Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

September 03

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 God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. —Genesis I:28

Devotional:
Now, as I have just before suggested, God himself has demonstrated, by the very order of creation, that he made all things for the sake of man. For it was not without reason that he distributed the making of the world into six days; though it would have been no more difficult for him to complete the whole work, in all its parts, at once, in a single moment, than to arrive at its completion by such progressive advances.

But in this he has been pleased to display his providence and paternal solicitude towards us, since, before he would make man, he prepared everything which he foresaw would be useful or beneficial to him. How great would be now the ingratitude to doubt whether we are regarded by this best of fathers, whom we perceive to have been solicitous on our account before we existed!

Humilitation

Mockery Aplenty

The Obama administration has been reported as wanting to engage in tokenism against the Assad regime in Syria.  It just wants to get a point across for propaganda purposes.  Nothing serious.  Tokenism in diplomacy.  Basically, the President apparently wants to do something, but nothing too deadly.  Just enough to prevent the US government being mocked.  A symbolic gesture.

Recall that President Obama declared a bright line with respect to the Assad regime.  The use of chemical weapons would result in US military attacks upon that country.  Some critics have said that this "doctrine" had all the hallmarks of being an off-the-cuff remark in a news conference.  A typical Obama playing-to-the-crowd gesture.  Part of the photo-op session.  Well, it has come to pass that the Assad regime has used chemical weapons to deadly effect.  What now.  Obama has to live up to his words--or face the consequence of being seen to be an empty suit.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

The Church in The Pilgrim’s Progress

Posted on Wednesday, August 28, 2013  

By Douglas Wilson 

Blog and Mablog

For a few years now one of my side hobbies has been that of defending and/or explaining The Pilgrim’s Progress. For various reasons, modern Christians have taken it into their heads to feel very superior to it, I can’t really explain why. Our generation has a very cordial dislike of allegory, but the medievals were crazy about it, and maybe we ought to get out more. Bunyan wrote within a standard and accepted form for his day, and his religious genius, combined with his pitch perfect ear for dialog, resulted in quite a compelling work. It is one of a handful of books that I am reading all the time. Whenever I finish it, I just start over again.

One of the criticisms of The Pilgrim’s Progress is that it is an allegory of an individualistic pilgrimage.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

September 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:
I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. —Psalm 37:25

Devotional:
We must bear in mind that with respect to the temporal blessings which God confers upon his people, no certain or uniform rule can be established. There are various reasons why God does not manifest his favor equally to all the godly in this world.

He chastises some, while he spares others; he heals the secret maladies of some, and passes by others, because they have no need of a like remedy; he exercises the patience of some, according as he has given them the spirit of fortitude; and, finally, he sets forth others by way of example. But in general he humbles all of them by the tokens of his anger, that by secret warnings they may be brought to repentance.

Besides, he leads them, by a variety of afflictions, to fix their thoughts in meditation upon the heavenly life; and yet it is not a vain or imaginary thing that, as is set forth in the Law, God vouchsafes earthly blessings to his servants as proofs of his favor toward them.

Show Pony

 Reckless, Cynical, And Amoral

We don't put much stock in predictions.  But sometimes tea leaves are easier to read than at others.  It is our expectation that President Obama will have his "military action" in Syria.  He will have failed to get UN endorsement of his recklessness.  He will go to war against one side in a civil war without any formal declaration of war.  He will act imperially, without Congressional approval, making the action unconstitutional.  But Obama has never been one to hold much respect for the Constitution of the United States. 

He will order missile strikes on Syrian government targets.  A few aircraft will do bombing runs.  A few civilian (collateral damage) casualties will be pronounced.

Antsy Angst

‘Evolution vs. God’ Filmmaker Responds to Atheists’ Calls for Unedited Footage and Delivers a Stinging Message to Richard Dawkins

Aug. 28, 2013 7:53am

Billy Hallowell

Reproduced from TheBlaze 

Evangelist Ray Comfort’s 38-minute “Evolution vs. God” documentary continues to spark debate and angst among the atheist activist community. It’s no surprise that non-believers dismiss the documentary’s contents and deride Comfort’s claim that scientists cannot offer definitive evidence for Darwinian evolution.

TheBlaze spoke with Comfort on Tuesday, who said that this particular project, which premiered on July 9, has been “polarizing,” as he has received many praise-worthy comments as well as a multitude of angry rebuttals. He said there’s been a “love-hate attitude” surrounding the short film.

“Normally with a video you get 20, 30, 40 comments, maybe 100,” he said. “This is at 46,000 comments on YouTube at just over three weeks.”

Logo for Ray Comfort’s “Evolution vs. God” documentary (Photo Credit: Ray Comfort)

As for those who are angry over the film, Comfort was candid. Non-believers, he claims, are simply frustrated that their worldview is being eroded by what’s exposed in “Evolution vs. God.”

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

August 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:
Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do. —I Timothy 1:4

Devotional:
So then God has not given us his word to feed us only without profit, as the world would that we should tickle their ears, and that there were nothing in us but only to delight their mind and make them merry.
God does not mean to dally here with us, but his mind is that we receive some good instruction, that is to say, that we receive profit by his word.

Therefore all they that do not apply the word of God to good profit and use, are contemners and falsifiers of good and wholesome doctrine. In short, the word of God is as it were profaned and made vile, unless we apply it thus profitably that we receive good instruction to our salvation by it.

Therefore let us learn that God will not have temples here to sport and laugh in as if there were plays played here; but there must be majesty in his word, by which we may be moved and touched; and moreover a profitable instruction to salvation, and we must be nourished with this spiritual food, so that we may feel that it is not in vain that God speaks to us. —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.

Positive Changes

Making Bail Laws More Reasonable

We have commented in recent weeks on small changes the New Zealand government is making for the better.  Most of these have focused on welfare beneficiaries, with authorities being more comprehensively demanding of beneficiaries that they find a job, lest their benefits get reduced.  Authorities are working in a more co-ordinated fashion to the same end.  It is making an impact upon beneficiary culture: the message, "you have to get a job" is sinking in.

Another incremental change has just been made--this time to bail laws.  It is going to be much harder for serious offenders to get bail. 

Bail has always been a bad idea made necessary because of overcrowding in remand prisons and because the justice system moves at a glacial pace.  The prospect of having an accused sit in jail for over two years waiting for a trial, at which he or she is subsequently found non-guilty is a manifest injustice.  Hence the device of letting accused folk out on bail to await trial.  "Innocent until proven guilty" is a fundamental principle of justice, after all.  But that application of that principle to criminals awaiting trial has been applied in such a way as to increase crime in New Zealand.

Vacuous Greenism

Anti-Fracking Luddiocy

Think of any technology that involves carbon based energy and its utilisation, and the lunatic fringe can be found parading, placarding, and protesting.  By-and-large these folk are anti-science, anti-technology luddites.  Their "case" is made by means of various ad hominem attacks, lies, innuendo, exaggerations, and hysteria.  Lots of heat.  No light.  Typical greenist propaganda.

The latest cause d'celebre amongst these intellectually challenged folk is fracking--which, if the histrionic loonies are to be believed, threatens humankind.  Phelim McAleer, fracking protagonist, profiles repeated anti-fracking impeccable ignorance, courtesy of Spiked

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

August 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:
If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit; Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity. —Job 31:5, 6

Devotional:
Let us learn also to humble ourselves, seeing that the devil is trying to put us to sleep by hypocrisy in order that we may not recognize our faults, and that they may grow worse and worse.

Let us then look within ourselves, and after we have examined our imperfections, let us cry out before God, "Alas, Lord! thou hast given me thy grace to go forward in thy service; I do my best, I strive, I resist all my passions, and I fight against myself; and yet I am not righteous before thee, but there is much wrong with me still."

That is how the faithful, after striving to the limit of their strength, ought always to retain this opinion when there remains any sinfulness mingled with the good which God enables them to do; they must learn to plead guilty before him and to humble themselves, that they may receive grace.

Haters of Humanity

Baalism or the Christ

Neutrality is not an option.  It is a chimera.  The Scriptures declare that one is either for the Lord Jesus Christ, or against Him.  No middle ground.  And our Lord added, he who does not gather with Me, scatters.  These statements are not startling; they are entirely predictable and expected.  After all, our Lord is the light of the world.  Darkness cannot continue or abide in the light.  They are opposites.  When men are confronted with the light, they will either come to Christ, into His light, or they will flee Him.  No neutrality.

The secular humanist state, now regnant throughout the West, professes neutrality towards the Christ.  It is officially neither for Him, nor against Him.  The secular humanist state considers Him irrelevant.  If He exists at all, He belongs to a realm that has no bearing upon earthly reality.

But what of His followers?

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

The Great Cat Poo Medallion

Posted on Monday, August 26, 2013  

By Douglas Wilson 

Blog and Mablog

Rod Dreher has a good piece here on the great looming alternative that now confronts us.

Within the biblical framework of a rightly-ordered patriotism, it is easy for Christians to take our native loyalties to our native land as a simple given, while reserving to ourselves the right to disagree with or oppose the decisions and mandates of the current administration. Jeremiah was no less a patriot for challenging King Zedekiah. Seems simple.

But when the canker of rebellious idolatry is well-advanced in any nation, the possibility of the regnant idolaters seeing believers as part of a loyal opposition begins to steadily erode. A totalitarian miasma sets in, and any disagreement with the current forms of legislated disobedience is taken either as mental illness or treason. When Stalin wanted to deal with his political enemies, he used psychiatry to define them into his version of the outer darkness. When the ancient Romans persecuted the Christians, they did so because the Christians were enemies of mankind. And in our day, simple disagreement with the proposals surrounding same sex mirage is categorized simply, routinely, and quite handily, as “hate.” That was an extraordinary move, and entirely predictable.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

August 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:
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. —I John 4:10

Devotional:
Thus, by a pure and gratuitous love towards us, he is excited to receive us into favor. But if there is a perpetual and irreconcilable opposition between righteousness and iniquity, he cannot receive us entirely, as long as we remain sinners.

Therefore, to remove all occasion of enmity, and to reconcile us completely to himself, he abolishes all our guilt, by the expiation exhibited in the death of Christ, that we, who before were polluted and impure, may appear righteous and holy in his sight. The love of God the Father therefore precedes our reconciliation in Christ; or rather it is because he first loves, that he afterwards reconciles us to himself.

But because, till Christ relieves us by his death, we are not freed from that iniquity which deserves the indignation of God, and is accursed and condemned in his sight; we have not a complete and solid union with God, before we are united to him by Christ.

And therefore if we would assure ourselves that God is pacified and propitious to us, we must fix our eyes and hearts on Christ alone, since it is by him only that we really obtain the non-imputation of sins, the imputation of which is connected with the Divine wrath. —Institutes, II, xvi, iii

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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.

Bad Examples

Finnish Contumely

Deborah Hill Cone is a NZ Herald columnist. She wrote a provocative piece on government education the other day.  It seems that the Finns are doing particularly well in education--along with South Korea and Poland.   Her column makes reference to a new book by Amanda Ripley How Do Other Countries Create Smarter Kids?.

Journalist Amanda Ripley went on a worldwide quest to try to understand the mystery of why kids in some countries were doing well academically while more privileged kids in the US were struggling.  Ripley said she was stumped, until one day she saw a chart and "it blew my mind". The chart showed Finland had rocketed from the bottom of the world education rankings to the top "without pausing for breath".  Yet children in Norway, right next door, were floundering, despite their nation having virtually no child poverty.

So, after a bit of old-fashioned investigative journalism and research, Ripley presents her conclusions.  As you all no doubt are anticipating, the causal factors were all so humdrum and ordinary.  But--and we say this with reflective deliberation--they are also factors impossible to introduce into the New Zealand's enlightened education system as it currently exists.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

August 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:
But ye have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; —Ephesians 4:20-22


Devotional:
This is a proper place to address those who have nothing but the name and the symbol of Christ, and yet would be called Christians. But with what face do they glory in his sacred name? For none have any intercourse with Christ but those who have received the true knowledge of him from the word of the gospel.

Now the apostle denies that any have rightly learned Christ, who have not been taught that they must put off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and put on Christ. Their knowledge of Christ, then, is proved to be a false and injurious pretense, with whatever eloquence and volubility they may talk concerning the gospel.

Modern Aristo-Plutocrats

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

Marie Antoinette's infamous, "Let them eat cake" has entered the popular lexicon as a byword for sociopathic disdain for the poor.  There is some serious doubt as to whether poor old Marie ever uttered the phrase.  It was attributed to her by one Jean Jacques Rousseau who never let the facts get in the way of a ripping slander. 

Rousseau's Confessions (in which the slander appears) was written in 1768--two years before Marie Antoinette moved to France.  The line also appears in Rousseau's journal notes "years before Antoinette was born."  Ouch.  But it proved a useful pretext and propaganda tool to stir up envy and anger, inciting the odd riot or two.  [Jonah Goldberg, The Tyranny of Cliches: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas (New York: Sentinel/Penguin, 2012), p.172.]

The picture of an uncaring, wealthy aristocracy who hate the poor abides.  It appeals to our baser instincts.  It certainly appealed to Rousseau who, himself, was an acute despiser of the poor and a "suck-up-to-nobility-kind-of-chap".  If Rousseau could not join the aristocracy, he hated them; when he was welcomed and celebrated in their circles, he fawned over them.  He was a pathetic fellow in so many ways. 

But his bitter word, falsely attributed to Marie Antoinette, lives on.  Ironically, it is amongst modern democrats and socialists that the sentiment conveyed by Rousseau has the most traction.  Uber-wealth and gaudy displays are the hallmark of the modern celebrity culture, along with a fashionable assuaging commitment to socialism.  The latter serves to salve the conscience for all that wealth so ostentatiously on display.  Marie Antoinette had nothing on our modern aristo-plutocrats.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

Ares, Aphrodite, and Hermes

Posted on Wednesday, July 3, 2013 

By Douglas Wilson 

Blog and Mablog

A friend asked about a biblical worldview perspective on civil unions for homosexuals, and so here goes.

1. When involved in discussions about things like this, it is crucial that we think three chess moves ahead. Does anybody seriously think that adopting civil union legislation would make the pressure for homosexual marriage decrease? If we accept the legitimacy of civil unions, have we granted any premises that would make it impossible to deny a pending conclusion that we would otherwise want to deny? To ask the question is to answer it.

2. If limited like marriage (say, to a maximum of two people), then civil unions are a mockery of marriage, not marriage itself. In that case, why would any recipient of that status be satisfied with it? Homosexuality runs on envy, and you don’t make envy disappear by creating a second class shanty right next door to the nice house. And if civil unions are made utterly unlike marriage, so as to include up to six other people, say, then what would prevent heterosexual “polygamous” civil unions from springing up overnight?

3. I’ll tell you what would prevent it — the cost of the benefits packages to employers, that’s what. Health insurance, full coverage, for a man, his wife, and four concubines, would be way more expensive than the current set up.

And this brings us to one of the hidden sources of all the mischief,

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

August 27

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 I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake. —Isaiah 37:35

Devotional:
"For my own sake." When he says that he will do this "for his own sake," he calls on Hezekiah and all believers to remember his gracious covenant.

In order to prevent them from despairing, he shows that God will be their defender, not because he finds any cause in them, but rather because he looks to himself; first that he may adhere firmly to his purpose, not to cast away the posterity of Abraham which he adopted, not to abolish religious worship, not to blot out the remembrance of his name on the earth by destroying his sanctuary; and, secondly, not to expose his name to the jeers and blasphemies of the nations.

And these words contain an implied reproof which that nation ought to have felt to be severe, and justly; because the good king had more difficulty in pacifying them than in repelling the enemy; for they distrusted and stormed and thought that no hope of safety was left for them.

The Lord, therefore, did not look at the merits of the people or of any other person, but only had regard to his own glory; for the contrast which is expressed by Ezekiel must be here understood, "Not for your sakes, 0 house of Israel, will I do this, but for my own sake" (Ezek. 36:22).

Gentile Madness

Gender Bender

When God gives a culture up to the ravages of its own sinfulness its mind becomes darkened (Romans 1:21).  The culture starts to do stupid, laughable things with all due solemnity and seriousness. 

Here is an example of Gentile madness:  US army solider, Private Manning stole state secrets.  He has been judged and found guilty, and sentenced to thirty-five years in prison.  But Private Manning is taken in self-absorbed lust.  He wants to be a woman.  He has made application for medical intervention that would change him into a woman.  This is serious stuff.  It is serious because medical "experts" have discovered there is a bona-fide disease named Gender Identity Disorder ("GID").  Wow.  A disease.  But that means its treatable--using hormones, the surgeon's knife, counselling and a truckload of other medical interventions.  Hey presto, Manning can be turned into a woman. 

But wait, there's more.  The issue here is not just the perverted fixations of a lost proud soul.  The soul that is lost includes the United States medical establishment.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

When a Public Mind Cannot Repent

Posted on Thursday, July 18, 2013  

By Douglas Wilson 

Blog and Mablog 

Many Christian activists and reformers are in that position because they see — they anticipate, they look forward, they can run out the consequences. If they were in a position to do so, they would be good providers for our society. The word provide comes from two Latin words, meaning to see beforehand. You can give the provision because you saw it coming.

When someone sees ordinary things coming — springtime and harvest, for example — he is considered diligent. The sluggard is surprised by the arrival of winter. He wants desperately, but has nothing (Prov. 13:4). He is reduced to begging in the time of harvest (Prov. 20:4). But can you warn him beforehand? Not a bit of it — he is wiser in his own conceits than seven men with good reasons (Prov. 26:16).

When someone sees extraordinary things coming — the famine that threatened Egypt, for example — he is considered a prophet like Joseph. When someone truly identifies future things in a way that is not consistent with chance, we say that he is a prophet of God (Is. 41:23). And (in a movie) if someone were able to predict the winning lottery numbers, we would say it was clairvoyance . . . or cheating.

But when someone sees damnation coming to someone, the more his prediction is confirmed, the more it is discounted and despised.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

August 26

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

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

Bible Text:
And of his fulness have all we received and grace for grace. —John 1:16


Devotional:
"And of his fulness." True indeed, the fountain of life, righteousness, virtue, and wisdom, is with God, but to us it is a hidden and inaccessible fountain.

But an abundance of those things is exhibited to us in Christ, that we may be permitted to have recourse to him; for he is ready to flow to us, provided that we open up a channel by faith. He declares in general that out of Christ we ought not to seek anything good, though this sentence consists of several clauses.

First, he shows that we are all utterly destitute and empty of spiritual blessings; for the abundance which exists in Christ is intended to supply our deficiency, to relieve our poverty, to satisfy our hunger and thirst.

Secondly, he warns us that, as soon as we have departed from Christ, it is in vain for us to seek a single drop of happiness, because God has determined that whatever is good shall reside in him alone. Accordingly, we shall find angels and men to be dry, heaven to be empty, the earth to be unproductive, and in short all things to be of no value, if we wish to be partakers of the gifts of God in any other way than through Christ.

Thirdly, he assures us that we shall have no reason to fear the want of any thing, provided that we draw from the fulness of Christ, which is in every respect so complete, that we shall experience it to be a truly inexhaustible fountain; and John classes himself with the rest, not for the sake of modesty, but to make it more evident that no man whatever is excepted. —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.

Modern Words

Downward Progress

We were intrigued the other day to read what was intended to be a damning criticism of a US politician.

The time-capsule quality of Cruz’s politics is lost on no one who knew him at Princeton, none of whom could point to a political position that he held 25 years ago that he does not seem to still hold today. For some, that amounts to a laudably consistent belief system. For others, it reveals a man of calcified thinking, dangerously impervious to facts, reality, and a changing world.

 "More than anyone I knew, Ted seemed to have arrived in college with a fully formed worldview,” Butler College colleague Erik Leitch said.  “And what strikes me now, looking at him as an adult and hearing the things he's saying, it seems like nothing has changed. Four years of an Ivy League education, Harvard Law, and years of life experience have altered nothing."

Imagine we attended Harvard Law School as a tyro, but with a deep conviction that the world was over 70 percent ocean.  Now, years later, replete with a Harvard Law degree, years of life experience, and presumably wiser, we still hold the same view: that the earth's surface is predominately water.  Critics could doubtless allege that we were closed minded, of "calcified thinking, dangerously impervious to facts, reality, and a changing world." 

Whilst the slur would be expectorated full of sound and fury, it would signify precisely nothing.  Well, actually, it would signify something about the person doing the slurring.  Let's deconstruct.

Letter From the UK (About State Tyranny)

Ta-ta UK freedoms! Miranda matter outs vindictiveness of wounded police state

Annie Machon is a former intel­li­gence officer for the UK's MI5, who resigned in 1996 to blow the whistle. She is now a writer, public speaker and a Director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

Published time: August 19, 2013 20:10

RT

 

As you read the article below, keep asking yourself this question: What had David Miranda to do with planning or conspiring or perpetrating acts of terror?  The answer is obvious. How then could be be detained under "emergency powers" that are designed to interdict those actively involved in plotting or carrying out terrorist attacks?  Only by a drawing a long, tyrannical bow: namely, he who opposes the powers of government to combat terror is by definition aiding and abetting terrorist acts by others.  This would make most citizens complicit in, and guilty of terrorism, by association.  The beast is unchained and loose.

Ed.

 

U.S. journalist Glenn Greenwald (L) walks with his partner David Miranda in Rio de Janeiro's International Airport August 19, 2013. (Reuters/Ricardo Moraes)

As the definition of terrorism has expanded to cover activists, placard wavers, protesters and now, apparently, the partners of journalists, the arrest of Glenn Greenwald's partner is just another nail in the coffin of British Freedoms.

David Miranda had just spent a week in Berlin before flying back to his home country, Brazil, via London's Heathrow airport. As he attempted to transit on to his flight home - not enter the UK, mind you, just make an international connection - he was pulled to one side by the UK's border security officers and questioned for nine hours, as well as having all his technical equipment confiscated.

He was detained for the maximum period allowed under the draconian terms of Schedule 7 of the UK's Terrorism Act (2000). His apparent "crime"? To be the partner of campaigning journalist Glenn Greenwald, who broke the Edward Snowden whistleblowing stories.

Miranda's detention has caused outrage, rightly, around the world.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

August 24

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

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

Bible Text:
Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; —I Corinthians 3:21, 22

Devotional:
But believers should accustom themselves to such a contempt of the present life as may not generate either hatred of life, or ingratitude towards God. For this life, though it is replete with innumerable miseries, is yet deservedly reckoned among the Divine blessings which must not be despised.

Wherefore, if we discover nothing of the Divine beneficence in it, we are already guilty of no small ingratitude towards God himself. But to believers especially, it should be a testimony of the Divine benevolence, since the whole of it is destined to the advancement of their salvation. For before he openly discovers to them the inheritance of eternal glory, he intends to reveal himself as our Father in inferior instances; and those are the benefits which he daily confers on us.

Integrity in the Bank

Populist Hogwash

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has moved to restrict speculative lending by banks.  The predictable backlash has seen high dudgeon from the Commentariat which has been speaking up for those poor erstwhile "first home buyers" who are going to be shut out of the market because they cannot marshal the (now) requisite 20 percent deposit.  Populist rubbish.  But it sells newspapers and stirs the pot.

Spare a thought for the Reserve Bank.  It is charged with maintaining the solvency and stability of the New Zealand banking system.  It can only do this if the banks continue to maintain prudent practices with respect to lending.  And therein lies the rub. 

During the global financial crisis--largely precipitated by reckless housing lending in the United States, the UK, and Europe--the New Zealand government was moved to guarantee bank deposits for a time.  Without such a guarantee, it was argued, international creditors would no longer be willing to stump up capital to pay for the country's foreign borrowing.  A precedent was set and a moral hazard was unleashed.  We all learned that in a systemic credit crisis the government would bail out the banks. 

The government is now trying to back off that implicit state guarantee of bank liabilities.

Letter From America (About Scotland)

Scotland the Brave No More

Relentless leftism goes mostly unrebutted by the Scots.

By  Mona Charen

August 20, 2013 12:00 AM
National Review Online

In an old show-business routine, a stuffy characters complains: “I didn’t come here to be insulted!” to which the response is “Oh really? Where do you usually go?”

I went to Scotland. Don’t misunderstand, the Scots were delightful hosts — friendly, accommodating, and of course, a delight to the ears. The country is as beautiful as advertised, and the castles, museums, and lochs live up to their billing.

But a few days in Edinburgh during the “Fringe” festival is enough to bury images of thistles and bagpipes very deep. The two links to the Scotland of legend are the enduring Anglophobia (the country will vote on independence in September 2014) and the fondness for whisky. A nation of 5 million people boasts more than 100 distilleries and the cocktail hour seems to be interpreted most liberally.

But modern Scotland is deep-dyed in socialism.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

August 23

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

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

Bible Text:
Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. —John 4:16

Devotional:
"Call thy husband." Such too is the obstinacy of many, that they will never listen to Christ until they have been subdued by violence. Whenever then we perceive that the oil of Christ has no flavor, it ought to be mixed with wine, that its taste may begin to be felt.

Nay more, this is necessary for all of us; for we are not seriously affected by Christ speaking unless we have been aroused to repentance.

So then, in order that anyone may profit in the school of Christ, his hardness must be subdued by the demonstration of his misery, as the earth, in order that it may become fruitful, is prepared and softened by the plowshare. For this knowledge alone shakes off all our flatteries, so that we no longer dare to mock God.

Revolutionaries, Radical Ideologues and Mindless Sheep

Old and New Spies

The revised spying bill became law in New Zealand on the 21st of August.  Labour and the Greens have promised to repeal the legislation if they capture the Treasury benches in 2014.  A local blogger has helpfully completed a comparison/contrast chart between the legislation it replaced and new amendments.

The old legislation was drafted in haste by the Labour government (with concurrence from other parties) whilst the threat of planes flying into buildings was a decided risk.  It was during that mad time when not enough was known about Islamic terrorist groups and their methodologies, tools, and techniques.  Therefore, the risks were larger in the popular imagination than in reality.  Legislation drafted in fear and passed in haste is usually rued by those suffering the indignity of having to submit to it.  So it was in this case.  It turned out lawyers could not understand parts of it; the text of the law was equivocal in others, contradictory in yet other places.  As a consequence, the Government Communications and Security Bureau (our version of the National Security Agency ["NSA"] in the United States) subsequently broke the law, apparently because it mis-interpreted it.

The new legislation tidies a lot of that up, removing confusion.  In addition, and most importantly, the replacement legislation contains far more checks and balances than Labour's panicked legislation back in 2003.  It is thus a far better piece of law.  Citizens in the US must be green with envy when they compare and contrast our legal protections with those which don't exist in the United States.

Quote of the Day

Fighting the Good Fight

"We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies our problem of getting to these people..."

Lewis B. Puller

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

August 22

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

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

Bible Text:
Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High: And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. —Psalm 50:14, 15

Devotional:
There is in all men by nature a strong and ineffaceable conviction that they ought to worship God. Indisposed to worship him in a pure and spiritual manner, it becomes necessary that they should invent some specious appearance as a substitute; and however clearly they may be persuaded of the vanity of such conduct, they persist in it to the last, because they shrink from a total renunciation of the service of God.

Men have always, accordingly, been found addicted to ceremonies until they have been brought to the knowledge of that which constitutes true and acceptable religion.

Praise and prayer are here to be considered as representing the whole of the worship of God, according to a figure of speech.