Worse Than a Magician's Cheap Trick

James Shaw Amongst the Feeble Minded

We cannot restrain ourselves from chortling at the way the present (new) New Zealand government has thrown itself and its reputation into fighting the greatest of all evils ever to afflict humanity--yes . . . yes . . . CLIMATE CHANGE!  The louder they incant the daily bleat, the more desperate and pathetic they sound.

A few nights ago, for example, the leader of the Green Party, James Shaw was telling us that the measures he and his acolytes were pushing would save billions upon billions of dollars over the next fifty years.  He was actually animated and excited by the prospect.  This tells us one of two things: either James Shaw is a circus act or he actually believes this stuff.  But the merest sliver of common sense would have told him that throwing such "data" about future savings is rubbish.  It is merely a repetition of that old confidence trick: put a number of something and suddenly it becomes real.

Were we to affirm that there were now 40,378 lepers in the world, most would immediately regard this as hard scientific fact.  Why?  Because numbers are regarded as being hard facts.  If a number is put to something, it is assumed that someone has observed, measured, and counted.  It exudes veracity.  And if we added that unless drastic actions were taken today to fight climate change, in thirty years we would be looking at 95,346 lepers in the world, it would be accepted without question.  It would have to be true.  You can only get such numbers if it were true.  And therefore climate change is a real, real, real thing.  It has numbers to back it up, and numbers, as we all know, don't lie; they are scientific.  And so the circular argument runs, faster than a buzz saw.

Poor old James, though.

Daily Meditation

Longing for Fellowship

Ligonier Ministries

We speak of God as the immortal, invisible, all-wise God. This string of attributes gives some comfort and no small amount of dismay.

That God is immortal makes me glad. It means simply that He cannot and therefore will never die. I need not worry that He will ever wear out or be replaced. His throne is established forever. He reigns eternally in His omnipotence. That is good news for a perishing humanity.

I rejoice also that He is all-wise. This sets Him apart from every man. It was Aristotle who taught that in the brain of every wise man could be found the corner of the fool. There is no foolish corner in the mind of God. I find solace in the certain truth that the One who rules the affairs of the universe is not given to blunders or lapses into incompetency. I rejoice in God’s wisdom and in His everlasting power.

It is His persistent invisibility that saddens me. It is difficult for sensual creatures to enjoy fellowship with One who cannot be seen, heard, tasted, touched, or smelled. God remains beyond my senses. How then, can I ever relate to Him with intimacy? My heart longs for fellowship with Him. I long to hear His voice as the sound of many waters and to catch one glimpse of His refulgent glory.

Coram Deo

Does your heart beat with a passion to hear the voice of God? Would you sell every possession to be able to walk in a garden alone with Jesus?

The Consequences of Repealing "Three Strikes"

Nowhere to Hide

The present mess of a government is fomenting plans to dump NZ's highly effective Three Strikes Law.  In doing so, it is going to end up taking huge political risks.  David Farrar, at Kiwiblog has pointed out the nature of the risks about to be undertaken. 

He presents three reasons why it is so politically risky, albeit an ideologically rich vein for the Left.

The first is that the Three Strikes Law has strong public support. 

The net support (support less opposition) is:

All NZers +48%
National voters +65%
NZ First voters +39%
Labour voters +38%
Green voters +16%

A second reason is that the consequences of repeal will be bloody, if not mortal for the innocents who get attacked and preyed upon by the recidivist violent criminals released back into the community.  The harm will be obvious.  The repeal, then, represents a clear and present danger to innocent people.  It is a very clear "cause and effect" situation. 

Moreover, the one's responsible for this harm will be clearly identifiable: it will rest on the shoulders of the Minister of Justice, the Labour Party of which he is member, and all politicians who vote for repealing Three Strikes.  We will, as the saying goes, "know who you are", and we are coming to get you via the ballot box.

The biggest problem is that if the law gets repealed, those who vote to repeal the law can be held accountable for crimes committed by second strikers released early.

With most law changes, you can’t know for certain that a law change led to that criminal being out on the streets. Changes to maximum sentences, to bail eligibility etc can’t allow you to conclude with certainity that the criminal who bashed or raped someone would have been in or out of prison before the law change. Because Judges and the Parole Board use discretion in deciding each case.

But the three strikes law is all about removing that discretion. It is about certainty. So one will be able to say “This crime would never have happened if Politician A had not voted to change the law”.  Let’s take an example. Say a second striker is given a nine year jail sentence for a rape. Under the current law they must serve the full nine years. If the law is repealed, they can be let out anytime between three years and nine years.

If they get let out after say six years and then a month later rape someone else, it will be crystal clear that the law change allowed that rape to happen. It won’t be the fault of the Parole Board. It will be the fault of the MPs who voted to repeal three strikes.  If the law is repealed, it is almost beyond doubt that some second strikers will get parole and go on to commit horrible crimes while on parole. The MPs who vote to repeal three strikes will not know what hit them when this happens.

A third reality is that repealing Three Strikes won't achieve diddley squat in terms of reducing prison numbers--which is one of the major objectives identified by the Minister of Justice.

Another reason repealing three strikes is stupid, is because it will free up almost no prison space. First strikers do not server longer under this law – only second and third strikers. At best there are probably only 100 to 150 more people still in prison due to the three strikes law. Compare that to the almost 2,000 more due to the bail changes.

In fact as the reoffending rate of strike offences is down since the three strikes law passed, it is possible repealing the law could increase the prison population.

So in summary MPs who vote to repeal three strikes will:

Be voting against a very popular piece of legislation with both Labour and NZ First voters

• Be making a law change that will allow victims to conclude with certainty that their assailant was only able to beat/rape them because of this law change
• Will make almost no difference to the overall prison population
• You would have to have an electoral death wish to vote for it.

But, despite all this, Leftist do-gooders know what's best for us all.  The carnage they will face at the ballot box in two years time will be the appropriate form of utu.  By then the bloody consequences of letting out recidivist violent offenders early will be painted across the sky.  The electorate will, indeed, want vengeance and will know without a skerrick of doubt who is responsible and who is to blame. 

From Bob McCoskrie's Blog

Supreme Court Rules in Favour of Baker

Endorses His Decision Not To Make A Wedding Cake for Homosexual Couple

by McBlog2

Family First Comment: Great decision….

“Government hostility toward people of faith has no place in our society, yet the state of Colorado was openly antagonistic toward Jack’s religious beliefs about marriage. The court was right to condemn that. Tolerance and respect for good-faith differences of opinion are essential in a society like ours. This decision makes clear that the government must respect Jack’s beliefs about marriage.”#FreeToBelieve

The US Supreme Court yesterday ruled for a Colorado baker who refused to create a wedding cake for a gay couple.  In an opinion by Justice Anthony Kennedy that leaves many questions unanswered, the court held that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission had not adequately taken into account the religious beliefs of baker Jack Phillips.

In fact, Kennedy said, the commission had been hostile to the baker’s faith, denying him the neutral consideration he deserved. While the justices split in their reasoning, only Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor dissented….

Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Kristen Waggoner, who represented Phillips, praised the ruling. “Government hostility toward people of faith has no place in our society, yet the state of Colorado was openly antagonistic toward Jack’s religious beliefs about marriage,”she said “The court was right to condemn that. Tolerance and respect for good-faith differences of opinion are essential in a society like ours. This decision makes clear that the government must respect Jack’s beliefs about marriage.”

Daily Meditation

Glorify God in Your Body

You were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:20)

John Piper

“Worship” is the term we use to cover all the acts of the heart and mind and body that intentionally express the infinite worth of God. This is what we were created for.

Don’t think worship services when you think worship. That is a huge limitation which is not in the Bible. All of life is supposed to be worship.

Take breakfast, for example, or midmorning snacks. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Now eating and drinking are about as basic as you get. What could be more real and human?

Or take sex, for example. Paul says the alternative to fornication is worship.

Flee fornication. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:18-20)

Or take death for a final example. This we will do in our body. In fact, it will be the last act of the body on this earth. The body bids farewell. How shall we worship in that last act of the body? We see the answer in Philippians 1:20-21. Paul says that his hope is that Christ would be exalted in his body by death. Then he adds, “For to me to die is gain.” We express the infinite worth of Christ in dying by counting death as gain.

You have a body. But it is not yours. “You have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”

You are always in a temple. Always worship.

False Charges That Make No Sense

Hate Speech Charges Are Nonsensical


There are plenty of folk, it seems, who think that the following indicative sentence is hate speech: "if anyone is a homosexual (or supports, encourages, promotes, or defends) homosexuality and refuses to repent of his sin and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, seeking His forgiveness, that person will fall under God's eternal judgement."

The Bible is God's eternal and inerrant revelation to mankind.  At least Christians believe so.  Its testimony and indictment of homosexuality is clear and plain, along with every transgression of the Ten Commandments.  It is also clear that if any man, woman, or child repent (or turn away) from sin and seek God's forgiveness and mercy as offered to them by the Christ, the Saviour of the world, their sins will be forgiven and they will inherit eternal life.

To express such things, we are now told, is hate speech.  This is a strange allegation indeed.

Crooked Thinking

NZ Human Rights Commission On A Bender

Professor Paul Moon
AUT University

Anyone hoping that the current purge of the Human Rights Commission will go far enough to flush out the hubris at its core is likely to be disappointed.

Indeed, despite staff changes, and a damning report into its culture, the commission will continue with its march towards introducing a damaging change to our society: its plan to make what it calls "disharmonious speech" aimed at religions an offence.

What makes this audacious and unwanted encroachment on our right to speak and think freely all the more insidious is that this proposed ban on "disharmonious speech" would not apply equally to the criticism of all religions.

The open season on attacking Christianity, for example, would remain, with its followers responding, as their faith requires, by turning the other cheek. Instead, the commission is explicit that this proposed free-speech ban would only apply to the sort of disharmonious comments that are "targeted at the religion and beliefs of ethnic minority communities" in New Zealand.

There are several troubling aspects of this plan. Firstly, the commission is moving from protecting people from unpleasant speech (which itself is dubious) to protecting ideas from criticism. If a belief is so fragile that some disharmonious comments might damage it, then maybe the adherents of that belief ought to reconsider its worth rather than seek to shield it from scrutiny.

Secondly, the commission is conflating religion with ethnicity, which is an appalling case of stereotyping.

Daily Meditation

Faith for the Impossible

He grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. (Romans 4:20–21)

John Piper

Paul has in mind a special reason why faith glorifies God’s future grace. Simply put, the reason is that this God-glorifying faith is a future-oriented confidence in God’s integrity and power and wisdom to follow through on all his promises.

Paul illustrates this faith with Abraham’s response to the promise of God: that he would be the father of many nations (Romans 4:18). “In hope he believed against hope,” that is, he had faith in the future grace of God’s promise.

He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. (Romans 4:19–21)

The faith of Abraham was a faith in the promise of God to make him the father of many nations. This faith glorified God because it called attention to all the resources of God that would be required to fulfill it.

Abraham was too old to have children, and Sarah was barren. Not only that: How do you turn a son or two into “many nations,” which God said Abraham would be the father of? It all seemed totally impossible.

Therefore Abraham’s faith glorified God by being fully assured that he could and would do the impossible.

Imprisoned In the Past

Tribal New Zealand

The tribalism of modern Maori has largely ebbed away, with a few occasional exceptions.  Life and times in the early 19th century in New Zealand was another matter.  

Everything changed when a northern paramount chief, Hongi Hika managed to get passage to England.  Harold Miller, former Librarian of Victoria University takes up the story:

In 1820 Hongi got himself carried to England to see for himself the wonders of the western world.  He was truly astonished by what he saw but one thing especially stuck in his mind: over all England there was only one ruler!  One King George over all England--why not one King Hongi over all New Zealand?  On his way home he turned the rich presents with which he had been loaded into muskets and prepared to apply the lessons he had received. . . .

Already before 1820 the Northern tribes had ravaged as far as Cook Strait; but now things were worse.  Thousands were killed or enslaved and whole tribes were driven from the lands that their ancestors had occupied for centuries.  In 1820 when a missionary visited the Waitemata district it was teeming with people.  From the top of a hill he could see ". . . twenty villages in the valley below, and . . . the largest portion of cultivated land I had ever met in one place in New Zealand".  There were, he estimated, at least four thousand people.  . . . The people were friendly but uneasy.  They asked for missionaries and were disappointed when he spoke of delay; "Our eyes," they said, "will be all dark before that time arrives and we shall never see them. . . . " In a few months, Hongi came down upon them with two thousand men and a thousand muskets swept them away.  Within a short time the whole Ngati Whatua tribe had vanished and not a living soul remained on the tribal lands. . . . And so it went on through the 1820's [Harold Miller, New Zealand (London: Hutchinson's University Library, 1950), p. 11f.]

 On the surface, tribalism appears dead and buried amongst modern Maori.

It's Pretty Much The End of Christian Europe

Abortion Treats One Minority as Less Than Human. 

So who's next?

Peter Hitchens
Mail On Sunday

This is pretty much the end of Christian Europe. The old Commandment 'Thou Shalt Do No Murder' has been repealed, by the Irish vote to legalise abortion on demand.

There has always been some leeway about killing – mainly self-defence and Just War. But the great religion that formed European civilisation was always against the destruction of innocent life.

What follows isn't an argument about whether or even when abortion is right or wrong. I'll leave that to you. It is about what abortion is, and how the law works.

Oddly enough, when Britain relaxed its abortion laws 50 years ago, the issue wasn't as clear-cut as it was for Ireland last month. In the 1960s, we knew far less about unborn babies than we do now. There were no ultrasound scans.  The miracles of medicine which nowadays frequently save tiny premature babies were unknown.

It was much easier for supporters of abortion to believe that unborn babies weren't really human – a belief they spread by their use of the chilly Latin word 'foetus'. They don't use Latin to describe anything else in their lives, so why do they use it in this case?

Daily Meditation

Received up into glory.  1 Timothy 3:16

Charles H. Spurgeon

We have seen our well-beloved Lord in the days of his flesh, humiliated and sore vexed; for he was "despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." He whose brightness is as the morning, wore the sackcloth of sorrow as his daily dress: shame was his mantle, and reproach was his vesture.

Yet now, inasmuch as he has triumphed over all the powers of darkness upon the bloody tree, our faith beholds our King returning with dyed garments from Edom, robed in the splendour of victory. How glorious must he have been in the eyes of seraphs, when a cloud received him out of mortal sight, and he ascended up to heaven! Now he wears the glory which he had with God or ever the earth was, and yet another glory above all--that which he has well earned in the fight against sin, death, and hell.

As victor he wears the illustrious crown. Hark how the song swells high! It is a new and sweeter song: "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, for he hath redeemed us unto God by his blood!" He wears the glory of an Intercessor who can never fail, of a Prince who can never be defeated, of a Conqueror who has vanquished every foe, of a Lord who has the heart's allegiance of every subject. Jesus wears all the glory which the pomp of heaven can bestow upon him, which ten thousand times ten thousand angels can minister to him.

You cannot with your utmost stretch of imagination conceive his exceeding greatness; yet there will be a further revelation of it when he shall descend from heaven in great power, with all the holy angels--"Then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory." Oh, the splendour of that glory! It will ravish his people's hearts. Nor is this the close, for eternity shall sound his praise, "Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever!"

Reader, if you would joy in Christ's glory hereafter, he must be glorious in your sight now. Is he so?

Darwin Still Scratching His Head

Evolutionism More and More Like Alchemy

Oh, dear.  Evolutionism is being attacked by its own.  Not intentionally, of course.  It's just that the data is falsifying the West's favorite religious belief.

Phys.org carried an article describing the shock-waves that have begun to assail evolutionism, entitled, "Sweeping gene survey reveals new facets of evolution".  The wack-a-mole conclusions of recent research undertaken by Mark Stoeckle from The Rockefeller University in New York and David Thaler at the University of Basel in Switzerland can be summarized as follows:

For the planet's 7.6 billion people, 500 million house sparrows, or 100,000 sandpipers, genetic diversity "is about the same," he told AFP.  The study's most startling result, perhaps, is that nine out of 10 species on Earth today, including humans, came into being 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.

"This conclusion is very surprising, and I fought against it as hard as I could," Thaler told AFP.  That reaction is understandable: How does one explain the fact that 90 percent of animal life, genetically speaking, is roughly the same age?

That's the first neutron bomb.

Selective Abortion An Extreme Moral Depravity

Kids with Down Syndrome are Not a Burden

David Marcus
The Federalist

Down Syndrome is disappearing in Europe. In Iceland, it is almost extinct. Very quietly, the most successful eugenics program in human history is advancing and making its way to the United Sates. How is this happening? It’s very simple. Prenatal testing is identifying pregnancies that are likely to result in Down Syndrome kids, and those pregnancies are being aborted, with shocking frequency.

On its own the abortion issue divides us. Whether a baby in the womb may be killed is a debate we struggle to have in constructive ways. But generally the pro-choice movement assures us that abortion is used in cases where any child is unwanted. In the case of selective abortion for sex or disability, a child is wanted, just not the messed-up child his parents weren’t hoping for.

What an age to live in. Get pregnant; see if the baby meets your specifications. If not, just abort and try again. Eventually you are sure to wind up with the bright boy exactly six feet tall who wins all the prizes and marries the prom queen. After all, having a child isn’t really about the child. It’s about you and your hopes and dreams, your demand to live your best life.

Did You Deserve To Be Born?

The choice to have a child, whether the result of grave deliberation or a drunken night of debauchery, is the most harrowing choice a person can make. The hospital hands you this useless bundle of cuteness and says, “Okay, good luck, you’ll figure it out.” Miraculously, for the most part people do figure it out. And there are rewards. The smiles, the snuggling, the little boy or girl climbing into your bed just to be near you because you are everything — it’s profound and beautiful.

No decent parent rejects a child’s love because the child is imperfect. Nobody casts aside an eight-year-old because she has bad grades or an attitude problem.

Daily Meditation

Affirming God’s Sovereignty

Ligonier Ministries

Our God remains incomprehensible and retains His simplicity. He tells us in His Word that He is not a God of confusion but of order. He is not at war with Himself. He is altogether good, altogether holy, and altogether sovereign. This we must affirm to maintain a biblical concept of divine sovereignty. Yet we must always balance this understanding with a clear understanding that God always exercises His power and authority according to His holy character.

He chooses what He chooses according to His own good pleasure. It is His pleasure that He does.

He chooses what is pleasing to Himself. But that pleasure is always His good pleasure, for God is never pleased to will or to do anything that is evil or contrary to His own goodness.

In this we can rest, knowing that He wishes for, and has the power to bring about, all good things for us His children.

Coram Deo

What difficulties are you currently facing? Reaffirm your trust in the sovereignty of God, who is working all things together for His good pleasure.

Passages for Further Study

Psalm 103:19
Psalm 66:7
1 Chronicles 29:12

Classic

The Truth Will Set You Free


Dr Michelle Cretella on the child abuse being practised by pediatricians today.  She is the president of the American College of Pediatricians.

Feel free to disseminate as widely as you are able.

Law Over Culture

Forced Marriage Conviction

Awakening UK Courts Returning To The Rule of Law

BreitbartLondon


LONDON (AP) — A British jury has convicted a couple of attempting to force their teenage daughter to marry her first cousin in Bangladesh. 

The 19-year-old from Leeds in northern England said her parents used verbal and physical abuse to try to get her to marry the relative. The teenager eventually alerted British consular officials and was rescued days before the wedding.

A jury at Leeds Crown Court found the couple guilty Tuesday of forced marriage and of using violence, threats or coercion.  The parents, who can’t be named to protect their daughter’s identity, are due to be sentenced June 18.

Last week, a Birmingham woman was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison for forcing her teenage daughter to marry a relative in Pakistan —the first successful prosecution of its type in England.

Daily Meditation

Conforming to God’s Holiness

Ligonier Ministries

God is called holy not only because of what He does, but also because of who He is. Originally the term referred more to God’s being than His action or behavior.

For us to be called saints (“holy ones”), we must have a catharsis. We must be made clean. No unclean thing can stand before the presence of a holy God. That which is unclean is profane in His eyes. For us to be holy to God, our unclean, unholy moral imperfection msut be purged and our sin removed from us. That is why the absolutely necessary condition for redemption is atonement. Without atonement we would remain always and forever unclean and unholy before His penetrating gaze.

No human is holy in himself. Holiness is foreign to us. It is alien. That is why we require the righteousness of another to cover our moral nakedness. The Holy One has given us the holiness we need in the cloak of Christ’s righteousness. Therefore we pray: “God is great, God is good. And we thank Him for the food … that has come down from heaven for us.”

Government Education System Set to Get Worse

NCEA and the Dodo Will Have a Lot In Common

We find ourselves amused at the prospect of the New Zealand government education system imploding because its centre cannot hold.  The pagans have had a free run for nearly fifty years.  The government has built an education system after its own image.  It now appears to be a decomposing mess.  

Hapless Hipkins is the fresh new Minister of Education.  He has announced a review of the NCEA system.  For those who live outside New Zealand, NCEA stands for National Certificate of Educational Achievement.  It has busily been defining standards of knowledge which can then be "taught" and the student can pass an exam or complete some work to get a certificate of achievement, with which he can then whip down to the local employer, show them the earned certificate, and get a job.

An important philosophical precept of the NCEA system was that it be designed so that no student need fail.  The system would produce an achievement in something or other for every student blessed to partake.  National certificates have grown like mushrooms.  There are now, we are told, 9,360 National Standards.  You can get NCEA certificates in beginning, medium and expert tiddlewinks. If anything exists which does not yet have a NCEA certificate wrapped around it--be patient, it is surely coming.  Since everyone is good at something, and since "something" would eventually have an NCEA certificate attached, every student would graduate out of NZ schools with a recognized qualification in something.  No child would be left behind.

This novel approach to education has had at least two unintended consequences.

Double Standard

Half A Million Sign #FreeTommy Petition

Liam Deacon

BreitbartLondon

More than half a million people have signed a petition calling for the right wing activist Tommy Robinson to be freed from jail, in just a few days.  Mr. Robinson was jailed for 13 months over the weekend after pleading guilty to breaching contempt of court laws whilst on a suspended sentence for the same charge.

 

He was given 10 months for the contempt of court charge and a further three months for breaching the suspended sentence, incurred after filming outside a gang rape trial in Canterbury last year.  The petition, however, claims he was “arrested and jailed for reporting on Muslim grooming gangs”, adding:

“A job that he chooses to do with no regard for his own safety, informing the public of all the wrongs committed in the name of Allah. Fighting against adversity and reporting on issues that our mainstream media are too afraid to speak of.”

Although found to be in breach of the letter of the law, supporters argue rules are selectively applied because of Mr. Robinson’s views and the nature of the case he was highlighting.

Daily Meditation

The Gain of Serving God

“They will become his slaves so that they may learn the difference between my service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.” (2 Chronicles 12:8)

John Piper

Serving God is utterly different from serving anyone else.

God is extremely jealous that we understand this — and enjoy it. For example, he commands us, “Serve the Lord with gladness!” (Psalm 100:2). There is a reason for this gladness. It is given in Acts 17:25, “God is not served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything.”

We serve him with gladness because we do not bear the burden of meeting his needs. Rather we rejoice in a service where he meets our needs. Serving God always means receiving grace from God.

To show how jealous God is for us to get this and glory in it, there is a story in 2 Chronicles 12. Rehoboam, the Son of Solomon, who ruled the southern kingdom after the revolt of the ten tribes, “forsook the law of the Lord” (12:1). He chose against serving the Lord and gave his service to other gods and other kingdoms. As judgment God sent Shishak, the king of Egypt, against Rehoboam with 1,200 chariots and 60,000 horsemen (12:3).

In mercy God sent the prophet Shemaiah to Rehoboam with this message: “Thus says the Lord, you abandoned me, so I have abandoned you to the hand of Shishak” (12:5). The happy upshot of that message is that Rehoboam and his princes humbled themselves in repentance and said, “The Lord is righteous” (12:6).

When the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, he said, “They have humbled themselves, so I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance, and my wrath shall not be poured out on Jerusalem by means of Shishak” (12:7). But as a discipline to them he says, “They will become his slaves so that they may learn the difference between my service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries” (12:8).

The point is plain: serving God is a receiving and a blessing and a joy and a benefit.

This is why I am so jealous to say that the worship of Sunday morning and the worship of daily obedience is not at bottom a burdensome giving to God but a joyful getting from God.

When Will NZ's Political Gadfly Depart?

The Great Deceiver

Last week radio host Mike Hoskings argued that the first soundings of the death knell had been heard within NZ First.  Its self-important, gadfly leader, Winston Peters has betrayed the useful idiots who voted for them, says Hoskings.  

I'll say this about your New Zealand First voter: they're straight up and down.

I am receiving large levels of correspondence, and I am not the only one, from people saying they are embarrassed or ashamed that they voted New Zealand First.  They feel duped, ripped off, if not hoodwinked.  And it's the foreign aid package that's tipped them over the edge.

The Malleability of Homosexuality

The Heart of the Matter

The majority of populations in the West appear to believe that homosexuality is a genetic predisposition.  They assume what their case desperately needs to prove or demonstrate.  Most of the emotive sympathy for homosexuals drives off the tee of this grand assumption.  It puts homosexuality in a special category, unlike other sexual desires and impulses.

Jeremiah Keenan, writing in The Federalist, takes up this issue in the light of the forthcoming decision by the US Supreme Court on whether homosexuals can be refused service by Christian (or Islamic, or anyone else for that matter) on the grounds of freedom of speech. 

Here is the heart of  his argument:

SCOTUS Liberals Think Doing Is Being

But the liberal wing of SCOTUS, which has dominated this issue 5-4 for decades now, does not view homosexuality as comparable to other sexual impulses. Instead, they have argued that homosexuality is to romance what race is to skin-tone: an inborn biological type.

From this point of view, doing really is being, for, as Kennedy puts it in Obergefell v. Hodges, homosexual’s “immutable nature dictates that same-sex marriage is their only real path” to profound romantic commitment. Phillips’ offer of a heterosexual wedding cake to homosexuals is thus an empty one, because no one with a history of exclusive same-sex attraction could want such a cake.

But is the liberal view on the issue factual? Is homosexuality an immutable condition written in one’s DNA? Or is it really just part of the vast spectrum of human desire properly governed by moral precept and choice?

The Research Solidly Finds Sexual Orientation Malleable

Many may be inclined to say that this is a matter of opinion, and that the leftist view on the court is as scientific as the view on the Right. Most liberal judges might agree, since they assume immutability of sexual orientation without bothering to state or defend it. Kennedy, an exception to this rule, cited an American Psychological Association (APA) brief which, though it contains much information designed to support redefining marriage, does not assert that sexual orientation is immutable.

The reason is very simple. There is not only no scientific evidence that sexual orientation is immutable, there is conclusive scientific evidence that most people who experience exclusive same-sex attraction end up developing an interest in the opposite sex over time.

Daily Meditation

Respecting God's Judgment

Ligonier Ministries

One of the most poignant episodes of the judgment of God occurred in the Old Testament case of Eli. Eli was a judge and priest over Israel. He was, for the most part, a godly man. But his sons were wicked and profaned the house of God. Eli rebuked them but did not fully restrain them. God revealed to Samuel that He would judge the house of Eli:

“Behold, I will do something in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. In that day I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. For I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knows, because his sons made themselves vile, and he did not restrain them.” (1 Sam. 3:11–13)

When Eli persisted in asking Samuel what God had said, Samuel finally told him. When Eli heard the words, he said: “It is the Lord. Let Him do what seems good to Him” (v. 18).

What seemed good to God was to punish the house of Eli. Eli recognized the Word of God when he heard it because he understood the character of Him whose word it was. A God before whom we need to have no fear is not God but an idol made by our own hands.

Coram Deo

Eli said: “It is the Lord. Let Him do what seems good to Him.” Can you make this affirmation from the depths of your heart in difficult times as well as good times?

P Contamination Is No Problem, Don't You Know

She'll Be Right, Mate

Sir Peter Gluckman is a professor of pediatrics.  He currently serves as the "Science Advisor" to the Prime Minister.  This position gives him the license to pontificate on all manner of issues, pronouncing on the good the bad and the ugly according to one of our most prestigious deities, Science.  Most of his prognostications have absolutely nothing to do with pediatrics.  

We got a pretty strong impression of Gluckman's ability as a climate scientist when he pronounced that global warming was real--a real threat to New Zealand no less.  No rigorous, hard-bitten determination to falsify evidence and data, before pronouncing a hypothesis robust.  He was just reading the prognoses of climate speculators.  He was comforted, apparently, to be told that all climate scientists have proven beyond any reasonable doubt that the world is warming and this represents a major threat to human civilization.  Pediatricians know such things, don't you know.

But now Professor Gluckman is cleverly parlaying his expertise in pediatrics into scientific expertise on the poisonous effects of methamphetamine.

Enlightened Law in Oklahoma

Protecting Christian Agencies From Discrimination

Thomas D. Williams
BreitbartNews

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin signed a bill Friday that will protect private adoption agencies from coercion, discrimination, or punishment as they help orphans find homes with a mom and a dad.
Bill 1140, drafted by Republican Sen. Greg Treat, provides legal protections to faith-based agencies that will not place children in homes with same-sex couples because of religious or moral convictions.

While opposed by the LGBT lobby, many are touting the law as a victory for true diversity and religious freedom, as it offers options to Christian families that had been denied to them previously.

In many states, Christian adoption agencies suffer discrimination for insisting on placing children in homes with a mother and a father. Many Christian parents who put their children up for adoption prefer they be placed in a home with a Christian mom and dad but are often unable to have their wishes fulfilled because of legal restrictions.

In 2011, most of the Catholic Charities affiliates in Illinois announced they would be closing down rather than complying with a requirement forcing them to place children with same-sex couples as foster care and adoptive parents.  “In the name of tolerance, we’re not being tolerated,” Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of the Diocese of Springfield said at the time.

Daily Meditation

Accepting Correction from the Father

Ligonier

Some people have a hard time even thinking of God as “Father” because of the horrible abuse they suffered from their earthly fathers’ hands. But God is a Father who never abuses His children, although He does punish them. He chastens those whom He loves. It is wise for the child of God to fear the corrective wrath of the Father.

I loved my earthly father deeply. In fact, I idolized him. I was secure in his love, as he was constant in showing affection for me. I feared him in the sense that I didn’t want to disappoint him or let him down. I had the “fear” of respect for him. But I also feared his wrath and discipline. Even though, in general, I didn’t want to disappoint him or grieve him, nevertheless I often disobeyed him. That meant facing his discipline.

When my father disciplined me he always announced it to me by saying, “Son, we have to have a session.” That meant I had to follow him into his office, close the door behind me, and sit in a chair in front of him. He wouldn’t raise his voice. He would calmly tell me what I did wrong and why it was wrong. He instructed me in such a way that I was devastated. He always ended the session with a warm embrace. But talk about the conviction of sin … whew!

The Long Dark of Moria

God's Poetic Justice

The notable theologian, R. C. Sproul passed into glory several months ago.  This event has--as often happens--stirred up greater interest in his life, teaching and writing.

Here is an example of classic "R.C." as he was known.  He is commenting upon Romans 1: 24: [Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.]

This verse makes a strange statement, but if we note the pattern of God's judgment in sacred Scripture, we see that a form of poetic justice tends to emerge in God's punitive measures.  By poetic justice I mean that God's punishment is perfectly matched to the sin.  In other words, there is a kind of identity between the particular type of sin and the particular type of punishment.  Let me explain.

Persecution of Christians in the UK?

Life's Reality For Courageous Christians

Barnabasfund

Persecution of Christians is on the rise globally. Blasphemy and apostasy laws in Islamic countries can lead to severe official punishments, plus “mob justice” and lynching. Christian converts from Islam are particularly vulnerable because of strict penalties for apostasy in sharia law, but Christian-background Christians are also at serious risk from harassment, violence and economic marginalisation from Muslims, within their communities, in many countries.

But what about in the UK, a nation founded on the values of religious tolerance and freedom of belief? Christian converts from Islam should reasonably expect to be safe and accepted within these shores and protected equally under UK law. Yet, troubling stories of Christian converts being persecuted by Muslims in Britain are emerging with greater frequency, with several prominent cases in the news in recent years.

Such Christian converts include Nissar Hussain and his family who endured many years of violence and abuse in Bradford, to the extent of having to move home several times, on one occasion under armed police protection. In 2016, Nissar ended up seriously injured in hospital after being assaulted and now suffers from PTSD symptoms due to relentless harassment from British Muslims in his community. If that were not disturbing enough, both Nissar and his wife Kubra have each had false allegations made against them for separate “offences”, resulting in each of them being held at the police station for several hours.

Recently, a Barnabas Fund contact sent disturbing reports of ongoing violence and harassment against a young Christian woman “A,” who converted from Islam.

Daily Meditation

Authentic vs. Phony Faith

Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await him. (Hebrews 9:28)

John Piper

The question before us all is: Are we included in the “many” whose sins he bore? And will we be saved by his coming “for salvation”?

The answer of Hebrews 9:28 is, “Yes,” if we are “eagerly awaiting him.” We can know that our sins are taken away and that we will be safe in the judgment if we trust Christ in such a way that it makes us eager for his coming.

There is a phony faith that claims to believe in Christ, but is only a fire insurance policy. Phony faith “believes” only to escape hell. It has no real desire for Christ. In fact, it would prefer it if he did not come, so that we can have as much of this world’s pleasures as possible. This shows that a heart is not with Christ, but with the world.

So the issue for us is: Do we eagerly long for the coming of Christ? Or do we want him to wait while our love affair with the world runs its course? That is the question that tests the authenticity of faith.

So let us be like the Corinthians who were “awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:7), and like the Philippians whose “citizenship was in heaven, from which also [they] eagerly waited for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20).

That’s the issue for us. Do we love his appearing? Or do we love the world and hope that his appearing will not interrupt our worldly plans? Eternity hangs on this question.

Europe's Liberal Imperialism All Bark, No Bite

Little Respect for "Paper Tigers"

We have long thought that the EU had become a barking dog running up and down the fence trying to scare off passers-by.  As the decades passed, EU nations (at least those in the Western side of the Union) found itself culturally more and more estranged from US popular culture.  Moreover, the US was far more conservative both internally and externally.  Its attitudes towards abortion, for example, were (and continued to be) an embarrassment to liberal Europe.  

Under Trump's leadership. the EU is finding itself between a rock and a hard place.  The EU has been freeloading on its defence spending ever since the end of WWII, grateful for the umbrella provided by the US, via NATO.  In Trump's mind this is a bad deal.  Some have begun to argue that we are on the cusp of a global power realignment.

As the United States tore up the Iran deal, Angela Merkel lamented that Germany (and by extension the European Union) cannot rely on the United States anymore “for protection,” and said Europe needs to “take its destiny into its own hands.” The French finance minister echoed her sentiments. This from a continent with an economy 15 times that of Russia.

Keep in mind, this perpetual hunt for a new leader of the “liberal world order,” which in reality is a sort of “hegemonic peace,” comes at a time when the German Air Force has just four combat ready Typhoon fighter jets. Germans revolutionized submarine and armour warfare, but now don’t have enough tanks and submarines that are force projection ready, and German youth prefer deep house music over defense. The two great powers in Europe, Britain and France, would need a couple of months to put division-sized troops in Latvia. [Sumantra Maitra, The Federalist]

The latest disagreement is over the "treaty" with Iran, which Trump has torn up, unilaterally.  Such things were not supposed to happen.  The powerlessness of the EU has been exposed.