Daily Meditation

Saved and Healed, But in Ignorance

Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.  John 5:13

Charles H. Spurgeon

Years are short to the happy and healthy; but thirty-eight years of disease must have dragged a very weary length along the life of the poor impotent man. When Jesus, therefore, healed him by a word, while he lay at the pool of Bethesda, he was delightfully sensible of a change.

Even so the sinner who has for weeks and months been paralysed with despair, and has wearily sighed for salvation, is very conscious of the change when the Lord Jesus speaks the word of power, and gives joy and peace in believing. The evil removed is too great to be removed without our discerning it; the life imparted is too remarkable to be possessed and remain inoperative; and the change wrought is too marvellous not to be perceived.

Yet the poor man was ignorant of the author of his cure; he knew not the sacredness of his person, the offices which he sustained, or the errand which brought him among men. Much ignorance of Jesus may remain in hearts which yet feel the power of his blood. We must not hastily condemn men for lack of knowledge; but where we can see the faith which saves the soul, we must believe that salvation has been bestowed.

The Holy Spirit makes men penitents long before he makes them divines; and he who believes what he knows, shall soon know more clearly what he believes. Ignorance is, however, an evil; for this poor man was much tantalized by the Pharisees, and was quite unable to cope with them. It is good to be able to answer gainsayers; but we cannot do so if we know not the Lord Jesus clearly and with understanding. The cure of his ignorance, however, soon followed the cure of his infirmity, for he was visited by the Lord in the temple; and after that gracious manifestation, he was found testifying that "it was Jesus who had made him whole."

Lord, if thou hast saved me, show me thyself, that I may declare thee to the sons of men.

Puzzling--Yet Understandable

Why Western Intellectuals Love Stalin

One of the more puzzling phenomenon of Western Europe in the twentieth century has been the way intellectuals doted on Stalin.  Many still do.  A good contemporary example of the trope in our day is found in Jeremy Corbyn and the present Labour Party in the United Kingdom.  The question is begged as to why this might be.

The historian, Tony Judt endeavours to explain:

Western intellectual enthusiasm for Communism tended to peak not in time of "goulash Communism" or "Socialism with a human face", but rather at the moments of the regime's worst cruelties: 1935-39 and 1944-56.  Writers, professors, artists, teachers and journalists frequently admired Stalin not in spite of his faults, but because of them.  It was when he was murdering people on an industrial scale, when the show trials were displaying Soviet Communism at its mot theatrically macabre, that men and women beyond Stalin's grasp were most seduced by the man and his cult.  It was the absurdly large gap separating rhetoric from reality that made it so irresistible to men and women of goodwill in search of a Cause.  [Tony Judt, Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 (London: Vintage Books, 2010), p. 216.] 

So, here is the problem: how can it be that men and women of Western Europe and Great Britain could could not just overlook the barbarism and cruelty of Stalin's regime, but glory in it?

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow, With Apologies

Sorry, Not Sorry

Pastor Douglas Wilson
Blog&Mablog


INTRODUCTION:

In these perilous times, when apologies have been fully weaponized, I would like to urge everyone to obtain and read, and depending on the circumstances, possibly memorize, the essay by C.S. Lewis called “Dangers of National Repentance.” It can be found in God in the Dock, and is a word for our time.

I have previously written about how demands for apologies are a central weapon in our cultural conflicts, and how refusal to apologize is often a baseline Christian duty. Check here. And while I believe that every Christian should confess his sins honestly and regularly, I am getting to the point where I believe that if it is in any way related to issues of political correctness, micro-aggression, cultural appropriation, rape culture, critical theory, and what not, a person should not apologize for anything unless the archangel Gabriel himself shows up personally during his evening prayers and gives him a memo from above that says “you gotta.”

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE:

But there is another way to weaponize an apology, and this is where the C.S. Lewis essay comes in.

Daily Meditation

"We Commit Two Sins . . . "

Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods.  Jeremiah 16:20

Charles H. Spurgeon

One great besetting sin of ancient Israel was idolatry, and the spiritual Israel are vexed with a tendency to the same folly. Remphan's star shines no longer, and the women weep no more for Tammuz, but Mammon still intrudes his golden calf, and the shrines of pride are not forsaken. Self in various forms struggles to subdue the chosen ones under its dominion, and the flesh sets up its altars wherever it can find space for them. Favourite children are often the cause of much sin in believers; the Lord is grieved when he sees us doting upon them above measure; they will live to be as great a curse to us as Absalom was to David, or they will be taken from us to leave our homes desolate. If Christians desire to grow thorns to stuff their sleepless pillows, let them dote on their dear ones.

It is truly said that "they are no gods," for the objects of our foolish love are very doubtful blessings, the solace which they yield us now is dangerous, and the help which they can give us in the hour of trouble is little indeed. Why, then, are we so bewitched with vanities? We pity the poor heathen who adore a god of stone, and yet worship a god of gold. Where is the vast superiority between a god of flesh and one of wood? The principle, the sin, the folly is the same in either case, only that in ours the crime is more aggravated because we have more light, and sin in the face of it.

The heathen bows to a false deity, but the true God he has never known; we commit two evils, inasmuch as we forsake the living God and turn unto idols. May the Lord purge us all from this grievous iniquity! 

The dearest idol I have known,
Whate'er that idol be;
Help me to tear it from thy throne,
And worship only thee.

A Couple of Notes from the Travel Diary, Part II

A Home School in Action

Yesterday we were discussing the thralldom to crystal methamphetamine as it is being experienced in provincial New Zealand.

A more positive experience on our travels was had when we stopped off at a small country town for coffee and some food.  Working in the cafe was a woman and a young girl whom we estimated to be about ten years old.  We were intrigued about the young girl.  This was a school day, and clearly the child was not at school.

It became obvious pretty quickly that the older woman (maybe the girl's mother or "auntie") was involved in training the younger girl in the disciplines of commerce: serving customers, operating the "machinery" in the shop, taking orders, and so forth.  What impressed us was the way the young attendant spoke to us.  She looked straight at us, greeted us, and asked how she might assist us.  There was an air of confidence about her that can only come when a child is exposed to the encouragement and loving support of adults, of whanau.

We looked at the menu, asked a couple of questions, and her older colleague helped her answer.  We placed our order, she entered it into the electronic cash register, then operated the card payment equipment, and delivered our receipt.  We then went outside in the sunshine to tables and chairs surrounded by a neat garden, growing all kinds of herbs and vegetables doubtless being used in the culinary creations inside.

In time the young girl delivered our coffee, then the snacks.

Karl Marx--A Horseman of the Apocalypse

Titan of Terror

The left-wing acolytes who say Karl Marx can't be blamed for the millions slaughtered in his name are deluded - bloodshed was at the heart of his philosophy.

Karl Marx, founder of communism, was born in Germany 200 years ago today.  His ideology was used by mass killers like Stalin, Pol Pot and Mao Zedong.  Fans claim he's not responsible but his name is synonymous with death.  Millions were killed by communist leaders across the world last century

By Dominic Sandbrook
Daily Mail

Two hundred years ago today, the most controversial thinker of the modern age was born in the German city of Trier.

When, on May 5, 1818, Heinrich and Henriette Marx welcomed their little boy into the world, they could never have imagined the utopian hopes and blood-soaked horrors that would become associated with his name.

Two centuries later, the very words 'Karl Marx' still carry an unmistakable charge. No modern intellectual, no economist or philosopher can match the combustible power of the rabbi's grandson who fled into poverty-stricken exile in leafy North London.

Most of the regimes based on Marx's ideas may have crumbled, yet his name remains synonymous with violent revolution, idealistic utopianism and the dictatorship of the proletariat.   It conjures up images of chanting crowds and glowering statues, collective farms and prison camps, tanks in Red Square and red flags over the Kremlin.

To his critics, Marx was a fanatic whose ideas inspired some of the cruellest regimes in history, from Stalin's Siberian gulags to the killing fields of Cambodia.  Yet, to his admirers — who include the current Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who recently called him a 'great economist', and the Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, who has named Das Kapital as his favourite book — he remains a visionary prophet whose ideas will, one day, lead mankind to a classless utopia.

Daily Meditation

Seven Sources of Joy

In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy. (2 Corinthians 7:4)

John Piper

What is extraordinary about Paul is how unbelievably durable his joy was when things weren’t going well.

Where did this come from?

First of all it was taught by Jesus: “Blessed are you when men hate you . . . Be glad in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven” (Luke 6:22–23). Troubles for Jesus compound your interest in heaven — which last a lot longer than earth.

Second, it comes from the Holy Spirit, not our own efforts or imagination or family upbringing. “The fruit of the Spirit is . . . joy” (Galatians 5:22). “You received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit” (1Thessalonians 1:6).

Third, it comes from belonging to the kingdom of God. “The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17).

Fourth, it comes through faith, that is, from believing God. “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing” (Romans 15:13). “I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith” (Philippians 1:25).

Fifth, it comes from seeing and knowing Jesus as Lord. “Rejoice in the Lord always” (Philippians 4:4).

Sixth, it comes from fellow believers who work hard to help us focus on these sources of joy, rather than deceitful circumstances. “We are workers with you for your joy” (2 Corinthians 1:24).

Seventh, it comes from the sanctifying effects of tribulations. “We also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope” (Romans 5:3–4).

If we are not yet like Paul, he calls us to be. “Be imitators of me as I am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). And for most of us this is a call to earnest prayer. It is a supernatural life.

A Couple of Notes From the Travel Diary

This is the Way The World Ends . . . 

To use Willie Nelson's line, we've "been on the road again" taking a trip through the Bay of Plenty.  Oftentimes it is the unusual and unexpected encounters that stand out.  Here is one which our readers may find provocative and thought provoking.  

We had occasion to meet with a front-line cop and the course of conversation turned to "front-line" issues in one of the larger Bay of Plenty towns.  He described what policing is like these days.  The government benefit gets paid out fortnightly.  Then, within two to three days afterwards the incidence of burglaries and thefts sky-rockets.  Anything which can be carried is targeted.  It may be theft from shops, businesses, homes, community facilities.  Anything not bolted down and which can be converted into cash or traded for meth is the ticket.

When the offenders are apprehended and the conversation begins over "what" has the perp done, and "why", a pattern emerges.  Within a couple of days the offender's government benefit has all been spent on methamphetamine and the addict is craving the next fix.  In desperation they steal to survive the next ten or so days.  Hence the rise of theft and burglaries all over town for ten days, until the next welfare payment.  Whereupon, the cycle and its pattern begins all over again.

Just think about this for a bit.

The West Must Repent Of Its Murderous Ways

Death Panels

Douglas Wilson
Blog&Mablog

I am emerging from a few weeks that were more hectic than usual, during which time I didn’t have as much available time for tracking the news as I normally do. And so it was that the horrific Alfie story from the UK only registered with me slowly. I say this so that no one infers from my silence on the subject that I somehow thought it was not worth consideration. No, this really is a harbinger story.

Picture with me, if you will, a dystopic health care system, managed along the lines of a Department of Motor Vehicles with an unusually surly staff, all of whom have imagined that there’s no Heaven, and no Hell below us. Now picture that you have a sick toddler with an unusual disorder, and you are fighting with the bureaucrats trying to persuade them that your child’s life is worth saving. 

Sarah Palin warned us about the coming death panels, and of course heap big scorn was poured out upon her, along with anyone who echoed any concern about any such thing as death panels.

Daily Meditation

Children of a Singing God

After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. (Mark 14:26)

John Piper

Can you hear Jesus singing?

Was he a bass or a tenor? Was there a down-home twang to his voice? Or was there an unwavering crystal pitch?

Did he close his eyes and sing to his Father? Or did he look into his disciples’ eyes and smile at their deep camaraderie?

Did he usually start the song?

O, I can hardly wait to hear Jesus sing! I think the planets would be jolted out of orbit if he lifted his native voice in our universe. But we have a kingdom that cannot be shaken; so, Lord, come on and sing.

It could not be otherwise but that Christianity be a singing faith. The founder sang. He learned to sing from his Father. Surely they have been singing together from all eternity.

The Bible says the aim of song is “to raise the sound of joy” (1 Chronicles 15:16). No one in the universe has more joy than God. He is infinitely joyful. He has rejoiced from eternity in the panorama of his own perfections reflected perfectly in the deity of his Son.

God’s joy is unimaginably powerful. He is God. When he speaks galaxies come into being. And when he sings for joy more energy is released than exists in all the matter and motion of the universe.

If he appointed song for us to release our heart’s delight in him, is this not because he also knows the joy of releasing his own heart’s delight in himself in song? We are a singing people because we are the children of a singing God.

Guest Post: Bruce Logan

The Charities Board Versus Natural Law


Bruce Logan
Board Member
Family First NZ

The attempt by the Charities Board to deregister Family First, if successful, would be a watershed, not just for Family First, but for the whole country. It is unlikely that Family First will ever find itself defending any issue of greater importance.

Deregistration would be a legal victory for those ideologues who would take power away from the family and give it to the state.  The irony is that this might not be their intention, they might not know this is what they’re doing, but that will be the consequence nevertheless.

The Charities Board believes that the primary purpose of Family First is to “promote and protect its view of the traditional family through advocating its view on various social issues.”  This is a reductionist understanding of what Family First is doing.

The term “traditional family” is inadequate because it is only part of the story. “Natural family” is a precise, useful and rational term.  The natural family is biologically determined, intergenerational and rationally and historically observable. The natural family is the consequence of the sexual nature of men and women. It is not a subjective or ideological or religious construction.

The Coming Dark Ages?

Can Russia Remain a Great Power?

Is its demographic predicament too large to overcome?

Marcus Roberts
Mercatornet


In the Second World War the people of the Soviet Union suffered enormously. By official counts (estimates) the number of Soviets who died was about 27 million people – an eighth of the pre-war population. Such a catastrophe continues to have effects through the decades. Fewer people after the war had fewer children, as these children grew up, they had fewer children and so on. Demographers call it a “wave” of population troughs and crests that undulate through the subsequent generations; its effects are still being felt in the successor states to the Soviet Union.

After Russia’s population stabilised at about 144 million people for about ten years (and was then boosted by the addition of over 2 million Crimeans – remember that?), it is once again shrinking as more Russians die than are born. Last year there was a decline in the number of Russian births by 11 percent. This decline in the number of births is set to continue: by 2032 the number of women in prime childbearing age is expected to decline by 28 percent from today’s figures, meaning that there will be fewer babies being born in the years ahead. Unless something drastic happens, the United Nations is expecting the Russian population to decline by 17 percent to 119 million by 2050.   

This state of demographic affairs is of concern to the newly re-elected Russian president, Vladimir Putin. As Bloomberg reports, Putin said that:

“‘Preserving the nation of Russia and the wellbeing of our citizens is the essence of everything,’ he said in his state of the nation address last month as a chart detailing the statistical “war echoes” loomed on a screen overhead. ‘Falling behind is the main threat. That’s our enemy.’”

In this speech to Parliament, Putin laid out a number of demographic and economic goals for his fourth term. These included propelling Russia into the top five economies. But he is battling some immense demographic headwinds.

Daily Meditation

Disciplined Thanksgiving

The Lord taketh pleasure in his people.  Psalm 149:4

Charles H. Spurgeon

How comprehensive is the love of Jesus! There is no part of his people's interests which he does not consider, and there is nothing which concerns their welfare which is not important to him. Not merely does he think of you, believer, as an immortal being, but as a mortal being too. Do not deny it or doubt it: "The very hairs of your head are all numbered." "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way."

It were a sad thing for us if this mantle of love did not cover all our concerns, for what mischief might be wrought to us in that part of our business which did not come under our gracious Lord's inspection! Believer, rest assured that the heart of Jesus cares about your meaner affairs. The breadth of his tender love is such that you may resort to him in all matters; for in all your afflictions he is afflicted, and like as a father pitieth his children, so doth he pity you.

The meanest interests of all his saints are all borne upon the broad bosom of the Son of God. Oh, what a heart is his, that doth not merely comprehend the persons of his people, but comprehends also the diverse and innumerable concerns of all those persons! Dost thou think, O Christian, that thou canst measure the love of Christ? Think of what his love has brought thee--justification, adoption, sanctification, eternal life! The riches of his goodness are unsearchable; thou shalt never be able to tell them out or even conceive them. Oh, the breadth of the love of Christ! Shall such a love as this have half our hearts? Shall it have a cold love in return? Shall Jesus' marvellous lovingkindness and tender care meet with but faint response and tardy acknowledgment?

O my soul, tune thy harp to a glad song of thanksgiving! Go to thy rest rejoicing, for thou art no desolate wanderer, but a beloved child, watched over, cared for, supplied, and defended by thy Lord.

Bureaucratic Morass

Authorities Droning On About Drones

Some breaches of natural law are just so obvious that it would be reasonable to expect quick, decisive action by governing authorities.  But when the authorities, if questioned, stare off into the middle distance and provide "bureaucratic-buck-passing responses" everybody knows intuitively that the authorities are boondoggled. 

We have just such a situation in New Zealand.  Drones are a recent technological innovation.  Used properly and responsibly they are can be a very useful invention. And so it is proving to be in New Zealand.  But the law and its bureaucrats are way behind the technology and its uses.  Sooner or later (probably sooner) innocent people are going to get hurt, whether it comes from a drone crashing into an approaching aircraft or from public outrage over egregious breaches of privacy.

A perfect illustration of the bureaucratic boondoggle over drones appeared recently in the press.  As you read the text, picture the Great Grimpen Mire of a bureaucratic slimy morass oozing forth its methane saturated fog.

Letter From the UK (About Official Persecution of Christians)

Our Religious Freedom

Ashers Bakery Case Goes to UK Supreme Court

BarnabasFund
26 April 2018

Next Tuesday and Wednesday (1-2 May 2018) the Supreme Court will hear the appeal from Ashers Baking Company in Northern Ireland. A previous appeal, 24 October 2016, upheld the original court ruling that Ashers bakery had directly discriminated on the grounds of sexual orientation, and on the grounds of religious and political belief.

On 29 April 2014, an attempt to redefine marriage (as not exclusively between a man and a woman) was blocked in the Northern Ireland Assembly. LGBT activists openly blamed Christians for this. A few days later an LGBT activist walked into Ashers bakery, whose website makes clear it is a Christian-owned business, and tried to place an order for a cake with the logo of LGBT lobby group Queer Space and the words ”Support Gay Marriage”. When the order was politely declined, he sued the Christian owners for discrimination. This followed the pattern of a series of similar, well publicised, attempts in the American states of Colorado and Oregon the previous year in which LGBT activists attempted to force Christian cake-makers to promote LGBT ideological beliefs.

As we have previously observed, there are several facts that are disturbing about this case.

Daily Meditation

The Great Exchange

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed. (Romans 1:16–17)

John Piper

We need righteousness to be acceptable to God. But we don’t have it. What we have is sin.

So God has what we need and don’t deserve — righteousness; and we have what God hates and rejects — sin. What is God’s answer to this situation?

His answer is Jesus Christ, the Son of God who died in our place. God lays our sins on Christ and punishes them in him. And in Christ’s obedient death, God fulfills and vindicates his righteousness and imputes (credits) it to us. Our sin on Christ, his righteousness on us.

We can hardly stress too much that Christ is God’s answer. It is all owing to Christ.

You can’t love Christ too much. You can’t think about him too much or thank him too much or depend upon him too much. All our justification, all our righteousness, is in Christ.

This is the gospel — the good news that our sins are laid on Christ and his righteousness is laid on us, and that this great exchange happens for us not by works but by faith alone.

Here is the good news that lifts burdens and gives joy and makes strong.

The Most Supportive Pro-Life President Ever . . .

Crooked Sticks, Straight Blows, and Abortion

The word coming out of the United States--from people who ought to know--is that Donald Trump is the most pro-life US President in a long, long time--perhaps ever since the fight against abortion began. 

One of the reasons we find it difficult to give credence to this assessment is that Trump has not always been a pro-life warrior.  In fact, he had been decidedly unreliable.  Prior to the campaign, he seemed to run with the hares and hunt with the hounds.  But he has turned out much better than many Presidents who have gone before. 

“I don’t think you could find an issue where he has been better,” Dannenfelser [longtime president of the Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List), a highly influential anti-abortion group] says of the pro-life progress under this administration. “We went from the conviction that he sounded unpresidential to the conviction that he’s the best president on the life issue that we’ve had, and when I say that, the test is actions, in terms of following through on promises made.”  [Alexandra Desantris, National Review Online]

Trump began to win over anti-abortion voters during the campaign when he signed off on a list of names of potential US Supreme Court nominee to replace Antonin Scalia.

Campus Persecution and Mob Rule

Tony Esolen Contra Mundum

Rod Dreher
The American Conservative

Prof Anthony Esolen

Many readers will have heard of Anthony Esolen, the robustly orthodox Catholic literature professor at Providence College, the Dominican-run college in Rhode Island. Prof. Esolen is the author of a number of books, including an exquisite translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy, which is one of the three translations I recommend to anyone who asks me which is the best to read. He also writes frequently for orthodox Christian magazines like Touchstone and Crisis.

A couple of essays he published in Crisis this autumn sparked a huge row on his campus. The first criticizes the politics of “diversity” as they play out within a Catholic academic setting. The second poses the question to faithful Catholics (and other Christians): What will you do when the persecution comes?

Naturally, some students and faculty on Esolen’s campus were so outraged by his suggestion that “diversity” as they understand it is misguided and destructive that they have commenced a campaign to punish him, perhaps even to fire him. [Esolen has since left Providence College.] Now, Esolen is having to answer the very question he recently posed to his readers in the second essay. Tony Esolen agreed to answer a few questions from me via e-mail. Our conversation is reproduced below.

Daily Meditation

Winds and Tempests

Thou art my hope in the day of evil.  Jeremiah 17:17

Charles H. Spurgeon

The path of the Christian is not always bright with sunshine; he has his seasons of darkness and of storm. True, it is written in God's Word, "Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace;" and it is a great truth, that religion is calculated to give a man happiness below as well as bliss above; but experience tells us that if the course of the just be "As the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day," yet sometimes that light is eclipsed.

At certain periods clouds cover the believer's sun, and he walks in darkness and sees no light. There are many who have rejoiced in the presence of God for a season; they have basked in the sunshine in the earlier stages of their Christian career; they have walked along the "green pastures" by the side of the "still waters," but suddenly they find the glorious sky is clouded; instead of the Land of Goshen they have to tread the sandy desert; in the place of sweet waters, they find troubled streams, bitter to their taste, and they say, "Surely, if I were a child of God, this would not happen." Oh! say not so, thou who art walking in darkness.

The best of God's saints must drink the wormwood; the dearest of his children must bear the cross. No Christian has enjoyed perpetual prosperity; no believer can always keep his harp from the willows. Perhaps the Lord allotted you at first a smooth and unclouded path, because you were weak and timid. He tempered the wind to the shorn lamb, but now that you are stronger in the spiritual life, you must enter upon the riper and rougher experience of God's full-grown children.

We need winds and tempests to exercise our faith, to tear off the rotten bough of self-dependence, and to root us more firmly in Christ. The day of evil reveals to us the value of our glorious hope.

Top Labour Politician Getting Found Out

Incompetent and Dishonest

What to do with an apparently incompetent Minister of the Crown who appears to be telling lies . . .

The country was assailed several weeks ago with allegations that Middlemore Hospital in Auckland was in dire straits.  It turns out the new government was "spinning"--that is, making things up, distorting the truth, exaggerating the alleged problems, creating a faux calamity.  Why would it do that?  Well, we don't know really. 

At the head of this apparently disreputable and dishonest attack has been the Government's new Minister of Health--one David Clark.  After the media went volcanic over all the allegedly horrible things that have been discovered about Middlemore Hospital, a few wiser heads are starting to ask questions.  It seems that they have been led by the nose ring, pulled and twisted by one David Clark, Minister of Health.

Mark Darrow, one of the Directors of Middlemore Hospital, has been summarily fired by Minister David Clark, despite the Minister never communicating with him at all, apart from the termination notice.  That of itself suggests cowardice on the part of the Minister--and/or fear of the now inevitable allegations of not dealing in good faith.  Here is just one reaction by one reporter who has done a bit more due diligence on our new deceptive and misleading Minister of the Crown.

The Rise of Homofascism

Homofascism at a Small Catholic College

If it can happen at Providence College, it can happen anywhere.

The Offending Poster

Philip Devine
Mercatornet

Providence College (PC) is a small Dominican college in Rhode Island. Michael Smalanskas, a student at PC, put up a poster defending the Roman Catholic understanding of marriage, which did not express fear, hatred, or even disapproval of anyone. The local LGBTQ+ alliance began a campaign of harassment against him, including a threat of anal rape.

Philosophy professor, and advisor to the student gay group. Dr. Christopher Arroyo announced a march against “every sign of unjust discrimination towards LGBTQ* members of the Friar Family.” (e-mail to the Providence College faculty, March 16, 2018. my emphasis) Michael was even advised to prove that he was not a homophobe by joining the march against himself.

Belatedly, after much protest by faculty, students, and alumni, the President of the College affirmed Catholic teaching about marriage and condemned the threats against Michael.  In 2016 Anthony Esolen, a distinguished Dante scholar and dynamic teacher, criticized the cult of diversity and was subjected to a campaign of vilification, by the President of Providence College among others, serious enough to cause him to leave the College. [Esolen's account follows tomorrow.  Contra Celsum has carried a number of pieces written by or referring to some of  Esolen's published works, most recently Out of the Ashes.  JT]

Daily Meditation

The Liberating Power of Forgiveness

Your sins are forgiven. (Luke 7:48)

John Piper

A woman comes to Jesus in a Pharisee’s house weeping and washing his feet. No doubt she felt shame as the eyes of Simon communicated to everyone present that this woman was a sinner and that Jesus had no business letting her touch him.

Indeed she was a sinner. There was a place for true shame. But not for too long.

Jesus said, “Your sins are forgiven” (Luke 7:48). And when the guests murmured about this, he helped her faith again by saying, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace” (Luke 7:50).

How did Jesus help her battle the crippling effects of shame? He gave her a promise: “Your sins have been forgiven! Your faith has saved you. Your future will be one of peace.” He declared that past pardon would now yield future peace.

So the issue for her was faith in God’s future grace rooted in the authority of Jesus’s forgiving work and freeing word. That is the way every one of us must battle the effects of a well-placed shame that threatens to linger too long and cripple us.

We must battle unbelief by taking hold of the promises of future grace and peace that come through the forgiveness of our shameful acts.

• “But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared” (Psalm 130:4).
• “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:6–7).
• “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
• “To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (Acts 10:43).

It doesn’t matter whether the act of God’s forgiveness is entirely past, or if there is new forgiveness in the future — in both cases the issue is the liberating power of God’s forgiveness for our future — freedom from shame. Forgiveness is full of future grace.

When we live by faith in future grace, we are freed from the lingering, paralyzing effects of well-placed shame.

UK Government Economists Ridiculed

Worse Than Alice's Wonderland

We found ourselves chuckling recently over our regular liturgy of morning coffee.  Economics has been called the dismal science.  It has been mocked for generations.  Yet, there are few cases of prophecy and prognostication by economists that have turned our to be so far of whack than those produced by the UK Treasury when the electorate voted to leave the EU.

Doomsters in the Treasury became so bearish at the prospect of the UK leaving the EU that calamities aplenty were forecast.  Here are a few of the dooms pronounced by the Treasury mandarins:

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow, Idaho (About the Trajectory of the West)

The West is Dead . . .

Douglas Wilson
Blog&Mablog

Below are my notes from an address to the God and Government conference for ARPA, held in Ottawa.

We live in a time when we are constantly reminded of the sins of the West. I do not wish to deny the reality of such sins, and still less the gravity of them. But I do want to place them in a different light than they usually get, under a different glass. I want to do this because a commitment to truth demands it, and on top of everything else, it is a matter of great strategic import.

A particular play is being run on us, and almost no one seems to be aware of the nature of that play. And so, with that concern in mind, there are three things I would like to ask you to consider. If you walk away from this talk with these three points in mind, I will be content.

The first is that the West must not be defined by her secularism. Secularism is not the genius of the West, but is rather the disease of the West.

Daily Meditation

Never Forget

This do in remembrance of me.  1 Corinthians 11:24

Charles H. Spurgeon

It seems then, that Christians may forget Christ! There could be no need for this loving exhortation, if there were not a fearful supposition that our memories might prove treacherous. Nor is this a bare supposition: it is, alas! too well confirmed in our experience, not as a possibility, but as a lamentable fact.

It appears almost impossible that those who have been redeemed by the blood of the dying Lamb, and loved with an everlasting love by the eternal Son of God, should forget that gracious Saviour; but, if startling to the ear, it is, alas! too apparent to the eye to allow us to deny the crime. Forget him who never forgot us! Forget him who poured his blood forth for our sins! Forget him who loved us even to the death! Can it be possible?

Yes, it is not only possible, but conscience confesses that it is too sadly a fault with all of us, that we suffer him to be as a wayfaring man tarrying but for a night. He whom we should make the abiding tenant of our memories is but a visitor therein. The cross where one would think that memory would linger, and unmindfulness would be an unknown intruder, is desecrated by the feet of forgetfulness.

Does not your conscience say that this is true? Do you not find yourselves forgetful of Jesus? Some creature steals away your heart, and you are unmindful of him upon whom your affection ought to be set. Some earthly business engrosses your attention when you should fix your eye steadily upon the cross. It is the incessant turmoil of the world, the constant attraction of earthly things which takes away the soul from Christ. While memory too well preserves a poisonous weed, it suffereth the rose of Sharon to wither.

Let us charge ourselves to bind a heavenly forget-me-not about our hearts for Jesus our Beloved, and, whatever else we let slip, let us hold fast to him.

A Historical Vignette: The Cost of National Pride and Vainglory

The Post-War English Disease

One of the conundrums of British history post World War II is why the country's economy sloughed along in the doldrums for twenty years or so after the war ended.  We have forgotten how long rationing lasted in the UK post 1945.  In comparison, the economies of France, Germany, Holland boomed in fairly short order.  Yet, the economy of triumphant Britain languished in a noisome backwater.  Why?

After war's end the only way forward

. . . was for the British to impose on themselves unprecedented conditions of restrain and voluntary penury--which accounts for the much remarked upon feature of those years: that proud, victorious Great Britain seemed somehow tighter, poorer, grayer and grimmer than any of the erstwhile defeated, occupied and ravished lands across the water.  Everything was rationed, restricted, controlled.  [Tony Judt, Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 (London: Vintage Books, 2005), p.162.]

All this, mark you, was in a country which was not invaded.  For many, the post-war conditions in Britain were worse than the actual years of conflict. 

This was the age of austerity. . . . (A)lmost everything was rationed or simply unavailable: meat, sugar, clothes, cars, gasoline, foreign travel, even sweets.  Bread rationing, never imposed during the way, was introduced in 1946 and no abandoned until July 1948. . . . Street scenes in post-war Britain would have been familiar to citizens in the Soviet bloc--in the words of one English housewife, recalling ehse years, 'It was queues for everything, you know, even if you didn't know what you were queuing for . . . you joined it because you knew there was something at the end of it.' [Ibid.]

It seems incredible that Germany was recovering its infrastructure and economy faster than the UK.

Government Ban on Natural Gas Deconstructed By Expert

Open Letter re Oil and Gas Exploration

A guest post from Mark Webster of New Endeavour Resources (N.Z) Ltd.
Republished from Kiwiblog

The recent decision by the New Zealand government to stop issuing Permits for offshore oil & gas exploration is misguided and counter-productive.  It is highly likely that New Zealand has sufficient natural gas to support an LNG industry.  Exporting gas to countries that currently utilise coal would have a real, material impact on global emissions, and be a game changer to the NZ economy, enabling NZ to fund the social, environmental, infrastructure, and regional development programmes that the government has prioritised.  The current strategy will have minimal, and probably negative, impact on emissions, while removing a valuable source of revenue, with no substitute identified.

I am a New Zealander and a petroleum geologist.  I started my career as a graduate in Petrocorp and left 13 years later as Chief Geologist. I have worked in the industry for 34 years, in New Zealand and overseas (in Australia, Canada, Thailand, Philippines, and Malaysia). I established a company (NER) with two experienced Australian colleagues, specifically to look for gas reserves in Taranaki.  We see huge potential here and have been working hard to develop opportunities, attract investors to NZ, and unlock this resource.  I don’t believe anyone would define us as Big Oil; I drive a 2004 Toyota Echo.

Like most people in the NZ oil & gas industry, I also care about clean air, clean water, and a fair society, and am grateful daily that I am lucky enough to live on these lightly populated and isolated islands. I voted Labour in the last election because, like many others, I was concerned at the growing inequity in NZ, the need for communities to have to provide food and clothing for school kids, the woeful salaries we pay teachers, nurses and basically anyone who isn’t in a position to yield financial clout. I don’t like seeing our youngest and brightest burdened by debt when they successfully complete training or education, knowing home ownership is moving out of their reach and they will be responsible for a rapidly increasing aged population requiring care. I liked Labour’s promises to boost the regions, so Auckland doesn’t become the hippo sitting at one end of the rowboat.

My argument is very simple.

Daily Devotional

Paul’s Salvation Was for You

But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. (1 Timothy 1:16)

John Piper

Paul's conversion was for your sake.

I want you to take this very personally. God had you in view when he chose Paul and saved him by sovereign grace.  If you believe on Jesus for eternal life — or if you may yet believe on him for eternal life — Paul’s conversion is for your sake. It is to make Christ’s incredible patience vivid for you.

Paul’s pre-conversion life was a long, long trial to Jesus. “Why do you persecute me?” Jesus asked. “Your life of unbelief and rebellion is a persecution of me!” Paul had been set apart for God since before he was born. So all his life was one long abuse of God, and one long rejection and mockery of Jesus who loved him.

That is why Paul says his conversion is a brilliant demonstration of Jesus’ patience. And that is what he offers you today.

It was for our sake that Jesus did it the way he did it. To “display his perfect patience” to us. Lest we lose heart. Lest we think he could not really save us. Lest we think he is prone to anger. Lest we think we have gone too far away. Lest we think our dearest one cannot be converted— suddenly, unexpectedly, by the sovereign, overflowing grace of Jesus.

Attacks Upon Civil Society

We're in the Wellington High Court on Monday Hi JohnT We just wanted to let you know that our day in court to challenge the Charities Board's decision to deregister us is on this Monday (30th). Our lawyers will be arguing against the government body's decision that Family First serves no 'public benefit', that our views are "controversial in contemporary NZ society", and that they "do not consider that the Trust continues to qualify for registration as it has an independent purpose to promote and protect the traditional family and this is not charitable.” Below is some background to the issue when we first declared our intention to fight this decision again (previously in 2015) and also a superb article from one of our board members, Bruce Logan. Thank you for your support and encouragement as we tackle this very important case. As stated in our media release at the time of the Charities Board decision (see below), Family First will be fighting this decision all the way, not because we have to have charitable status to exist, but because of the threat it places on other charities and their freedom to speak and advocate on behalf of their supporters in a civil society We will keep you up to date with the progress of our day in court. Bob McCoskrie National Director BACKGROUND INFO - SHARED LAST YEAR Family First to file appeal of Charities Board decision Media Release 18 May 2017 Family First NZ has instructed its lawyer to file an immediate Notice of Appeal against the Charities Board after receiving notification of the Board’s intention today to deregister Family First NZ. Family First has previously been told; “(W)e do not consider that the Trust continues to qualify for registration as it has an independent purpose to promote and protect the traditional family and this is not charitable.” But Justice Collins in an earlier decision in the Wellington High Court in 2015 recognised the strength of Family First’s argument that its advocacy for the concept “…of the traditional family is analogous to organisations that have advocated for the ‘mental and moral improvement’ of society.…” The board was told by Justice Collins that “...Members of the Charities Board may personally disagree with the views of Family First, but at the same time recognise there is a legitimate analogy between its role and those organisations that have been recognised as charities.” “This is a highly politicised decision by the Board. Once again, supporters of Family First will have to dig deep to legally defend the existence of an organisation that benefits them. And taxpayers will have to underwrite the Charities Board’s legal expenses in their repeated attempts to muzzle us. It seems to us that they are simply hoping they will get a different judge in the same court,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ. “This latest development will have a chilling effect for many charitable groups – both registered, deregistered and wanting to be registered – who advocate for causes, beliefs, and on behalf of their supporters, and often have to engage in advocacy at a political level, not always through choice but through necessity.” “Family First gained approval as a charity, has also passed two ‘audits’ – one as recently as 2010 – and has made no change to the nature of our operations over the eleven years of its existence. It appears that only the opinion of the government organisation overseeing charities has changed,” says Mr McCoskrie. “Family First will be fighting this decision all the way, not because we have to have charitable status to exist, but because of the threat it places on other charities and their freedom to speak and advocate on behalf of their supporters in a civil society."

Richard Davis--Missionary, Part II

Only Two Hundred Years Ago

Maori culture and civilization was a mixed bag.  The culture of cannibalism, utu (or revenge), and slavery benighted the Maori people.  However, missionaries who stayed the course, also observed positive aspects of Maori culture.

The missionaries wanted, above all, to expose the Maori tribes to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Gradually, as men and women repented of their sins and believed in the Son of God, examples of remarkable Christian faith began to emerge. 

But the scene documented by Davis below graphically underscores how the light, when it eventually began to shine, came as it were, through a debilitating darkness.  Amidst this darkness, the coming of the Gospel was like the light of Eärendil's star--a light which would shine when all other lights had gone out.

The Waitangi natives have returned from the Thames, where they had been to fight, and have killed the greater part of some poor people coming to Taiamai, under the protection of a chief who was absent when they met them.  They then transferred their fight to the place of the late Christian Rangi, to punish the misdemeanour of a young man.  They broke his arms, and beat him cruelly.  Then they butchered a poor slave girl in the most barbarous manner before the young man.  They first cut off one arm, and then the other.  They next cut deep gashes down her body, saying "I will have this part," "I will have that part to eat."  The merciless barbarians then cut off her legs while she was alive, and finally roasted and ate her.  They told the young man they had done this as a punishment for his crime.  My soul is filled with horror and dismay.  O Lord, in mercy interpose in behalf of these poor wretched heathen!  [John Coleman, ed., A Memoir of the Reverend Richard Davis (London: James Nisbet and Co., 1865), p.78.]

These events occurred early in 1826.  Davis had been living and working with his wife and family in the Bay of Islands for about eighteen months. 

Thank God those days have passed.