Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 26

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

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

Bible Text:
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, —Ephesians 1:18

Devotional:
We clearly perceive how utterly destitute man is of every good, and in want of all the means of salvation. Wherefore, if he seek for relief in his necessities, he must go out of himself, and obtain it from some other quarter.

It has been stated also that the Lord voluntarily and liberally manifests himself in his Christ, in whom he offers us all blessedness instead of our misery, and wealth instead of our poverty; in whom he opens to our view the treasures of heaven, that our faith may be wholly engaged in the contemplation of his beloved Son, that all our expectation may depend on him, and that in him all our hope may rest and be fully satisfied.

This, indeed, is that secret and learned philosophy which cannot be extracted from syllogisms; but is well understood by those whose eyes God has opened, that in his light they may see light.

Letters from the US (On Education)

 Desperation Drives Change

Why do we strongly favour of charter schools?  Because they represent the breaking up of government monopolies.  This is positive for two reasons.  Firstly, it represents in part the crumbling of the soft-despotic state, which is the dominant idolatry of our age.  Secondly, the all embracing, all regulating, all providing state represents a stupid overreach which becomes inevitably racked by incompetence and failure. This opens  opportunities for education to make significant progress and increase its positive impact upon the community.

Communism in the Soviet Union failed to deliver on its promises.  It built huge department stores and shops, stocked with nothing or very little.  It suffered crop failure for sixty-five years, which it blamed on inclement weather.  One of the few things which actually increased and grew in the Soviet Union throughout that time was the length of lines of people queuing up to buy food.  In a state education system there will be many achievements, but few of an educational nature.  In the end the system will break down through the necessary incompetence of the government operating in spheres beyond its competence and proper duty.

Charter schools are non-government controlled; they offer better educational results simply because they are free to excel, rather than being bound to comply with nanny-state.  Bad or inadequate charter schools fail and go out of existence, being overtaken by better schools--just like any other service business.  Bad or inadequate government schools usually linger on in the twilight for decades, cocooned and protected by Nanny, whilst educational progress stultifies.. 

A couple of recent articles on charter schools in the US illustrate the hugely positive impact they are having on the education industry in some cities and states.  The first example is New Orleans.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

Like a Muddied Spring

Posted on Saturday, October 19, 2013  

By Douglas Wilson 

Blog and Mablog

Some questions have arisen in the course of my recent posts on the responsibility of Christian leaders to know where the central evil in our day resides.

In a recent exchange, I said there are many, many bad Republicans, and no good Democrats. I should have made clear in saying this that I was talking about our options on the ballot, and not about the character of every last person in the electorate.

I also promised one commenter that I needed to develop further why there is a discrepancy between how I treat Christians who support Republicans and Christians who support someone like Obama. It is a difference made necessary by the hypocrisy of the Republican establishment, and the sincerity of the true blues in the back ranks who actually believe the party platform.

If you have two political parties, say, and one of them is formally and overtly dedicated to the proposition that every pregnant woman has a constitutional right to kill her baby, and that people who question this are filled with hate. And say that the other party is formally dedicated to the proposition that this practice of abortion should be outlawed. Suppose further that this second party is riddled with hypocrisy, and a bunch of the leaders would happily join forces with the murderous party if they could. But they cannot afford to show their true colors because they have a heavy constituency that is not hypocritical on this issue at all, and genuinely and sincerely wants to outlaw the killing of babies.

Now it can be morally culpable to believe the pro-life protestations of a hypocrite, but that is not nearly as culpable as supporting a man who says outright that the killing must continue. Obama says, as a matter of he thinks is principle, that a million Americans a year must continue to have their lives sacrificed on the altars of our lusts. Only he calls it rights, not lusts. Millions of evangelical Christians supported him, voted for him, and were grateful to God for his election.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 25

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

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

Bible Text:
Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: —I Timothy 1:5

Devotional:
Now let us fall down before the face of our good God, acknowledging our faults, desiring him that it would please him to cleanse us, and touch us so to the quick that we may learn to renounce whatever is of this world and of our flesh, and that we may take pains to come to him; yea, and that in such a sort that he may receive us as his children.

And seeing it has pleased him to bring us to faith, by the knowledge of his truth, that it would please him to guide us even to the end, and hold us fast by the hand, that we never may be turned away from his holy calling. —Sermons

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John Calvin was the premier theologian of the Reformation, but also a pious and godly Christian pastor who endeavored throughout his life to point men and women to Christ. We are grateful to Reformation Heritage Books for permission to use John Calvin's Thine Is My Heart as our daily devotional for 2013 on the OPC Web site. You can currently obtain a printed copy of that book from Reformation Heritage Books.

Greenist Complicity in Australian Bush Fires

From Another Planet

Australia is facing another bush fire crisis, this time in New South Wales.  It's serious.  News announcers are sonorously blaming high temperatures (typical for Australia) and strong winds (also de rigueur).  But something is missing.  In order to have bush fires, there has to be another ingredient.  Fuel.  But, you will object, why state the obvious?  Clearly the bush represents fuel, non? 

Ah, yes.  But there is bush fuel and bush fuel.  And there is much more of the latter kind than there once was.  Prior to greenism taking over the hearts and minds of Australians, bush fires used to be combated by a diversified strategy--like any good war.  One key method was to keep roads or tracks into the bush maintained, allowing effective access for firefighters.  Another was to allow cattle to graze in the bush.  Another was to put the bush to the match to conduct controlled burn offs.  The objective was to reduce the wooden detritus of the bush on the ground which, if allowed to build up naturally, becomes perfect fuel for fires.  A bush tinderbox.  Active prevention reduced the risks.

All that has gone by the wayside, courtesy of greenist folly.  Piers Akerman, recently wrote the following in the Daily Telegraph:

Letter From Europe (About Compulsory Child Abuse)

European Parliament: extremist “sexual health and rights” report to promote compulsory child abuse

Posted on | October 18, 2013 

By J.C. von Krempach, J.D.

Turtle Bay and Beyond

Dear Friends, in a recent post we informed you about an “own-initiative-report” on “sexual and reproductive health and rights” that will be voted at next week’s plenary session at the European Parliament. We informed you of the dangerous content of this draft report, which seeks inter alia to turn abortion into a “human right”, subverts the freedom of conscience of medical practitioners, negates the role of parents as primary educators of their children, and the right of children to know their biological parents.

MEP Edite Estrela: does she know what she is proposing?

All this is of course not new. Indeed, when the radical gay-plus-abortion-lobby pulls all is forces together to set up a wish-list, the outcome is foreseeable, and no one should be surprised about it.

It is only upon a second, more careful, reading that I have discovered how insidious this report really is. It is actually much worse than I ever expected, and I must give the author of the draft, the Portuguese radical-left MEP Edite Estrela, the benefit of doubt: probably even she is not fully aware of what she is proposing. And if she isn’t, then the vast majority of the (predominantly socialist, communist, green and liberal) Members of the European Parliament who plan to vote for this report are not aware either.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 24

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

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

Bible Text:
And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me; —Isaiah 49:2

Devotional:
The present question is not about the person of Christ, but about the whole body of the Church. We must indeed begin with the Head, but we must come next to the members; and to all the ministers of the Word must be applied what is here affirmed concerning Christ; for to them is given such efficacy of the Word, that they may not idly beat the air with their voices, but may reach the hearts and touch them to the quick.

Orwellian Prophecies

No Surprises There

All political ideologies, of whatever stripe, seek to control language and vocabulary.  George Orwell portrayed this so powerfully in 1984 and Animal Farm.  He coined the term "newspeak".  If you can legislate or require certain descriptors or nouns or verbs you can influence the way people think about issues.  You can shape the mind and opinion.

The use of the word "gay" as a noun substituting or replacing "homosexual" or "lesbian" is a classic example of modern newspeak.  Regrettably it has sullied a wonderful English adjective, and we are all the poorer for it.  Sometimes newspeak is so politicised and so connected to a government's policies an incoming administration will change some of the language of official communication and government administration to reflect its view of reality.

In Australia, the incoming Liberal Coalition is changing some nouns and adjectives used to denote folk arriving on Australian shores by boats (mainly), declaring themselves refugees and seeking asylum.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

A Tishbite at the National Prayer Breakfast

Posted on Friday, October 18, 2013  

By Douglas Wilson 

Blog and Mablog

 

I would like to follow up on my two previous posts found here and here with a few additional comments.
Political engagement is messy, and so welcome to planet earth. When actual political controversies are going on, they are . . . well, controversies. It takes backbone to get in there and fight. When you do that, people don’t like it.

When the controversies are over, one side won and memorials are built in honor of the victors. Sometimes the victors deserve the memorials and sometimes they don’t, but they always get them.

Now downstream, the Lord taught us that those most prone to appeal to the tombs of the prophets are the very same people who would have murdered those very prophets if given the opportunity.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 23

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

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

Bible Text:
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. —Isaiah 53:12

Devotional:
After all this, he adds: he prayed for the wicked. This is especially added to show that in his death and passion, Jesus Christ bore the priestly office. Without this we should not have everything necessary for the assurance of our salvation.

It is true that, since the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ is the sacrifice by which our sins are wiped out, his blood is our cleansing, the purpose of his obedience is to abolish all our rebellions and to win righteousness for us. We have something to rejoice at in this.

But it is not all; for we are told that when we call upon the name of God we shall be saved. But how can we have access to God? What boldness it is, to come to pray to him! yes, to call him plainly and openly our Father.

The Annals of Soft-Despotism

Potemkin Dialogues

In New Zealand we are familiar with the tools of propaganda-by-stealth.  The way it works is like this.  A government (usually left-wing in orientation) wants to move society towards its longer term goals.  In order to do so, it must persuade the electorate to where it becomes sympathetic with, and supportive of, its programme. 

Infiltrating the schools is an obvious method.  It can work, but unfortunately, it has a very long lead time.  Usually the current crop of politicians and government administrations have long since departed for the netherworld before the crop can be reaped.  More quick payback and progress is required.

In New Zealand the following method was employed by the previous Labour administration, led by Helen Clarke, a left-wing politician who had a very clear view of where she believed society should be heading.  Firstly, fund pressure groups whose ideology and sympathies are similar to your own.

Not So Definitive After All

Problems with scientific research

How science goes wrong

Scientific research has changed the world. Now it needs to change itself

The Economist

Oct 19th 2013

A SIMPLE idea underpins science: “trust, but verify”. Results should always be subject to challenge from experiment. That simple but powerful idea has generated a vast body of knowledge. Since its birth in the 17th century, modern science has changed the world beyond recognition, and overwhelmingly for the better.
But success can breed complacency. Modern scientists are doing too much trusting and not enough verifying—to the detriment of the whole of science, and of humanity.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 22

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

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

Bible Text:
Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. —Zechariah 1: 3

Devotional:
We must bear in mind that according to the common usage of Scripture, whenever God exhorts us to repentance, he does not regard what our capacity is, but demands what is justly his right.

Hence the Papists adopt what is absurd when they deduce the power of free-will from the command or exhortation to repent; God, they say, would not have commanded what is not in our power to do.

This is a foolish way of reasoning; for if everything which God requires were in our power, the grace of the Holy Spirit would be superfluous;

Too Polite to Mention

 Persecution of Islam On the Rise 

We often forget that Muslims are dying violent deaths every day.  Arguably, Islam is the most persecuted religion in the world.  But what is also forgotten is that Islam is also the most persecuting religion on the globe--and that its persecution is most often directed at fellow Muslims.  The world is exploding with Muslim upon Muslim violence: moreover, it is not just a recent phenomenon.  It is, however, a growing problem.  Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Afghanistan, and Pakistan have all experienced increasing Islamic persecution of Muslims this past year. 

Some have argued that this is due to a lack of unifying structures and authorities.

Letter From Australia (About Respek)

As a community, we owe each other respect

Andrew Bolt
Herald Sun
October 16, 2013 8:00PM

IS IT just that I've hit 54 and become more cranky? Or has the presumption of some people this week finally crossed a line? 
 
Sure, we've tolerated for an absurdly long time the pushy politicians, activists and special interests helping themselves to our wallets and our freedoms. Too rarely have they been called out for treating the rest of us as mere props or money-trees. Or as fools who'll accept rubbish excuses while the imposters just help themselves to what isn't theirs.

But this week we haven't just had former Labor president Michael Williamson plead guilty to defrauding his Health Service Union members of $1 million, on top of his $500,000 a year salary. We've also heard a cacophony of oinking and snuffling and bellowing from people with a truly outsized sense of entitlement and no seeming shame about it.

Some examples?

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 21

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

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

Bible Text:
Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. —Psalm 127:3

Devotional:
In order to set forth this blessing of God—to have offspring—in a clear light, Solomon commends a virtuous and generous disposition in children. The similitude introduced for this purpose is, that as an archer is armed with a well-furnished bow, so men are defended by their children, as it were with a bow and an arrow.

The Prophet means that those who are without children are in a manner unarmed; for what else is it to be childless but to be solitary? It is no small gift of God for a man to be renewed in his posterity; for God then gives him new strength, that he who otherwise would straightway decay, may begin as it were to live a second time.

It is also to be added that unless men regard their children as the gift of God, they are careless and reluctant in providing for their support, just as on the other hand this knowledge contributes to encourage them in bringing up their offspring.

The Annals of Soft-Despotism

Lies, Half-Truths, and Sheeple

The idea of preventative public health has been swallowed hook, line, and sinker by the Chattering Classes.  Intuitively it makes sense.  Tax payers fork out billions of scarce, hard-earned dollars paying for the health care of others.  The more healthy a person is, the less they will cost the public health system.  Therefore, spending on prevention (to stay healthy) saves public money in the long term.  So, frugality with the public purse is a powerful argument for spending gazillions on preventative health care.  Specious, but powerful.  Such are the days of ignorance in which we walk.

To the frugality argument is added a second powerful, emotive appeal.  Preventative health measures appear to save lives.  If one has a certain sub-set of genes, and if one avoids high carbohydrate diets topped with lashings of sugar, one will likely avoid obesity and its attendant health problems, such as Type II diabetes and heart attacks.  In New Zealand we have whole ethnic populations with such susceptibilities.  Clearly, eating more appropriately saves lives.  So, who could argue against preventative health?  It saves money and it saves lives. 

Here is one of the world's great prophets on the matter--President Obama:

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

Empty Pulpits or Full Churches?

Posted on Wednesday, October 16, 2013  

By Douglas Wilson 

Blog and Mablog

 

I would like to draw your attention to Brad Littlejohn’s rejoinder to my post here. That rejoinder is down in the comments. This was my post on how an Obama vote disqualifies a man from ministry. Thanks to Brad for the comments, and for the opportunity for me to follow up on my initial post.

First, I happily grant that being a practitioner of abortion and presiding over a nation in which it is legal to be such a practitioner are two very different things. But while they are very different, depending on the stance and outlook of the president, the morality of the two positions can overlap completely. There is a distinction between the man who does mischief himself (Ps. 10:7) and the man who frames mischief with a law (Ps. 94:20), but not a moral distinction.

The Hindu practice of suttee and the laws that allowed it to continue were very different, but equally wicked.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 19

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:
Set a watch, 0 Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips. —Psalm 141:3

Devotional:
Immediately thereafter he explains himself to mean, that he would not desire to strive with them in wickedness, and thus make himself like his enemies. Had that monk of whom Eusebius makes mention duly reflected upon this, he would not have fallen into that silly fallacy of imagining that he had shown himself the perfect scholar by observing silence for a whole term of seven years.

Hearing that the regulation of the tongue was a rare virtue, he betook himself to a distant solitude, from which he did not return to his master for seven years; and being asked the cause of his long absence, replied that he had been meditating upon what he had learned from this verse.

It would have been proper to have asked him at the same time whether during the interim he had thought nothing as well as spoken nothing. For the two things stand connected—being silent and being free from the charge of evil thoughts. It is very possible that although he observed silence, he had many ungodly thoughts, and these are worse than vain words.

A Sad Passing

In Memoriam: Greg King

The Christian world-view has a deep respect for defence lawyers.  To some this may come as a surprise, since often Christians are critical of governments and societies which no longer believe in retributive justice. How can these two positions be held in the same world-view?  Substantially both views are downstream currents flowing from a deeper truth: the universal depravity of the human race.

Usually, when Christians mention such a belief folks left, right, and centre become profusely vituperative.  They splenetically disgorge nonsensical accusations about Christians being "haters of the human race" (an ancient charge, being first recorded by Tacitus to justify Nero's persecution of Christians). But a moment's honest reflection usually suffices to set the record straight.  Who amongst us has never lost his temper?  Who has never told a lie?  The fact that such evils are so ordinary and commonplace as to be regarded as trivial and minor matters amongst us is proof of the universal extent and depth of our common depravity. 

Thus, Christians take crime and its right punishment very seriously.  But at the same time, the Christian world-view values highly competent, highly skilled defence lawyers.  How can these be reconciled?  Very easily.

Letter From the US (About Europe)

Europe Tries Welfare Reform

Even Scandinavians want to cut back on benefits to encourage growth.

By Michael Tanner

National Review Online

October 16, 2013 12:00 AM 

 

If Congress — once it reopens the government and gets back to its usual business of redistributing taxpayers’ money — has any interest in reforming our burgeoning welfare state, they might look, of all places, to Europe, where serious reforms are underway.

Leading the way is Great Britain. While in the United States the federal government funds 126 separate anti-poverty programs, 72 of which provide cash or in-kind benefits to individuals, Britain is consolidating its six major welfare programs (the jobseeker’s allowance, the income-support allowance, the employment-support allowance, the child tax credit, the working tax credit, and housing benefits) into a single grant.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 18

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

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

Bible Text:
O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. —Psalm 6:1

Devotional:
We see how thoughtless and insensible almost all men are on this subject; for while they cry out that they are afflicted and miserable, scarcely one among a hundred looks to the hand which strikes. From whatever quarter, therefore, our afflictions come, let us learn to turn our thoughts instantly to God, and to acknowledge him as the Judge who summons us as guilty before his tribunal, since we, of our own accord, do not anticipate his judgment.

David does not simply ascribe to God the afflictions under which he is now suffering, but acknowledges them to be the just recompense of his sins. He does not take God to task as if he had been an enemy, treating him with cruelty without any just cause; but yielding to him the right of rebuking and chastening, he desires and prays only that bounds may be set to the punishment inflicted upon him.

The Best and the Brightest

What The Fool Says in His Folly

The more the secularist investigates the universe by-his-lights, the more he is driven to meaninglessness.  Not despair necessarily.  Some optimistic secularists relish in the meaninglessness of the universe (or so they say) as a backdrop to their own glory.  "Sure all is meaningless; there is no point to any of it--but I choose to deny it; I refuse to bow to it.  I am like the titans of old.  I choose to live heroically, as if there is meaning in it all.  I shake my fist at the storm of  meaningless fate and declare my own grandeur."

Noble stuff.  Pathetic and useless, of course, but nevertheless a powerful testimony to the traitor in the room.  Human nature just cannot live consistently with itself when it propounds a secular, atheistic and materialistic world. 

Bertrand Russell, one of the more celebrated atheists in the middle decades of the previous century, painted graphically and realistically the materialist world-view:

Music and Hymns

Planning Ahead

Many years ago our young daughter explained how much she loved the hymn, "It is Well With My Soul".  She stipulated that she would like it to be sung at her funeral.  We suggested that it was far more likely in the ordinary providence of our Lord that she would be choosing the hymns at our funerals, not we at hers.  But it was a great choice, nonetheless.

Here is Sam Robson's a capella arrangement.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 17

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

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC website

Bible Text:
That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; —I Timothy 6: 14, 15

Devotional:
Unbelievers take us for fools and witless idiots; and Saint Peter says that this must be fulfilled in us. As Isaiah complained of it in his time, the Christians must endure the like at this day.

And in the meantime we see that we are afraid of very little things; if a mouse but run before our eyes, we are all amazed. And again, we are tied fast by the legs in this world, for when we see the pomp of earthly princes, when we see the boasting of the world, we are by and by possessed with a false judgment; we know no more what the kingdom of God means; we quite forget that.

And what is the cause of it? That we do not listen to what Saint Paul says here. For we might easily defy all these earthly principalities when they lift up themselves against God, if we were well persuaded that God is supreme Prince, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. If this were well imprinted on our minds, all the pelting trifles of this world would be nothing to astonish us.

New Human Rights Discovered

Giving Death Its Due

Well, we are really starting to cook with gas now.  The European Court of Human Rights has decided to rule on the matter of assisted suicide.  How come?

This judgment rests on the notion that suicide has acquired the quality of an individual right or freedom (§ 66), and so a deontological norm cannot impede its exercise: it is for the law to regulate, even if it is realised through the art of medicine.

In other words, since suicide is a human right, the state and the courts had better ensure that folk get to do it.  Failure to do so, to impede them, would be a breach of human rights.  Sickness, illness, physical decrepitude (a kind of deontological norm) has nothing to do with it.   Don't you just love that phrase: "deontological norm" to describe a rule, such as human affliction which is undermining quality of life.  Such afflictions, which are usually offered as justifying a person killing themselves, are irrelevant.  Killing oneself is a human right, a human freedom, you see. 

Now we perceive great benefits to come from this.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

Rabbits Should Know What Hawks Look Like

Posted on Monday, October 14, 2013 

By Douglas Wilson 

Blog and Mablog

I was talking with a friend about the political monkey house that is our time, and the subject moved to the condition of the church in all of this.

First, some ball park data. About one quarter of the electorate self-identifies as evangelical, and I am talking here about the white, born-again types. Please note that this is a kind of believer that is closer to what Gallup thinks an evangelical Christian is than the apostle Paul did, but it will do for the rough cut numbers. In 2012, about 21% of them voted for Obama. This works out to about 6.4 million. And that would include — unless I miss my guess — quite a few of their pastors.

So let me say the controversial thing first, albeit at a minimal level, explain briefly what I do not mean by it, and then briefly defend it. Any evangelical leader — by which I mean someone like a minister or an elder — who voted for Obama the second time, is not qualified for the office he holds, and should resign that office.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 16

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

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC website.

Bible Text:
For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. —Acts 1:5

Devotional:
That is frivolous which some gather out of this place, namely that the baptism of John and the baptism of Christ were different. For he does not dispute concerning baptism in this place, but only makes a comparison between the person of John and the person of Christ.

When John says that he baptized with water only, he does not reason of what sort his baptism was; but what he himself was, lest he should claim that to himself which was proper to Christ. As also the ministers in these days ought not to speak otherwise of themselves; but they must acknowledge Christ to be the author of all those things which they prefigure in the outward baptism, and leave nothing to themselves except only the outward administration.

Frogs in a Boiling Pot of Crime, Part VI

When Fifteenth is Better Than Third

Official crime statistics are one way to gauge the levels of criminality in a society.  But they can be misleading.  Official statistics represent what the police and courts have accomplished in dealing with crime.  They do not measure the actual incidence of crime in the society.

A lot of crime goes unreported.  Still more is reported, but is unable to be investigated because there are no witnesses, no leads.  A classic is the grabbed purse or wallet.  A snatch, run off, rip out the cash, dump the wallet anywhere.  Or, leaving one's wallet unattended for a fraction of a second in a bar and it can disappear, with no-one the wiser.  Unless witnesses can come forward to describe the offender and give details, very little can be done even to begin an investigation. 

Consequently, it is likely that official statistics substantially understate the incidence of crime.  But how substantially?

Letter From Australia (About Dinosaurs)

The Not-So-Lucky Country

PIERS AKERMAN
The Sunday Telegraph
October 12, 2013

[In New Zealand, the union movement has routinely criticised New Zealand for having wages set significantly lower than Australia.  Thousands of kiwis have crossed the ditch in search not only of employment, but of higher wages offered in that country.  But there is another side to the story.  Australia is starting to price itself out of world markets, due to its high wage policies.  Piers Akerman argues that you can blame the trade unions and the collusion of  big business--who have gone along to get along.  More fools them.  Ed.]

IF your son or daughter can't find an entry-level job in the restaurant or tourism industry as the school year comes to an end, you can blame the dinosaurs in the trade union movement, Labor's Fair Work commissioner Anne Gooley and Big Business.  Nothing chokes new employment in these areas more than Gooley's decision to ignore calls to alter the current job-destroying penalty rate regime and reject the argument for reduced employment costs and more jobs.