Month: April 2014

Reflection on Philippians 2:5-11

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Scripture

At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Observation

Paul says that we should have the same attitude as Christ Jesus. He was God but did not hold onto the rights of that status. Instead He became nothing, a servant in human form.

Because He was obedient, even to death on the cross, God exalted Him to the highest place so that every part of creation will honour Him as Lord.

Application

Jesus was the eternal pre-existing Son of God. He chose to put aside that place of glory to become like us and to die for the salvation of everyone who puts their trust in Him.

Paul tells us that we need to have that attitude of self-sacrificial service.

Humility is the path to honour. When we lower ourselves God is able to raise us up.

Human nature drives us to fight for our rights, stand on our pride and exalt ourselves.

God’s nature leads us to relinquish our rights and let God get the glory.

Prayer

Lord help me to step aside from my selfish nature to let you shine through me today. Amen.

Hey gay rights fascists: in spite of your Mozilla victory, you will still lose- Matt Walsh

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Matt Walsh writes:

Hey gay rights fascists: in spite of your Mozilla victory, you will still lose

Posted on April 5, 2014by 

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Dear gay rights militants, dear progressive tyrants, dear liberal fascists, dear haters of free speech, dear crusaders for ideological conformity, dear left wing bullies:

You will lose.

I know you’ve got legions of sycophants kowtowing to you these days, and the rest you’ve set out to destroy — but you will lose.

So, you’ve tracked another dissident and skinned him alive. You’ve made an example ofBrendan Eich, and now you dance joyously around his disemboweled carcass. You have his head on a spike, and you consider this a conquest in your eternal crusade to eradicate diversity and punish differing opinions. You launched your millionth campaign of intimidation, and now another good man has been dragged through the mud, to the sounds of taunting and jeering and death threats.

You found out that the CEO of Mozilla gave a few dollars to support a pro-traditional marriage ballot measure several years ago, and you proceeded to publicly tar and feather him until he was forced to ‘resign’ in disgrace.

You again chose to forgo debate, in favor of coercion and bullying.

You again attempted to end the ‘gay rights’ argument by defrocking your opponent.

Hey, good for you.

Enjoy the spoils of your cowardice.

It won’t last.

Read the rest of the article here

Reflection on John 11:1-45

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Raising_Lazarus007

Scripture

Many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him.

Observation

Word comes to Jesus that Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, is sick. Knowing that Lazarus has in fact died, Jesus stays where he is for two days before leaving for Bethany. By the time He arrives there, Lazarus has been dead and buried for four days.

Jesus proceeds to the tomb and orders it to be opened. He prays and then, in a loud voice, calls out, “Lazarus come out!”

To everyone’s amazement, Lazarus emerges, wrapped in grave cloths.

Application

Jesus is the resurrection and the life. He has defeated the power of death.

Death is a part of life which it was never God’s intention for us to suffer. It came in with the sin of Adam and Eve. But now God has reversed the curse so that everyone who follows Jesus will live for ever.

This is not something for the distant future or a religious theory with no present relevance. It is a promise for right now.

Death has lost its sting.

Prayer

Thank you Father for your promise of eternal life. I do not have to fear death, for you have promised I will live for you for eternity. Amen.

Debunking the IPCC Report in one Sentence

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The fear factory has been working over time this week with the latest report of the IPCC Working Group 2 which tries to work out the implications of climate change on life and everything.

Jo Nova puts the fear to rest with one sentence:

 

We could spend hours analyzing the new IPCC report about the impacts of climate change. Or we could just point out:

Everything in the Working Group II report depends entirely on Working Group I.

( see footnote 1 SPM, page 3).

Working Group I depends entirely on climate models and 98% of them didn’t predict the pause.

The models are broken. They are based on flawed assumptions about water vapor.

Working Group I, remember, was supposed to tell us the scientific case for man-made global warming. If our emissions aren’t driving the climate towards a catastrophe, then we don’t need to analyze what happens during the catastrophe we probably won’t get. This applies equally to War, Pestilence, Famine, Drought, Floods, Storms, and Shrinking Fish (which, keep in mind, could have led to the ultimate disaster: shrinking fish and chips).

To cut a long story short, the 95% certainty of Working Group I boils down to climate models and 98% of them didn’t predict the pause in surface temperature trends (von Storch 2013) . Even under the most generous interpretation, models are proven failures,  100% right except for rain, drought, storms, humidity and everything else (Taylor 2012). They get cloud feedbacks wrong by a factor 19 times larger than the entire effect of increased CO2 (Miller 2012). They don’t predict the climate on a local, regional, or continental scale (Anagnostopoulos 2010 and Koutsoyiannis 2008). They don’t work on the tropical troposphere (Christy 2010,  Po-Chedley 2012, Fu 2011, Paltridge 2009). The fingerprints they predicted are 100% missing.

 

Read the full article here

Reflection on Romans 8:6-14

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Life and Death

Scripture

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.

Observation

If we set our minds on the things of the flesh we will die, but if we set our minds on the things of the Spirit we will have life. We are no longer in the flesh because the Spirit of God dwells in us.

If the Spirit of the one who raised Christ from the dead dwells in us, then we too will be raised to eternal life.

Application

To set our minds on Christ and on the ways of God means that we are consistently orienting our hearts to eternal life. When we get caught up in the sinful ways of the flesh and of the world then we are desiring the things that will lead to death.

The test for anyone who claims to be following Christ is where do our desires come from? Am I wanting to let every part of my life be surrendered to Christ? Or do I want to hold parts of my life for my own pleasure?

The choice is the choice between life and death.

Prayer

Lord please help me to give everything to you you, to direct my heart and mind to the things of the Spirit rather than the flesh. Amen.

Reflection on Ezekiel 37:1-14

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the_valley_of__the_dry_bones

Scripture

“I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live again and return home to your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done what I said. Yes the Lord has spoken.”

Observation

The Spirit of the Lord takes Ezekiel to a valley full of dry bones. The Lord tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones commanding them to come together.

So the bones are gathered together, and flesh, sinews and skin cover the bones. But there is no life in them.

The Lord then tells Ezekiel to call out to the wind to come and fill the bodies. The bodies stand up, alive like a great army.

The Lord tells Ezekiel to prophesy to Israel and to promise that the Lord will bring them back from exile and He will put His Spirit in them.

Application

There is nothing more dead than dry bones. But God can turn death into life when we trust Him.

The people of Israel were in exile and had abandoned all hope of returning home. But God said, “You will go home.”

Whatever hopes or dreams we have that seem to be as dead as dry bones can be brought to life by the Holy Spirit.

The only condition is that we trust God to do it His way.

Prayer

Holy Spirit, come and bring life to the dry bones of my lost dreams. Come and bring life where there is no life. Amen.