103:8, Psalm 145:8
"The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love."

Psalm 145:8
"The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love."

Joel 2:13
"Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster."

Jonah 4:2
"That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster."

Nahum 1:3
"The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet."

Therefore:

Proverbs 14:29
"Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly."

Proverbs 15:18
"A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quiets contention."

Proverbs 16:32
"Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city."

Proverbs 19:11
"Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense."

James 1:19
"Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger."

This week's meditation on the text of the week has been provided by Justin Taylor and was originally posted on his blog, Between Two Worlds.