For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.
Romans 1:20 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rom.1.20.NLT
Scripture
“You don’t believe me because you are not my sheep.”
Observation
Jesus is at the Temple at the time of Hanukkah. People are asking Him to reveal if He is the Messiah.
Jesus tells them that they have seen His works, but they don’t believe Him because they are not His sheep. His sheep know His voice and follow Him; they will receive eternal life, and nobody can snatch them from Him.
Application
We live in an age that is increasingly hostile towards the christian faith. People have no understanding of what christians believe or what motivates them to do what they do.
We can see this in the case of football player Israel Folau. He quoted on Instagram a Bible verse that says that adulterers, thieves, liars and homosexuals will not inherit God’s kingdom. Despite threats of punishment for this “homophobia” he remains true to his faith and will not back down. Commentators cannot see why he would give up a contract worth a million dollars a year for this.
In politics, the Opposition is threatening to remove exemptions for faith- based schools that allow them to discriminate against employees on the basis of sexuality. Schools may soon be forced to choose between compromising and closing down.
It is clear that people in corporations, media and politics cannot understand the convictions of christians. They are not in Jesus’ flock; they are not His sheep. Therefore they cannot hear the voice of the Lord.
Of course, this changes when we come to faith in Jesus. When we make Jesus Lord we suddenly learn to hear His voice, and everything that seemed stupid or irrational suddenly makes sense.
The Pharisees saw the miracles that Jesus did, but they still refused to acknowledge that He is Lord. Many others believe without seeing a miracle or sign. It just takes a heart that is soft towards God.
Prayer
Thank you Jesus for bringing me into your flock. Please help me to hear your voice and to walk in your paths. Amen
Steven McAlpine warns us of the fruits of Same Sex “Marriage.” The political Left are out to destroy all opposition to its agenda of suppressing freedom of thought and conscience
I made a comment to a non-Christian friend who sends their child to a faith-based school that employs practicing Christian teachers, that their decision to vote YES in the same sex plebiscite might mean they would soon be looking somewhere else to school their child.
They seemed surprised. I didn’t say it with any particular emotion. I just made the point that, as I said at the time of the SSM legislation, the decision was not a slippery slope, but a precipice point.
It will change a lot more than marriage, and it will do so quickly. The YES vote would prove to be an anchor with a whole raft of other issues tied to it that will get pulled over the edge with the weight it carries. That was not how it was presented of course. It was presented as a discrete issue that was all about how we live our private lives.
But here’s the fact: Many a parent voted YES for same sex marriage, never realising they were voting NO for the education model they so value for their children.
Same sex marriage in Australia, despite all the assurances from many of those advocating it, was always going to be a tipping point moment for a whole bunch of other stuff, including the move to force faith-based schools to sign up to anti-discrimination legislation on the pain of funding losses.
And, more pointedly, a precipitous issue for those many non-Christian parents who have scraped together the money to send their children to a faith-based school in suburbs that are a wasteland of decent high schools. In other words be careful what you vote for. Or at least know what it will lead to.
My friend’s surprise dissipated and we didn’t talk of it again. Life, as it does, took over. The vote happened. Love won. What’s not to like?
Meanwhile school board members such as me, and executive teams of schools and lobby groups for faith-based organisations began paddling like mad, working overtime in Canberra and beyond, to try and plug the sinking boat of viable alternate ethical communities such as schools.
And, as was reported back to me, the hostility from many a parliamentarian towards faith-based education was palpable. Eye-rolls, snorts, and watching iPhones during the hearings whenever a Christian schools representative got up to speak. And these people are the leaders of our nation?
Read the full story here
Bernard Gaynor points out how laziness by conservative voters let the loonies in to the NSW Upper House
Let the New South Wales election be a lesson for us all: if we don’t use our brains then those without any brains at all will rule over us.
At this point let me introduce you to the Animal Justice Party.
The Animal Justice Party has a policy on wombats. But it has no policy on tax, except that meat should be taxed.
It wants health warnings on bacon.
It believes that it should be illegal to keep birds in an aviary.
All of its candidates are vegan.
And if it gets its way, animal farming will eventually be banned. It will be unlawful to milk cows. It will be a criminal offence to slaughter a beast for steak. And Melbourne Cup Day? Gone.
The Animal Justice Party has even issued media releases criticising the Greens for being too mainstream.
This mob are so insane that their policies for ‘humans’ come after their policies for animals. Indeed, the policies that relate to actual people are just an add on. And they were only tacked on to make it clear that the Animal Justice Party are extreme left wing socialists too.
True, these policies are still not real clear but as far as I can glean it’s ok to euthanise people but it’s not ok to put a greyhound down.
And when the Animal Justice Party’s Victorian convenor tweeted about the ‘slaughter of the innocents’ he wasn’t referring to abortion but to dairy cows.
Basically, it seems that the Animal Justice Party believes that animals are sentient beings that should be entitled to the same legal protections as people. That all sounds fine and dandy until the minor details are worked through.
I’m sure it hasn’t yet dawned on these radical activists but ‘granting’ animals the same legal rights as people will inevitably result in court cases to decide whether laws prohibiting bestiality comply with the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Given the absurdity involved with this party, no one can be too sure just where that might lead. But we do know this: these are the kinds of issues that would become the central question of the day if the Animal Justice Party was ever running the joint.
This might all sound far-fetched but it’s not as far-fetched as you might have hoped. The Animal Justice Party just won its second seat in New South Wales’ Legislative Council – that’s as many as One Nation and just one less than the Greens.
And it has tasted electoral success elsewhere as well. So this type of crazy is not as distant from our laws as it should be.
Which brings me back to the first sentence in this article. The Animal Justice Party only won this second seat because normal voters in New South Wales could not be bothered preferencing.
They didn’t use their brains and now we are all going to suffer as a result.
Let me explain.
The Animal Justice Party scraped into the New South Wales Legislative Council by a grand total of 8,651 votes.
That’s 0.19% of the total number of votes cast in the election which is another way of saying that it would have been almost impossible for the Animal Justice Party to win by anything less.
But there are all sorts of ways that the party that just missed out – the Christian Democrats – could have got over the line.
For instance, 16,036 Australian Conservatives voters did not preference any other party. Their votes ‘exhausted’ which means they were removed from the count. If just half of these guys had taken the time to preference the Christian Democrats, which are about as close to Australian Conservatives as you can be without filling out a membership form, the Animal Justice Party would not have been elected and instead there would be another conservative voice in the Legislative Council.
But now we have someone sitting in there who is famous for being a vegan body builder.
In another example, 34,457 people voted for the Shooters, Farmers & Fishers Party without preferencing anyone else. By doing so, these voters effectively endorsed whoever was left in the count at its end.
So that means Shooters, Fishers and Farmers voters helped to elect a politician who wants to shut farms down altogether.
Not very bright, is it?
And don’t just take my word regarding this shambles. The ABC’s electoral analyst, Antony Green, recognises what has happened as well – left-leaning voters were more disciplined and preferenced like-minded parties, while right-leaning voters had their brains in neutral:
On the last 6 exclusions in NSW Leg Council count, two right parties were excluded (LDP votes, SFF surplus) 5.2% went as preferences to the left, 15.0% as preferences to the right, 79.8% exhausted. #nswpol 1/3354:01 PM – Apr 15, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacySee Antony Green’s other Tweets
Antony Green✔@AntonyGreenABCReplying to @AntonyGreenABC
The four leftish parties excluded (GRN surplus, Sustainable Aus, Voluntary Euthanasia, Keep Sydney Open) saw 28.3% prefs to the left, 7.8% to the right, only 63.9% exhausted. #nswpol 2/3314:01 PM – Apr 15, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacySee Antony Green’s other Tweets
Antony Green✔@AntonyGreenABCReplying to @AntonyGreenABC
In final count Labor gained 42k votes to 21k for Coalition, Animal Justice received 32k compared to 6k for Christian Dems and 13k for One Nation. The flood of preferences to Animal Justice and failure of flow from the right cost the Christian Dems the last seat. #nswpol 3/3594:01 PM – Apr 15, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacy22 people are talking about this
So what does this all mean for May 18?
It means that if you want your vote to count, you must preference.
If you want your vote to count fully, then you must preference everyone.
Another way of looking at it is like this: if you really don’t want the Greens in parliament then the best way of doing your bit to ensure that occurs is to number every box above the line on the Senate vote, placing the Greens last.
If you don’t do this then your vote could well end up helping the Greens to beat another party that you also dislike (but not as much) or, even worse, help them to get past a party that you could live with. More than likely, this will be the Liberal/National Coalition who could miss out in every state if conservative voters keep being dumb.
The Liberal/National Coalition might make you sick. It might make you angry. It might bring you to despair. But whatever this mob is, it is not Bill Shorten or Labor and it is certainly not the Greens.
That’s important to remember.
There are plenty of good candidates for the Senate across Australia amongst the minor conservative parties.
By all means, vote for them to be your insurance in the Senate.
But your insurance policy for your insurance policy is to number every box above the line.
Make sure the Greens are below Labor. Make sure Labor is below the Liberals. Make sure the Liberals at least get a preference. And ensure that you preference all the minor parties on the right.
If you don’t, you’ll do nothing more than join the 40,000 odd people from New South Wales who were too lazy, uninformed or distracted to write just one more lousy number on their ballot paper.
And, as a result, they now have to live in a state where laws are shaped by the Greens on steroids.
Scripture
After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.
Observation
A great multitude of people from every people group on earth stands before the throne of God. They cry out praises to God. The angels join them in worshipping the Lord.
One of the elders asks John who these people are, and then goes on to tell him that they are the ones who have come through the great tribulation and have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. Now they stand before the throne and they will never again hunger or thirst or know sorrow.
Application
A huge throng of people, a multitude too big to count, stands before the throne of God praising Him constantly.
They are described as the ones who have come through the great tribulation and have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb.
In short these are believers from every nation, every people group, every age.
The “great tribulation” is not a mythical seven year period at the end of the age. It is here and now, and started straight after Pentecost. It is the way of the world.
More christians suffer for their faith than experience a life free of harassment. We oppose the spirit of the age, and so we endure the rage of the world.
The important thing is to make sure we are saved, having had our robes washed in the blood of the Lamb.
For all who put their faith in Jesus there is a special place of honour right at the front of God’s throne.
We who are saved have a future of joy and honour. We have a destiny to be a part of the biggest worship gathering in human history.
Prayer
Thank you Lord Jesus for dying for me and giving me a place in eternity. Hallelujah!
Scripture
Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning towards the dead woman, he said, “Tabitha, get up.” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up.
Observation
This passage records two miracles by Peter. Firstly a paralysed man named Aeneas is healed.
The second miracle is the raising of Tabitha, a disciple who had done many good works. Peter goes in, prays and then commands her to get up. She opens her eyes and then sits up.
Application
Peter was obviously a man of great faith. As a true disciple, a follower of Jesus, he was able to do the same kinds of miracles which Jesus had done.
Peter knew the resurrection power of Jesus, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and he was bold enough to preach and to enact the word of the Lord.
We look at these passage for tips on how to heal people or how to pray. This passage is not about those two things.
Peter clearly had a very intimate relationship with God. Like Jesus he was able to say, “I only do what the Father is doing.”
In order to see the miracles of God working in us and through us, we need to pursue that kind of relationship with the Lord.
Daily prayer and scripture reading, exercising the gifts of the Holy Spirit, listening to God and obeying Him, are the simple paths to this intimacy with God.
Prayer
Lord, please help me to walk in your ways. Help me to have that close relationship with you that transforms lives daily. Amen.
New Life Narrabri 