Daily Devotional

Prayer’s Exclamation Point

John Piper

All the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. (2 Corinthians 1:20)

Prayer is a response to promises, that is, to the assurances of God’s future grace.  Prayer is drawing on the account where God has deposited all his promises of future grace.  Prayer is not hoping in the dark that there might be a God of good intentions out there. Prayer goes to the bank every day and draws on promises for the future grace needed for that day.

Don’t miss the connection between the two halves of this great verse. Notice the “that is why”: “All the promises of God are Yes in Christ. That is why (therefore) we pray Amen through him, to God’s glory.”

To make sure we see it, let’s turn the two halves around: When we pray, we say Amen to God through Christ, because God has said Amen to all his promises in Christ. Prayer is the confident plea for God to make good on his promises of future grace for Christ’s sake. Prayer links our faith in future grace with the foundation of it all, Jesus Christ.

Which leads to the final point: “Amen” is a full and precious word in times of prayer. It doesn’t mean primarily, “Yes, I have now said all this prayer.” It means primarily, “Yes, God has made all these promises.”

Amen means, “Yes, Lord, you can do it.” It means, “Yes, Lord, you are powerful. Yes, Lord, you are wise. Yes, Lord, you are merciful. Yes, Lord, all future grace comes from you and has been confirmed in Christ.”

“Amen” is an exclamation point of hope after a prayer for help.

Floundering in A Self-Made Mire

Traps for Small Players

The once proud NZ Labour Party is becoming more of an embarrassment every day.  In this devolution and regression lies a cautionary tale.  You have to spare a thought for the Labour pollies.  Being in opposition in New Zealand's Westminster system of government can be a torturous experience, particularly if you are not the smartest pin in the cushion.

You sit in Parliament day after day about five metres away from the seats where real power resides.  You might as well be five kilometers away.   Everything is stacked against you.  As they say, one day on those Treasury benches is worth a thousand on the seats opposite.

The big challenge for opposition parties in the Parliament is to scrub up as a government in waiting. So often this thought rarely enters the collective head, and when it does, it usually lasts only until the next news cycle.  An old adage says that opposition parties don't win elections; the governing parties lose them.  Opposition parties in their haste and lust for power always forget this adage.  They thrash around trying to do something, and therein lies the tale.

The biggest temptation for Her Majesty's loyal opposition is to avoid magnifying problems to where the electorate reasonably ask it to proffer solutions.  At that point, electoral oblivion beckons.  That's the point Labour has reached now.

No Longer the "Land of the Free"

Courageous, Principled Christians Resist State Persecution

Billy Holloway
TheBlaze

A Christian florist who was sued and found guilty of discrimination after refusing to provide flowers for a same-sex wedding is continuing her fight for a religious accommodation, with the Washington Supreme Court recently agreeing to hear her case.

So, what’s the legal battle all about?

In essence, it’s yet another effort to strike a balance between the rights of religious wedding vendors and those of gays and lesbians seeking out said services. From scenarios involving bakers to photographers to florists, these legal conundrums continue to unfold and seem to be ramping up in the wake of the Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision that legalized gay marriage across the nation last year.

Attorneys for Barronelle Stutzman, the 71-year-old owner of Arlene’s Flowers in Richland, Washington, plan to argue that the florist’s right to decline making arrangements for gay weddings and to, thus, live out her Christian values are “robust” at both the state and federal level.

Daily Devotional

Why Has God Set His Love on His People?

TO MARY VAN DEUSEN: On God wanting us and not what we can do for God; and on our job to become more and more God’s.

C. S. Lewis

25 March 1954

I must be short for I have had a run of absolutely full days and there are endless things waiting to be done. You ask ‘for what’ God wants you. Isn’t the primary answer that He wants you. We’re not told that the lost sheep was sought out for anything except itself [Matthew 18:12-14; Luke 15:3-7]. Of course, He may have a special job for you: and the certain job is that of becoming more and more His. Yes, isn’t [William] Law good?

From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume III
Compiled in Yours, Jack

The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Volume III: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy 1950-1963. Copyright © 2007 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Yours, Jack: Spiritual Direction from C. S. Lewis. Copyright © 2008 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

The Tribe, the Whole Tribe, and Nothing But the Tribe

Union Malfeasance

Hindsight, we are told, is a wonderful thing.  Others have opined that hindsight is always 20-20 vision.  So you have to be reasonably restrained when considering a case like that of Robert Burrett.

Pukenui School in Te Kuiti tried to get rid of Burrett, its deputy principal, in 2001 because he was drunk, dishevelled and disorganised.  But according to board chair at the time Steve Parry, the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) made the process extremely difficult. [Stuff]

The teachers union ran interference.  The school's deputy principal was allegedly guilty of the "triple D", which must rank right up there with dismissal: he was drunk, dishevelled, and disorganised.  Nevertheless, the union ran interference for him.  Pretty effectively it would seem.

"They were quite evasive and defensive of the guy, and it frustrated us to a high level," Parry said. "Of course a person has rights and has to be protected, but they were really trying to make things confusing and difficult, they weren't really engaging in the problems we had."

So the union was acting like a Gridiron defensive blocker, running interference in the disciplinary process between the employer (the school) and the union member.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

Why the Future of Atheism is Bleak

Douglas Wilson
Blog&Mablog

What can you do when you hate someone who is completely, entirely, wholly, and necessarily out of range?

When it cannot strike at the Father God, He who dwells in unapproachable light, what can the rage of impotence do? There is really only one option, and that is to strike at an effigy. You cannot reach Him because He is the one who sits upon the circle of the earth. He pulls the heavens aside like they were a curtain, and He looks down upon a host of angry men — who all breathe through their noses — and He laughs.

So one of the oldest tricks in the book, when you cannot reach the detested king, is to burn that king in effigy. When you can’t get at the one you loathe, take it out on a picture.

We can see this in (at least) three ways.

Daily Devotional

Giving Alms to Christ Himself

"Remember the poor."
Galatians 2:10

Charles H. Spurgeon

Why does God allow so many of his children to be poor? He could make them all rich if he pleased; he could lay bags of gold at their doors; he could send them a large annual income; or he could scatter round their houses abundance of provisions, as once he made the quails lie in heaps round the camp of Israel, and rained bread out of heaven to feed them. There is no necessity that they should be poor, except that he sees it to be best.

"The cattle upon a thousand hills are his"--he could supply them; he could make the richest, the greatest, and the mightiest bring all their power and riches to the feet of his children, for the hearts of all men are in his control. But he does not choose to do so; he allows them to suffer want, he allows them to pine in penury and obscurity. Why is this?

There are many reasons: one is, to give us, who are favoured with enough, an opportunity of showing our love to Jesus. We show our love to Christ when we sing of him and when we pray to him; but if there were no sons of need in the world we should lose the sweet privilege of evidencing our love, by ministering in alms-giving to his poorer brethren; he has ordained that thus we should prove that our love standeth not in word only, but in deed and in truth.

If we truly love Christ, we shall care for those who are loved by him. Those who are dear to him will be dear to us. Let us then look upon it not as a duty but as a privilege to relieve the poor of the Lord's flock--remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

Surely this assurance is sweet enough, and this motive strong enough to lead us to help others with a willing hand and a loving heart--recollecting that all we do for his people is graciously accepted by Christ as done to himself.

Sparrow Excrescence

Fish Or Cut Bait

Poor Alan Duff.  He's pretty angry about religion--any religion.  Readers not from New Zealand may not know that Alan Duff is the author of the celebrated book (later a movie) Once Were Warriors.  It exposes the degradation of gang violence in New Zealand.  Alan doesn't like gang violence.  He does not like crime.  He also does not like child illiteracy.  He has spent a good deal of effort trying to encourage children to read.

It turns out that he does not like Jesus Christ, either.  Having announced that he is a devotee of Big Bang evolutionism, aka atheism, and a devoted disciple of Richard Dawkins, he derides the Christ.  He says of a visit to a cathedral in Bayonne:

I can't wait to get out of there as I feel such a hypocrite with thoughts of wondering how on earth Jesus Christ not only got away with his preposterous ideas but that they went on to become one of the great religions of the world.

If someone like Jesus turned up now, declaring himself the son of God, he'd be declared mentally unwell and given help. Except in America where they'd be hostile and the guy would be homeless. In a Muslim country he wouldn't last two minutes.  [NZ Herald]

He also cannot stand alleged hypocrites.

How did white Christian church-goers in America attend church every Sunday and the same - or any other - day dish out corporal punishment to their Negro slaves?  Why is the death penalty in the USA carried out by the most religiously minded states? Why did the Church of England approve capital punishment for children as late as Victorian times?

Alan is a man bristling with morality, condemnation, outrage.  Not that he does not have his heroes and his prophets.

Political Satire

Too True

Daily Devotional

The Triumph Is Sure

Therefore strong peoples will glorify you; cities of ruthless nations will fear you. (Isaiah 25:3)

John Piper

Isaiah sees the day coming when all the nations — representatives from all the people groups — will no longer be at odds with Yahweh, the God of Israel and his Messiah, whom we know to be Jesus.

They will no longer worship Bel or Nebo or Molech or Allah or Buddha or utopian social programs or capitalistic growth possibilities or ancestors or animistic spirits. Instead they will come in faith to the banquet on God’s mountain.  And they will have the veil of sorrow removed and death shall be swallowed up and the reproach of God's people will be removed and tears shall be gone forever.

That's the setting for understanding the vision of verse 3: “Therefore strong peoples will glorify you; cities of ruthless nations will fear you.” In other words God is stronger than the “strong people” and he is so powerful and so gracious that in the end he will turn ruthless nations to revere him.

So the picture Isaiah gives us is one of all nations turned to God in worship, a great banquet for all the peoples, the removal of all suffering and grief and reproach from the nations who have become his people, and the final putting away of death forever.

This triumph is sure because God is doing it. Therefore we can be certain of it.

Not one life spent in the cause of world evangelization is spent in vain. Not one prayer or one dollar or one sermon or one letter of encouragement mailed or one little light shining in some dark place — nothing in the cause of the advancing kingdom is in vain.

The triumph is sure.

Back to Pagan Myths

The Full Circle of Quantum Cosmology

It appears that particle physicists and cosmologists are a cranky lot.  The longer they go on the more weird their speculations become.  A lot of the weirdness has to do with shuffling away from the Big Bang--which is uncomfortably close to the biblical doctrine of creation.  

Stephen Hawking and his collaborators have said no, no, no to the C word and speculatively cast about for an alternative explanation.  David Berlinski aptly puts Hawking's explanation for the origin of the universe, or the cause of the Universe, in the form of a religious catechism:

Scientists Discredited--Again

No, Stephen Hawking 

Science Doesn’t Need Any Help From The European Union

James Delingpole

Breitbart London

Stephen Hawking and 150 other distinguished scientists – all fellows of the Royal Society – have written a letter to the (London) Times saying that if Britain leaves the European Union it would be a “disaster for UK science.”

No it wouldn’t.

Only 3 per cent of science R & D funding in Britain comes from the European Union. And it’s not as though we should be grateful for this sop: not when you consider that Britain puts far more into the EU than it gets back in return. If we were out, we could decide for ourselves how much we want to spend on science – and on which projects – rather than having a bunch of incompetent foreigners decide for us.

When I say “a bunch of incompetent foreigners” I mean just that.

Daily Devotional

Pride

C. S. Lewis

If you want to find out how proud you are the easiest way is to ask yourself, ‘How much do I dislike it when other people snub me, or refuse to take any notice of me, or shove their oar in, or patronise me, or show off?’

The point is that each person’s pride is in competition with every one else’s pride. It is because I wanted to be the big noise at the party that I am so annoyed at someone else being the big noise. Two of a trade never agree. Now what you want to get clear is that Pride is essentially competitive—is competitive by its very nature— while the other vices are competitive only, so to speak, by accident. Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man.

We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone. That is why I say that Pride is essentially competitive in a way the other vices are not. . . . .

Greed may drive men into competition if there is not enough to go round; but the proud man, even when he has got more than he can possibly want, will try to get still more just to assert his power. Nearly all those evils in the world which people put down to greed or selfishness are really far more the result of Pride.

From Mere Christianity
Compiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis

Mere Christianity. Copyright © 1952, C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Copyright renewed © 1980, C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. A Year With C.S. Lewis: Daily Readings from His Classic Works. Copyright © 2003 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

The Spywatchers

Checks and Balances in Secret Services

Mass surveillance of New Zealand citizens has been a hot issue in this country for the past eighteen months or so.  Our local spy networks, along with international spy partners, have been sharply criticised for engaging in (literally) unwarranted spying.

The NZ spy agencies have opened up more than ever before and have more diligent and exacting review mechanisms overseeing them.  The independence and integrity of the reviewers seems beyond question.  The first independent review has now been published, entitled "Intelligence and Security in a Free Society: Report of the First Independent Review of Intelligence and Security in New Zealand".

The Foreword states:

Our central conclusion is that there should be a single, integrated and comprehensive Act of Parliament that lays out in plain English how the agencies are constituted; what their
purposes are; how all their intelligence and security activities are authorised; and how they are overseen so as to protect those freedoms and liberties that are part of what we are as a nation.

The Act should state clearly that its fundamental purpose is the protection of New Zealand as a free, open and democratic society. That then becomes the guiding principle by which the activities of the agencies must be undertaken and judged.

There should always be debate about how best to ensure that purpose is achieved.
Freedom and liberty cannot be preserved either in a vacuum of apathy or in an atmosphere of tolerance of the abuse of power. But nor can they be preserved by wilfully or casually ignoring the existence of those who reject or threaten the values of freedom and liberty.  Our report proposes a legislative framework designed to encompass both those enduring truths. 

So far, so good.   The Report goes on to conclude that no mass surveillance of New Zealanders is taking place.  The assessment on this issue is as follows:

Editors of the National Review Endorse Cruz

Ted Cruz for President

By The Editors
National Review Online

Conservatives have had difficulty choosing a champion in the presidential race in part because it has featured so many candidates with very good claims on our support. As their number has dwindled, the right choice has become clear: Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.

We supported Cruz’s campaign in 2012 because we saw in him what conservatives nationwide have come to see as well. Cruz is a brilliant and articulate exponent of our views on the full spectrum of issues. Other Republicans say we should protect the Constitution. Cruz has actually done it; indeed, it has been the animating passion of his career. He is a strong believer in the liberating power of free markets, including free trade (notwithstanding the usual rhetorical hedges). His skepticism about “comprehensive immigration reform” is leading him to a realism about the impact of immigration that has been missing from our policymaking and debate. He favors a foreign policy based on a hard-headed assessment of American interests, one that seeks to strengthen our power but is mindful of its limits. He forthrightly defends religious liberty, the right to life of unborn children, and the role of marriage in connecting children to their parents — causes that reduce too many other Republicans to mumbling.

That forthrightness is worth emphasizing. Conservatism should not be merely combative; but especially in our political culture, it must be willing to be controversial. Too many Republicans shrink from this implication of our creed. Not Cruz.

Daily Devotional

The Danger of Being Proud of Grace

"Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."
1 Corinthians 10:12

Charles H. Spurgeon

It is a curious fact, that there is such a thing as being proud of grace. A man says, "I have great faith, I shall not fall; poor little faith may, but I never shall." "I have fervent love," says another, "I can stand, there is no danger of my going astray." He who boasts of grace has little grace to boast of.

Some who do this imagine that their graces can keep them, knowing not that the stream must flow constantly from the fountain head, or else the brook will soon be dry. If a continuous stream of oil comes not to the lamp, though it burn brightly today, it will smoke to-morrow, and noxious will be its scent. Take heed that thou gloriest not in thy graces, but let all thy glorying and confidence be in Christ and his strength, for only so canst thou be kept from falling. Be much more in prayer. Spend longer time in holy adoration. Read the Scriptures more earnestly and constantly. Watch your lives more carefully. Live nearer to God.

Take the best examples for your pattern. Let your conversation be redolent of heaven. Let your hearts be perfumed with affection for men's souls. So live that men may take knowledge of you that you have been with Jesus, and have learned of him; and when that happy day shall come, when he whom you love shall say, "Come up higher," may it be your happiness to hear him say, "Thou hast fought a good fight, thou hast finished thy course, and henceforth there is laid up for thee a crown of righteousness which fadeth not away." On, Christian, with care and caution! On, with holy fear and trembling! On, with faith and confidence in Jesus alone, and let your constant petition be, "Uphold me according to thy word."

He is able, and he alone, "To keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy."

Relentlessly Shifting Blame

A National Sport

In 2000, Stephen Wallace was shot and killed by a policeman in the small New Zealand town of Waitara.  A summary of events is as follows:

It’s unclear what sparked Steven Wallace’s rampage through Waitara that night. After cooking his tea and watched a Super 12 game on T.V, Steven had headed out to a New Plymouth bar. Once returning home it is unclear what triggered the violent reaction that would end his life only hours later. Neighbours to the Wallaces were said to have heard yelling and swearing as Wallace beat the family shed with a golf club around 3am that morning. His mother stood by calling to him to calm down and come inside. Wallace threw the golf clubs in the boot of his car and sped away with blood-alcohol level twice that of the legal driving limit. As he left his mother was worried enough to dial 111 but hung up before the call was answered.

Wallace rampaged like a man possessed. Leaving golf clubs at various scenes he smashed and beat windows and cars. 3 cars were damaged. A taxi with passengers, a private car with 6 youths in it, the third car was a police patrol car. It has been said that night Wallace was intent on killing either himself or someone else and that the Senior Constable was an unwitting pawn in his game.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

The Case for Cruz, #2

Douglas Wilson
Blog&Mablog

So first a round-up from last night. On the Democratic side, Sanders beat Hillary in Michigan, which was festive. On the Republican side, there were four states in play. Trump won three of them, while Cruz took Idaho. More relevant to the immediate discussion was the fact that Cruz took second place in Michigan, which was next door to Ohio, supposedly Kasich country. He also took a strong second in Mississippi. In other words, when it comes to delegate counts, both Trump and Cruz had good nights. For Rubio, it was just good night.

Here is the math. The Republican nominee needs 1,237 delegates to be elected on the first ballot at the convention. After last night, Trump is 779 shy of that goal. Cruz is only 878 short. Trump has 458 delegates and Cruz has 359, just 99 behind him. That is a gap that Cruz can readily make up, provided we keep the following in mind.

1. Note that the Rubio and Kasich strategies are necessarily aiming for a brokered convention.

Daily Devotional

I Love Real Mice

TO HILA NEWMAN, an eleven-year-old girl who had sent Lewis her drawings and a letter of appreciation for the first three Chronicles of Narnia: On Lewis’s care not to decode the Chronicles of Narnia.

C. S. Lewis

3 June 1953

Thank you so much for your lovely letter and pictures. I realised at once that the coloured one was not a particular scene but a sort of line-up like what you would have at the very end if it was a play instead of stories. The [Voyage of the] DAWN TREADER is not to be the last: There are to be 4 more, 7 in all. Didn’t you notice that Aslan said nothing about Eustace not going back? I thought the best of your pictures was the one of Mr. Tumnus at the bottom of the letter.

As to Aslan’s other name, well I want you to guess. Has there never been anyone in this world who (1.) Arrived at the same time as Father Christmas. (2.) Said he was the son of the Great Emperor. (3.) Gave himself up for someone else’s fault to be jeered at and killed by wicked people. (4.) Came to life again. (5.) Is sometimes spoken of as a Lamb (see the end of the Dawn Treader). Don’t you really know His name in this world? Think it over and let me know your answer!

Reepicheep in your coloured picture has just the right perky, cheeky expression. I love real mice. There are lots in my rooms in College but I have never set a trap. When I sit up late working they poke their heads out from behind the curtains just as if they were saying, ‘Hi! Time for you to go to bed. We want to come out and play.’

From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume III
Compiled in Yours, Jack

The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Volume III: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy 1950-1963. Copyright © 2007 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Yours, Jack: Spiritual Direction from C. S. Lewis. Copyright © 2008 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Follow the Money

Why Brexit Would Be Good for the Enviroment

The old adage says, Follow the money.  If you want to make an educated guess about the bed folk are going to end up lying in, think about the motivation of filthy lucre.  Granted, this is a pretty cynical view, but more often than not it gets you close to the animus of the matter.

The big debate of the moment in the UK is Brexit.  Should the UK leave the security of the European Union and bravely cast off for a foreign shore?   We were surprised (at least initially) to hear that Greenpeace and its fellow travellers have come forward to oppose leaving the European Union.  What on earth does Britain's potential exit from Brusselmania have to do with saving the Antarctic penguins?  In order to answer that question, we have to follow the money.

The Institute of  Economic Affairs has done just that.  Christopher Snowden has written a piece entitled: Euro Puppets: The European Commission’s remaking of civil society.   In it he argues that the éminences grises of Europe use money to bind all kinds of social groups to do their bidding.  Mostly they fund groups which reflect their own centralist, statist political ideology.  They fund a veritable panopoly of left wing causes and groups.

Take environmental groups like Greenpeace, for example.  Writes Snowden:

Not Bad

Of Hammers, Nails and Their Heads

Further to the recent police siege in Kawerau, [discussed here] one of our local opinionistas has got it right--at least it appears to us.

Here is Larry Williams, radio show host, giving us his view on what happened and its consequences. We find ourselves in full agreement.

It was a peaceful ending in the Bay of Plenty siege.

Police arrested Rhys Warren who allegedly shot four cops. He can count himself lucky to have come out alive.  Had the cops shot the gunman dead, it wouldn't have come as a shock considering the circumstances.

The alleged offender's whanau have taken aim at the cops. They reckon that they could've ended the siege earlier.  How would we know? How would we know that they wouldn't make the stand-off worse?

The police were faced with a hostile operation and they certainly didn't need the family hindering that.  That could've complicated an already tense situation. Meddling family was the last thing they needed.

Daily Devotional

God Cares for You

John Piper

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:6–7)

Why is anxiety about the future a form of pride?

God’s answer would sound something like this:

I — the Lord, your Maker — I am he who comforts you, who promises to take care of you; and those who threaten you are mere men who die. So your fear must mean that you do not trust me — and even though you are not sure that your own resources will take care of you, yet you opt for fragile self-reliance, rather than faith in my future grace. So all your trembling — weak as it is — reveals pride.

The remedy? Turn from self-reliance to God-reliance, and put your faith in the all-sufficient power of future grace.

We see anxiety as a form of pride in 1 Peter 5:6–7. Notice the grammatical connection between the verses. “Humble yourselves . . . under the mighty hand of God . . . [verse 7] casting all your anxieties on him.” Verse 7 is not a new sentence. It’s a subordinate clause. “Humble yourselves . . . [by] casting all your anxieties on him.”

This means that casting your anxieties on God is a way of humbling yourself under God’s mighty hand. It’s like saying, “Eat politely . . . chewing with your mouth shut.” “Drive carefully . . . keeping your eyes open.” “Be generous . . . inviting someone over on Thanksgiving.”

One way to be humble is to cast all your anxieties on God. Which means that one hindrance to casting your anxieties on God is pride. Which means that undue worry is a form of pride.

Now why is casting our anxieties on the Lord the opposite of pride? Because pride does not like to admit that it has any anxieties. And if pride has to admit it, it still does not like to admit that the remedy might be trusting someone else who is wiser and stronger.

In other words, pride is a form of unbelief and does not like to trust in God’s future grace. Faith admits the need for help. Pride won’t. Faith banks on God to give help. Pride won’t. Faith casts anxieties on God. Pride won’t.

Therefore the way to battle the unbelief of pride is to admit freely that you have anxieties, and to cherish the promise of future grace in the words, “He cares for you.”

Very Thankful to Live in New Zealand

The Bigger Picture

There are some good things about living in New Zealand.  One of them is the way the police handle the kind of situation which unfolded this week near Kawerau.  In an armed standoff, four police were injured by gunfire.  The alleged perpetrator had holed himself up in a house.  It took nearly 24 hours to get the guy out and surrender.

There are plenty of places in the world where, once police confirmed that the gunman was alone, the house and the gunman would have been shot to pieces.  An experienced (now retired) police negotiator described the process and disciplines applied.

Former police negotiator and detective Lance Burdett spoke to Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking this morning about the siege and how police were handling it.  The alleged gunman has now been arrested and the siege is over.

He said police procedure for this type of incident is trained around the world - it's called Cordon, Contain and Appeal (CCA).  "There will be attempts made to contact him through all sorts of mediums, whether it's through loudhailer to get him to talk on the phone - that's the ultimate, to get him talking on the phone. Use of social media - if that's available, they'll be doing that. Any way of getting him to communicate."

Mr Burdett, who is now a negotiator instructor, said things could "turn on a knife edge" during situations like this.  "People are so unpredictable, particularly when they're emotional. So it's a bit like 50 per cent of murderers in prison are from domestic related incidents - ordinary people just suddenly snap and change."

Seeing Things In A New Light

Cruz Not So Bad

Endorsements for Ted Cruz are starting to come thick and fast.  As Senator Rubio seems to be fading, the increasingly stark choice for the Republican Party is either Donald Trump or Cruz.  When put in those terms, the eyes of most become focused and clear--rapidly.  

Here is a sample of some recent endorsements.

Carly Fiorina, who has dropped out of the Republican race:

Daily Devotional

When The Iron Gates Open

"Abide in me."
John 15:4

Charles H. Spurgeon

Communion with Christ is a certain cure for every ill. Whether it be the wormwood of woe, or the cloying surfeit of earthly delight, close fellowship with the Lord Jesus will take bitterness from the one, and satiety from the other. Live near to Jesus, Christian, and it is a matter of secondary importance whether thou livest on the mountain of honour or in the valley of humiliation.

Living near to Jesus, thou art covered with the wings of God, and underneath thee are the everlasting arms. Let nothing keep thee from that hallowed intercourse, which is the choice privilege of a soul wedded to the well-beloved. Be not content with an interview now and then, but seek always to retain his company, for only in his presence hast thou either comfort or safety. Jesus should not be unto us a friend who calls upon us now and then, but one with whom we walk evermore.

Thou hast a difficult road before thee: see, O traveller to heaven, that thou go not without thy guide. Thou hast to pass through the fiery furnace; enter it not unless, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, thou hast the Son of God to be thy companion. Thou hast to storm the Jericho of thine own corruptions: attempt not the warfare until, like Joshua, thou hast seen the Captain of the Lord's host, with his sword drawn in his hand. Thou art to meet the Esau of thy many temptations: meet him not until at Jabbok's brook thou hast laid hold upon the angel, and prevailed.

In every case, in every condition, thou wilt need Jesus; but most of all, when the iron gates of death shall open to thee. Keep thou close to thy soul's Husband, lean thy head upon his bosom, ask to be refreshed with the spiced wine of his pomegranate, and thou shalt be found of him at the last, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. Seeing thou hast lived with him, and lived in him here, thou shalt abide with him forever.

Bang, Bang. You're Dead.

False Allegiances and Irrelevance

We have often observed that the materialistic atheists amongst us are often the most strident moralisers in the market place.  They are always telling us what they deem to be right and wrong, moral and immoral, evil and good.  Islam, insists Richard Dawkins, is a perverse, wicked thing.  Christianity is so morally bankrupt that any parent who attempts to teach its basic doctrines to her or her child, should suffer their children to be removed from their care.  Morally bankrupt?

Christopher Hitchens, whilst alive, thundered like a Titan against totalitarianism, communism, and any authoritarian standard within his line of sight. He thought abortion was OK, but grabbing someone off the street and torturing them was very bad form.  All of which was and is entertaining but hardly relevant to materialism or atheism, let alone their conjoint.

There is an instructive video entitled Collision in which Christopher Hitchens debates Douglas Wilson.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

The Case for Cruz

Douglas Wilson
Blog&Mablog

Idaho’s primary is tomorrow, and for a first time in a long time, the Idaho primary actually matters. I have previously endorsed Cruz, and wanted to take this opportunity to exhort my fellow Idahoans to help do their part in deflating the Trump balloon.Trumpistan

But first, for my foreign readers, a few words of encouragement. I imagine this whole thing is not unlike an American watching a cricket match. You can tell by the cheering which side is happy, but beyond that the whole thing recedes into the great cloud of unknowing. So here is a quick explanation for you.

Just as the parliamentary system invites the existence of splinter parties and coalitions, so the American constitutional system “invites” two parties. Throughout our history, we have always had two major parties, and then the small groups are off on the edges. The two major parties are not immortal, and sometimes one of the edge parties replaces a major party, but the simple fact of two major parties is very much part of our unwritten constitution.

So here is a handy glossary.

Daily Devotional

How Can I Be Filled with the Spirit?

Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Romans 15:4)

John Piper

How can we be filled with the Holy Spirit? How can we experience an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon our church that fills us with indomitable joy and frees us and empowers us to love those around us in ways so authentic that they are won to Christ?

Answer: meditate day and night upon the incomparable, hope-giving promises of God. As the verse above shows us, that’s the way Paul kept his heart full of hope and joy and love.

The full assurance of hope comes from meditating on the promises of God's Word. And this does not contradict the sentence eight verses later that says that the Holy Spirit gives us hope (Romans 15:13). This is because the Holy Spirit is the divine author of Scripture. It is no contradiction that the way he fills us with hope is by filling us with his own word of promise.

Hope is not some vague emotion that comes out of nowhere, like a stomachache. Hope is the confidence that the stupendous future promised to us by the Word of the Spirit is going to really come true. Therefore, the way to be filled with the Spirit is to be filled with his Word. The way to have the power of the Spirit is to believe the promises of his Word.

For it is the word of promise that fills us with hope, and hope fills us with joy, and joy overflows in the power and freedom to love our neighbor. And that is the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

Private Christianity Alone is Tolerable

Foxy Secularism

Secularism thinks of itself as uber tolerant.  It's version of tolerance is so advanced and righteous, secularism insists upon and demands compliance with its dogma at every point.  It is profoundly intolerant in the matter.  

The urbane secularist will tell you that he smiles upon all religions.  Why would one get upset at the equivalent of a childish nursery rhymes?  Does the secularist get all wound up about Jemima Puddleduck?  Does the secularist get agitated over the Christian?  Never.  Provided, of course, that Christianity is restricted and restrained to the private square.  It has no place in the public square.  The secularist's perversion of tolerance demands an exclusive hold over the public square.  As soon as the Christian offers a scintilla of Christian reasoning or argumentation in the public square for a Christian position or belief, off to the gas chambers with him.  The public square is for secularism only and the secularist is the sole licensed operator therein.

Now even Jemima Puddleduck, that most gullible of ducks, knows that the sly secularist fox has endless conniptions and consternations when defining what is public and what it private.

A Bridge Too Far

Apolitical Christians Speaking Up

TheBlaze
Billy Hallowell

Famed pastor and author Max Lucado typically avoids weighing in on political candidates, but the continued rise and popularity of Republican businessman Donald Trump recently led him to break that silence, penning an op-ed about the importance of “decency.”

Lucado, pastor of Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, Texas, told Christianity Today that the public statement was spawned after Trump made a series of claims about his Christian faith while on the campaign trail.

“There was one occasion he held up a Bible. On another occasion, at Liberty University, he read from scripture. On multiple occasions he’s said ‘Of course I’m a Christian,’” Lucado said. “There was a time in Iowa when he said ‘I’m a Christian,’ and somebody asked about forgiveness and he said ‘I’ve never asked God for forgiveness.’”

The pastor said that he simply can’t comprehend Trump’s latter response.