Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

November 07

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 men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful; unholy. —II Timothy 3:2

Devotional:
If any wrong be done us, if we sustain but the loss of a penny, we can quickly say, "What wickedness there is nowadays!" But if we have what we would desire, and no man trouble us, no man grieve us, we think all is well.

But though the honor of God be trodden under foot, all honesty completely banished, and men become as brute beasts, it is all the same to us, as long as we sustain no hurt nor damage.

And yet if we are God's children, we must needs taste what he has showed us here by his Spirit, that though all things go as we desire, with respect to the goods of this world, we must not cease for all that to sigh and be grieved unless God be served and there be good order and sin be kept in check as it ought to be.

Amazing Grace

Breaking the Cycle of Curse

Modern secular society has a fetish over youth.  Which is a way of saying that the preceding generation has lost self-respect.  There are few things more shameful than witnessing disrespect for elders.  One of them is elders taken in self-loathing who attempt to cope by falling into an egregious adulation of youth.  "We, in our generation, have failed miserably.  We have been terrible.  But the youth of today--well, to them belongs the future.  They are wonderful."  The adulation of youth serves as a pathetic attempt at atonement for the guilt of a generation which rebelled against God, but discovered when it was all too late that things had not worked out so well.

Jonah Goldberg describes it this way:

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

Political, Not Partisan

Posted on Saturday, November 2, 2013  

By Douglas Wilson 

Blog and Mablog 

Scripture tells us that in our assemblies, when we come together, we should pray for “kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty” (1 Tim. 2:2). This is something we regularly do in our worship service. But when it comes down to it, we also need to vote in the same direction as our prayers, and this next Tuesday is a time when it does come down to it.

As you know, it is not my place, from this pulpit, to urge you to vote for candidate x or candidate y. Vote for Murphy, or vote for Schultz, have no place here. The pulpit must never become a place for factional politics, or partisanship. At the same time, the presence of the Church in the world is inescapably political, and this means that if we do not draw the charge of partisanship, we are not doing our job. If we are not drawing the charge of license, we are not really preaching grace. If we are not drawing the charge of fatalism, we are not really preaching God’s rule over all things. So then, in the same way, if the political presence of the Church in the world makes no political difference to those given over to partisanship, then we are not fulfilling our calling rightly.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

November 06

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:
As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty: but they made the images of their abominations and of their detestable things therein: therefore have I set it far from them. —Ezekiel 7:20

Devotional:
Whatever God has given to men is a testimony of his paternal favor; therefore God's liberality abounds in us when he enriches us with his gifts.

If therefore riches are a glory and ornament, so also are bodily health, and honors, and things of this kind. Since therefore God wishes his favor to be conspicuous in all his gifts, by which he adorns and marks men out, the Prophet properly says that the Jews were adorned with gold and silver. But he accuses them of ingratitude, because they turned such glory into pride.

The Jews made their images, which were so many abominations before God, out of gold and silver.

Hypocritical Cant

So, What's Wrong With . . . ?

We have all heard of "convenient Christians"--folk who seek to maintain a Christian façade when it is socially, politically, or personally convenient to do so.  But, it is all part of acting out a persona.  Such people are rightly called hypocrites, an epithet of disdain.

But far more common, yet equally despicable is the hypocrisy of Unbelievers.  It is impossible to describe adequately the tawdry hypocrisy of Unbelievers prattling on about this evil and that wrong whilst they know--and we all know--they don't believe a word of it.  Oh, maybe they tell themselves they are true born again believers, who detest whatever particular ignominy of the day.  But in truth they have no foundation, no principles, and no ethics upon which their high dudgeon can be sustained.  At best it manifests mere cant.

Since Unbelievers reject the Living God, anything is possible and acceptable in principle.  Anything which is allegedly not acceptable or wrong or immoral is not actually, for "wrong" and "immorality" have no ultimate or operational meaning.  What is "wrong" to one is "right" to another.  One man's treasure is another's rubbish.  Who knows?  Who cares? 

We suspect that more than the odd couple know this to be the case.  That is why Unbelievers are so shrill about their moralities and their principles and their ethics.

Letter From America (About a Clueless President)

Obama: The Myth of the Master Strategist

His poor maneuvering before and after the Obamacare rollout shows that he’s not three moves ahead.

By Jonah Goldberg

November 1, 2013 12:00 AM

National Review Online

 

Often in error but never in doubt, Barack Obama could walk into the Rose Garden and step on a half-dozen rakes like Foghorn Leghorn in an old Looney Tunes cartoon, and the official line would be, “He meant to do that.”

And the amazing thing is that so many people believe it. “Mr. Obama is like a championship chess player, always several moves ahead of friend and foe alike. He’s smart, deft, elegant and subtle,” proclaimed then–New York Times columnist Bob Herbert in 2009. It’s an image of the president that his biggest fans, in and out of the press, have been terribly reluctant to relinquish — because it confirms the faith they invested in him. Nobody ever likes to admit they were suckered.

But the fiction of Obama as a man three steps ahead has taken a terrible beating if you have eyes to see it.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

November 05

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 when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: —John 16:8

Devotional:
"He will convince the world." It ought to be observed that in this passage Christ does not speak of secret revelations, but of the power of the Spirit, which appears in the outward doctrine of the Gospel, and in the voice of men.

For how does it come that the voice proceeding from the mouth of a man penetrates into the hearts, takes root there, and at length yields fruit, changing hearts of stone into hearts of flesh, and renewing men, but because the Spirit of Christ quickens it? Otherwise it would be a dead letter and a useless sound, as Paul says in that beautiful passage in which he boasts of being a minister of the Spirit (II Cor. 3:6), because God powerfully wrought in his doctrine.

Branding Matters

Getting Our "Positioning" Right

New Zealand has a problem with youth suicides.  There are too many of them.  Way too many.  We posted recently that a national newspaper had this to say:

The deaths from the Taupo Bay area in the Far North follow the Herald on Sunday's reports on a similar cluster [of youth suicides) in Kawerau two years ago. These, and the country's relentlessly high suicide rate, are now prompting calls for a nationwide suicide prevention publicity programme similar to that used to combat depression - and for government funding to be more effectively targeted.

The secular world is finds itself in serious in conflict over young people taking their own lives.  On the one hand there is this brute reality that every fibre of our being screams out that it is wrong. But, on the other hand, secular amorality also insists that there can be nothing immoral or unethical about the act itself.  So we are filled with pity and guilt without any ethical warrant.  We are all dressed up with nowhere to go.  We know we are sad, but unsure whether we ought to be.

Letter From America (About Presidential Prevarications)

A Phalanx of Lies

Remember that health insurance you could keep?

By Mark Steyn

November 1,  2013 8:30 PM

National Review Online

 

CNN has been pondering what they call “a particularly tough few days at the White House.” “Four out of five Americans have little or no trust in their government to do anything right,” says chief political analyst Gloria Borger. “And now Obama probably feels the same way.” Our hearts go out to him, poor wee disillusioned thing.

We are assured by the headline writers that the president was “unaware” of Obamacare’s website defects, and the NSA spying, and the IRS targeting of his political enemies, and the Justice Department bugging the Associated Press, and pretty much anything else you ask him about. But, as he put it, “nobody’s madder than me” at this shadowy rogue entity called the “Government of the United States” that’s running around pulling all this stuff. And, once he finds out who’s running this Government of the United States rogue entity, he’s gonna come down as hard on him as he did on that videomaker in California; he’s gonna send round the National Park Service SWAT team to teach that punk a lesson he won’t forget.

Gloria Borger and CNN seem inclined to swallow the line that the president of the United States is not aware that he is president of the United States.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

November 04

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

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

Bible Text:
Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. —I Timothy 6:12

Devotional:
Therefore as God was not moved to give us hope of our salvation for any goodness that he saw in us, but because it pleased him, and pleased him of his mere mercy, so when he goes on still to guide us, until we be come to the haven of salvation, he does it because it pleases him. This is the cause of the free calling of God towards us continually; so that men are beaten down here and cannot rejoice in themselves in that it is said that we must make an end of our salvation.

Thus God does not want us to be idle, but, notwithstanding, our activity must be with fear and trembling. And why? Because it is God who works in us, giving us the will, giving us the effect, and everything else according to his good pleasure.

Let us do the best we can, but without presumption, without pride. Let us not think that we can do so well as to merit anything, or that man is worthy to be exalted against God; for by this means the grace of God would be darkened and made to be nothing. —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.

Worthy Heirs

Integrating Into Folly

Self-destruction is always lurking at the edges of Unbelief.  Then, unexpectedly, it can capture the whole shooting box and what seemed so influential, so compelling slips away "not with a bang, but a whimper".  Here are a couple of prosaic examples.  The first is the soon-to-be-elected Mayor of New York City. 

Now we all know that NY City weighs in heavily at the "progressive", left-wing end of the spectrum.  What is known as the "loony left" has always found plenty of kindred spirits in that place.  How else could Nanny Bloomberg have been tolerated for so long?  Now he is about to be replaced by someone much more loony.  Robert Wargas, writing in The Telegraph, profiles the city's next mayor.

Letter From the UK (About US Spying and the Vatican)

US 'spied on future Pope Francis during Vatican conclave'

NSA spied on the future Pope Francis before and during the Vatican conclave at which he was chosen to succeed Benedict XVI 

The Telegraph 

By Nick Squires, Rome

6:35PM GMT 30 Oct 2013

[The unwarranted indiscriminate snooping and spying on phone and electronic conversations by the United States on anyone it chooses appears to be expanding by the month.  Now we learn that the US spied on the Vatican during the time of selecting a new pope. Ed]

The National Security Agency spied on the future Pope Francis before and during the Vatican conclave at which he was chosen to succeed Benedict XVI, it was claimed on Wednesday. The American spy agency monitored telephone calls made to and from the residence in Rome where the then Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio stayed during the conclave, the secret election at which cardinals chose him as pontiff on March 13.

The claims were made by Panorama, an Italian weekly news magazine, which said that the NSA monitored the telephone calls of many bishops and cardinals at the Vatican in the lead-up to the conclave, which was held amid tight security in the Sistine Chapel.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

November 02

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:
He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. —John 3:18

Devotional:
We are reminded how acceptable and precious a sacrifice in the sight of God faith is. As nothing is more dear to him than his truth, so we cannot render to him more acceptable worship than when we acknowledge by our faith that he is true, for then we ascribe that honor which truly belongs to him.

On the other hand, we cannot offer to him a greater insult than not to believe the Gospel; for he cannot be deprived of his truth without taking away all his glory and majesty. His truth is in some sort closely linked with the Gospel, and it is his will that there it should be recognized. —Commentaries

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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.

Escapees From the Welfare Trap

Progress and Accomplishment

The New Zealand government is engaged in a programmed campaign to get people off public welfare and back to work.  Opposition parties play the guilt-and-pity card constantly in the Parliament these days.  By their lights, untold suffering has fallen upon legions of victims as a result of these benighted policies.

For our part, as grass roots level, we are seeing lots of positive fruit.  Even something as simple as an official expectation of returning to work and getting off welfare is paying dividends. "You have to get a job" is a revolutionary, and liberating message at the local welfare office. Stuff carries a case study to illustrate the quiet revolution that has begun and continues to gather momentum.  In this particular case it was self-motivation that made the difference.  But the wider social and government expectations would no doubt have strengthened the resolve.

Daughter's words motivate mum to get off benefits

HARRY PEARL

Last updated 05:00 26/10/2013

A 9-year-old's comment about how "cool" it was to be on a benefit has changed a Huntly woman's life.  Until six months ago, Judy Wilson was one of about 80,000 sole parents in New Zealand receiving a benefit.  She was devoted to raising her six children but, in her own words, she was also drinking, smoking, and not doing "anything".  And she had been for close to 20 years. 

Six children being paid for by the taxpayer.  Solo-parenthood as a lifestyle choice.  These not-untypical-cases have been consigned to the very back of the closet by the welfarists.

Letter From Australia (About Climate Clowns)

Australia's Ablaze with Climate Clowns

Tim Blair
The Daily Telegraph
October 28, 2013 12:00AM

 AUSTRALIA is a deeply puzzling land, especially to foreign media types. Even basic geography is sometimes a cause of bewilderment. For example, in 2011 Britain's Daily Mail tried to depict the extent of that year's Queensland floods with a helpful map of eastern Australia. This isn't a particularly difficult cartographic assignment, but the Mail managed to get it wrong, inventing the brand new state of Capricornia to Queensland's north.
 
The current NSW fires have prompted similar blunders. Last week the US television network NBC ran a graphic intended to show the range of the fires. They turned out to be far more extensive than anyone in Australia was aware.

NBC may have sourced their information from a Geoscience Australia monitoring site that lists hazard reduction burns and other non-threatening fires along with the massive conflagrations throughout NSW. The result was a graphic showing almost the entire northwest of Australia covered with flames. Darwin hasn't seen the likes of this since the Japanese bombing in World War II. Poor Capricornia copped it again as well. So did arid desert areas, which apparently now feature rare combustible dirt.

Elementary geographic and factual errors are one thing. It gets worse when ignorant outsiders lecture us about our own country.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

November 01

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:
Saint Paul shows that when God published his law he had before his eyes a certain end at which we also must aim; and when we do so, we shall have the true life of the law; it shall not be a dead letter to us; and not that only, but having the pure knowledge of what is contained in it, we shall be quickened.

What we have to gather from the law is, in sum, love out of a pure heart and out of a good conscience, and faith unfeigned.

Teenage Suicides

The Crown of Secular Amorality

New Zealand has one of the highest youth suicide rates in the developed world. Often-times these appear as "outbreaks"--a cluster of suicides occurring in small communities.  The working assumption is that the news spreads amongst the small community by word of mouth, Chinese whispers, social media, and conversations around the dinner table.  Everyone knows, but no-one talks about it.

The latest spate of youth suicides (five so far, one as young as ten years old) have occurred in Taupo Bay  in the far north.  They follow a similar outbreak in Kawerau two years ago.  The tragedy is palpable.  The stupidity and senselessness of the suicides overwhelming.  The cold, hard reality is that there was nothing in these young lives so discouraging or so bad to justify such gross actions.  That they thought there was indicates that these kids had departed from the realms of reality and truth and had entered a destructive fantasy realm.  The realm in which so many of their parents live and in which our society glories.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow (About Ted Cruz)

Clean Up to His Neck

Posted on Thursday, October 24, 2013  

By Douglas Wilson

Blog and Mablog

In Washington these days, in order to get anything done, you have to go along to get along, roll a few logs, scratch a few backs, and trade a few horses. But then, in order to get anything worthwhile done, you have to make everybody who matters angry. This is precisely what Ted Cruz has done.

There will be many inside the Beltway who will now insist that we must not learn the obvious lesson of these last few weeks. Washington is crammed full of people who need to learn something, and their entire livelihood and way of life depend upon them not learning it.This is why they are so slow on the uptake. They are not deficient when it comes to native intelligence. They are not lacking wit; they are lacking in motivation. We pay them trillions to stay unmotivated, and so we get what we pay for.

So step back and look at the events of the last month or so.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 31

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:
Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? —Isaiah 53:1

Devotional:
Isaiah does not include merely the men of his own time, but all posterity to the end of the world; for, so long as the reign of Christ shall endure, this must be fulfilled; and therefore believers ought to be fortified by this passage against such a scandal. These words refute the ignorance of those who think that faith is in the power of every person, because preaching is common to all.

Though it is sufficiently evident that all are called to salvation, yet the Prophet expressly states that the external voice is of no avail, if it be not accompanied by a special gift of the Spirit. And whence proceeds the difference, but from the secret election of God, the cause of which is hidden in himself? —Commentaries

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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.

Beria Had His Good Points

We're The Good Guys 

The latest revelations about the UK spying programme are worrying indeed.  They demonstrate just how quickly a so-called Western liberal state can morph into a institution of sinister countenance.

To be sure, both the Left and the Right in Western liberal democracies have had their respective versions of conspiracy.  The Left version has plutocratic capitalists perverting good and just government for pecuniary advantage.  The Right version has secret societies of Marxist bent infiltrating government agencies to work their poison.  Both versions have been pretty whacko at times.  Now, however, reality is trumping weird fiction.

Along came 9/11.  Suddenly, the threat from conspirators became vivid and tangible.

Letter From America (Ask the Saudis)

Henninger: Obama's Credibility Is Melting

Here and abroad, Obama's partners are concluding they cannot trust him. 

Oct. 23, 2013 7:14 p.m. ET
Wall Street Journal


The collapse of ObamaCare is the tip of the iceberg for the magical Obama presidency.

From the moment he emerged in the public eye with his 2004 speech at the Democratic Convention and through his astonishing defeat of the Clintons in 2008, Barack Obama's calling card has been credibility. He speaks, and enough of the world believes to keep his presidency afloat. Or used to.

All of a sudden, from Washington to Riyadh, Barack Obama's credibility is melting.

Amid the predictable collapse the past week of HealthCare.gov's too-complex technology, not enough notice was given to Sen. Marco Rubio's statement that the chances for success on immigration reform are about dead. Why? Because, said Sen. Rubio, there is "a lack of trust" in the president's commitments.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 30

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:
Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: —John 12:42

Devotional:
"Nevertheless, many even of the rulers believed on him." The murmuring and fierceness of the Jews, in rejecting Christ, having risen to such a height of insolence, it might have been thought that all the people, without exception, conspired against him. But the Evangelist says that amidst the general madness of the nation, there were many who were of a sound mind. A striking instance, truly, of the grace of God; for when ungodliness has once prevailed, it is a sort of universal plague, which infects with its contagion every part of the body.

It is therefore a remarkable gift, and special grace of God, when, amidst a people so corrupt, there are some who remain untainted.

New World Order

Playing the Long Game

Never has so much been promised to so many and been delivered to so few.  When He Who is So Smarter Than Ordinary Men was voted in to the office of the US presidency, Obama promised a new world to--well--the world.  Gone would be the histrionics of previous administrations, the faux risks, the needless wars, the brittle alignments, the rhetoric about Axes of Evil.  Instead a new world of sweet reasonableness would break out.  Big Bully US would become a polite chap in the corner. 

But President Obama has become about as imperious as its possible to get--at least in terms of attitude and in the conducting of foreign affairs.  Well, it's understandable really.  When you are by far and away the smartest guy in the room, having to put up with a bunch of under-achieving dullards would strain the patience of your average demi-god. 

It has been noised about recently that every traditional US ally in the Middle East is fed up with Obama and his government.  He has managed to offend them all.

Letter From Australia (About Deadly Greenist Policies)

Why Greenies Only Make Me See Red

Miranda Devine
The Daily Telegraph
October 23, 2013 12:00AM

BILL Leak, acclaimed cartoonist, lives in one of the loveliest places in Australia: Killcare, on the Central Coast. 

  But one of the consequences of living in the middle of the Australian bush is fire.  And in pretty seachange and treechange communities, you're likely to find yourself in a greenie council dominated by refugees from the city who haven't a clue about the real dangers of living among trees.

So it is that at the start of a dangerous bushfire season, Leak finds himself with a backyard full of trees and flammable material that he is forbidden to clear by Gosford Council on threat of fines as high as $1.1 million.
"Here I am, living on the edge of bushland that could burst into flame at any time, and I'm not allowed to clear the land in my own backyard of trees that, in the event of a fire, will bring the fire straight into my home," he says.

Council flora preservation policies warn that the removal of any native tree over 3m can attract hefty fines.
This "puts homes like mine in grave danger: the refusal of local councils to allow home owners to remove trees that can extend the bushland right up to our own back doors," Leak says.  "The only possible explanation for this is the council is hell-bent on securing Green votes. I'll accept, albeit unwillingly, the indulgence of Greens fantasies up to a point but if and when they cost me my house I think I'll have to say, 'A line has been crossed'."

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 29

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:
Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us. —Psalm 123:2

Devotional:
"Behold! as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters." This similitude is very suitable to the present case. It implies that without the protection of God true believers have no comfort, are completely disarmed, and exposed to all manner of wrongs, have neither strength nor courage to resist; in short, that their safety depends entirely upon aid derived from another.

Annals of Soft Depostism

Worthy Mockery

In the Annals of Soft-Despotism we lampoon the pathetic works of the all-nannying-state.  This, we remind our readers, is the dominant idolatry of the post-Christian West.  Whereas once men looked to God and His providence to sustain their lives and provide for them, sophisticated moderns now look to the State, as their vaunted secular deity.  The Living God is so passe, so medieval, so primitive.  We are all moderns now and we worship a new shiny god--one we have made ourselves, in our own image.

God, however, sits in the heavens and mocks the rebellious kings of the earth.  This includes Western secular governments, due to their vain attempts to shake of the bonds and cords of God, their Creator.

He who sits in the heavens laughs;
the Lord holds them in derision.
Then he will speak to them in his wrath
and terrify them in his fury. (Psalm 2: 4,5)

Behold the wonders of the vast realms of the secularists and their idol.  John Stewart, himself a public acolyte of secularism and statism,  leads us in a hymn of adoration--in this case, to the demi-god Obama and the idolatrous realm of the Federal Government.  The problem: the god is trying to provide health care.  Will the wonders never cease?  Stewart and his followers are miffed because their god has disappointed them, failed them. 

Let the derisive lampooning proceed:

Disingenuous European Politicians

European Parliament: Defeated LGBT-Lobby licking its wounds

Posted on | October 22, 2013 

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

Turtle Bay and Beyond

 

In the aftermath of their spectacular defeat on the Estrela Report, the homosexualist-abortionist Members of the European Parliament use their internet outlet to inform about their view of the unexpected – and, from their point of view, most undesired – outcome.

What I find particularly remarkable is the following part of their analysis:

“Religious and political conservatives lobbied intensely against this report with outright lies. They wrongly said, for instance, that the report would force Member States to change abortion rules, or include mandatory teaching about masturbation to 0-4 year-olds.”

Well, of course it was clear to everyone that the report, having no legally binding effect, could never force Member States to change abortion rules, or impose mandatory rules about teaching masturbation to 0-4 year olds.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

October 28

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 not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; —Psalm 46:2

Devotional:
"Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed." He concludes by way of inference that the faithful have no reason to be afraid, since God is always ready to deliver them, nay, is also armed with invincible power.

He shows in this that the true and proper proof of our hope consists in this, that, when things are so confused, that the heavens seem as it were to fall with great violence, the earth to remove out of its place, and the mountains to be torn up from their very foundations, we nevertheless continue to preserve and maintain calmness and tranquillity of heart.

It is an easy matter to manifest the appearance of great confidence, so long as we are not placed in imminent danger; but if, in the midst of a general crash of the whole world our minds continue undisturbed and free of trouble, this is an evident proof that we attribute to the power of God the honor which belongs to him.

Encouraging Signs

Not Yet Living Within Our Means, But Progress Nonetheless

And now, a good news story.  One of the things that has bedevilled the New Zealand economy for decades is the dearth of capital.  As a nation which has practised "socialism without doctrines", as historian Michael Bassett put it, we have not saved, nor valued, nor husbanded sufficient capital.  Why save, when the state taxes and distributes, with the goal of creating cradle to the grave security? 

Consequently, the Balance of Payments has run at a deficit for a long, long time.  This econometric statistic measures whether NZ Inc is trading at a surplus or deficit, whether as a nation it is making more than it spends, or whether it is relying upon others outside New Zealand to fund our lifestyles in aggregate.  The perpetual deficit is a record of our having become accustomed to living standards way beyond our national means. 

Gradually this situation is changing.

Sir Lecturealot

Disappointed Fan

Maureen Dowd, Op Ed columnist for the New York Times, is presenting herself as someone once in love, but now realising that her spouse has flaws and faults after all.  The romance is slip slidin' away.

Cat on a Hot Stove

By MAUREEN DOWD

Published: October 19, 2013  
New York Times

WASHINGTON — PRESIDENT OBAMA won big.

So why did the moment feel so small? 

At his victory scold in the State Dining Room on Thursday, the president who yearned to be transformational stood beneath an oil portrait of Abraham Lincoln and demanded . . . a farm bill. He also couldn’t resist taking a holier-than-thou tone toward his tail-between-their-legs Tea Party foes. He assumed his favorite role of the shining knight hectoring the benighted: Sir Lecturealot. 

“All of us need to stop focusing on the lobbyists and the bloggers and the talking heads on radio and the professional activists who profit from conflict,” he sermonized. (We have met the enemy and they are . . . bloggers?) 

Certainly, the House Republicans who held their breath until the country turned blue acted like foolhardy children on what John McCain called “a fool’s errand.”  The country agreed. So it probably wasn’t necessary for papa to preach, overacting the role of weary parent watching the irresponsible kids make their mistakes.