But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.
Observation
The law only constrains us while a person is living. So a married woman does not commit adultery if her husband dies and she then remarries.
We have died to the power of God’s law because we died in Christ. We are no longer controlled by our old nature, and the law is no longer stirring up evil desires. Now we are free to serve God in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Application
One of the problems of legalism is that it stirs up our fascination with sin. If somebody had not told me not to covet my neighbour’s wife, it is quite possible that it would never occur to me to do that, much less commit adultery.
The problem with the law is that sin is not about our actions but our motivations. We see this at work in the recent lock down and curfew in Victoria. When a curfew was announced, the internet lit up with questions like “Can I stay at my girlfriend’s house?” and “Can the lawn mowing contractor still come?”
It is not surprising that hundreds of people have lied on their cross-border permit applications. When a Government first restricts access it seems that most people’s first thought is not, “That’s a sensible precaution at this time”, but” I’ve got to go there, now, at any cost.”
So God’s law was never about controlling behaviour but addressing sinful desire.
Now Jesus has set us free from the power and the penalty of sin, so we do not have to follow a written law to find favour with God. Rather, we serve God by living our lives in surrender to the Holy Spirit.
Over time, the Holy Spirit changes our desires and our attitudes. I no longer need to worry about a law that says, “Do not steal.” The Holy Spirit is teaching me to trust in His provision and to share what I already have with my neighbours in need.
Prayer
Thank you Father for the gift of salvation in Jesus Christ. Thank you that I don’t need to learn a set of rules to please you, but instead I can hear the still small voice of your Spirit at any time. Amen.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Observation
Grace has set us free from the demands of the Law, but that does not mean we should keep on sinning. We are slaves to what we choose to obey, whether that is sin or God.
We were slaves to sin, but now we must become slaves to righteous living in order to become holy.
Sin pays its wages, that is, death. Eternal life is God’s free gift to us.
Application
The wages of sin is death. Your wage is what you deserve after you have worked. If it comes for free then it is not a wage but a gift.
The result of sin is death – firstly natural death but then also spiritual death. If we indulge in sin, we will surely go to eternal desolation in hell. It is the law of cause and effect, work and wages.
God created us for life not death, for heaven not hell. So He sent Jesus into the world to reap the total wages for every person. Now we can know that our punishment has been taken for us.
If the wages of sin is death, then the gift of God is eternal life through Christ.
Eternal life comes to us as a gift. We cannot earn it, we cannot pay for it. We might as well try to jump to the moon.
What we cannot do for ourselves, Christ has done for us. That is why it is a gift. It is like someone works overtime to pay a debt you could not pay off yourself.
The ting about a gift is that it must be received. If someone offers me a present but I refuse it, then it has not fulfilled its purpose to be given.
It is like this with salvation. God makes the offer to us through Christ Jesus. We can have eternal life with God, but we must receive it as a gift from God.
Prayer
Thank you Father for giving me forgiveness and salvation through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.
Here is my commentary on Ephesians 3:1. I am publishing these once or twice a week, but you can read all of the available articles at our web-site, http://www.new-life.org.au
Ephesians 3:1
“For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles…”
Paul now describes himself as a prisoner of Christ for the Gentiles.
This particular verse seems to be difficult for translators, who generally put the dash at the end and start a new sentence hoping you won’t notice something. There is no primary verb here or in the subsequent verse.
since the verb to be is optional in Greek, it seems to make sense to write this as “ I Paul am a prisoner of Christ.” The lack of punctuation in the original text does complicate things somewhat so we don’t know if this verse was meant to be a sentence by itself.
overlooking the grammatical difficulties, we can look at what the verse has to say to us now.
Paul describes himself as a prisoner of Christ “for this reason.” We have to look back at the part that went before this verse to find the reason. Previously Paul had talked about how God was building the church – household, a temple, a dwelling place. In this project He determines where each person, indeed each faith community, should fit in the overall scheme of things.
for this reason, Paul is a prisoner of Christ. He is in prison because of his particular role in the Body of Christ, which is to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. There is no regret for Paul because he knows exactly what the purpose of his suffering is, and it is all a part of God’s plan for his life and ministry.
paul is a prisoner of Christ. Even though the Romans hold him physically, it is Christ who is using the experience to build the church, especially in respect of the gentile christians .
we might expect Paul to describe himself as a prisoner for Christ, but he is definitely here that he is a prisoner of Christ.
to be a prisoner of Christ is one of those phrases that can be interpreted in many ways
• As stated before, he is a prisoner because Christ is building the church, and this is essential to Paul’s role • although the Romans hold the building, it is Christ who holds the key • he is captivated by Christ’s love and by the calling on his life • in other places Paul describes himself as a slave for Christ. This is a similar kind of analogy
In all these interpretations, we need to remember that Paul is a voluntary captive. Paul has given his heart to the Lord, and it is in that sense that he is a prisoner of Christ. If he wished, he could gain the freedom to not be a prisoner anymore. He could renounce Christ and walk away back to the bondage of the Jewish law and of sin.
if Paul is a prisoner of Christ, he’s a prisoner for a particular purpose. He’s a prisoner for the Gentiles.
Paul became convinced very early in his Christian life that salvation was for the Gentiles and not just for the Jews. He also became convinced that his calling was to take the good news to the Gentiles. Paul is the apostle to the Gentiles.
Hence Paul’s imprisonment, part of his mission to the Gentiles, was for the Genttiles. Paul knew that if God had decided he needed to be in prison, then it was part of the mission, part of the calling to take the gospel to the Gentiles .
this is an incredible insight and the source of great strength. Prison time was not wasted time for Paul. He wasn’t sitting on the sidelines missing all the action. For some reason, this was the action; this was the mission.
regardless of whether there was an outcome that he could see, Paul knew that he was a prisoner of Christ for the sake of the Gentiles .
Key points in this verse
• Paul was the Prisoner of Christ, not of the Romans • his life was devoted to serving Christ, regardless of the location or situation • Paul was a prisoner for the Gentiles • prison time was not wasted time because even this was the mission Christ had set for him
When we died with Christ, we were set free from the power of sin.
Observation
Since God’s grace is demonstrated when we sin, it might be argued that we should sin all the more so that God’s grace can be increased. This is nonsense. When we were joined to Christ in baptism, we died and were buried with Him.
When we died in Christ we died to sin. Since we died with Christ, we will also rise to life in Him. Because He died to break the power of sin and rose for the glory of God, we must likewise consider ourselves dead to sin and alive in God.
We should not allow our bodies to become instruments for sin. Our whole bodies should be instruments for righteousness to glorify the Lord.
Application
Too often we see the story of salvation as being just about getting our sins forgiven. It is about forgiveness, but it is also about dying to our old nature and allowing God to raise us to a new life as His children.
He does forgive sins, but He also gives us the ability to live free from sin.
We have a part to play in this. We have to determine that we have died to our old nature. We have to want the righteousness, the holiness, that God has promised us. We have to decide to receive this new nature and put it on every day of the week.
When we face temptation, it is not a matter of saying, “I will not do that,” but rather, “I am a child of God, and this has no part of my new life in Christ.” We focus on our calling in Christ, not on the thing to be avoided.
None of us is perfectly conformed to God’s will all the time! This is a process of growing in grace. The Holy Spirit confronts us with our sinful desires and thoughts, and we confess them to God, and we grow in grace to overcome them.
Prayer
Lord, I thank you that I died with Christ, and that sin no longer has any power over me. Please help me to live in the strength of this reality. Amen.
“In many ways the voluntary measures we put in place in Sweden have been just as effective as complete lockdowns in other countries,” Anders Tegnell, the chief epidemiologist at Sweden’s public health agency,
Sweden is a case study in what to do next time. Their results are eye-opening Lockdowns, destroying our economy, millions unemployed, neighborhood Stasi, Covid Karens, — not necessary.
It’s what the rational among us have been reporting for months.
Bloomberg: As other countries face renewed outbreaks, Sweden’s latest Covid-19 figures suggest it’s rapidly bringing the virus under control.
“That Sweden has come down to these levels is very promising,” state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell told reporters in Stockholm on Tuesday.
The Health Agency of Sweden says that since hitting a peak in late June, the infection rate has fallen sharply. That’s amid an increase in testing over the period. “The curves are going down and the curves for the seriously ill are beginning to approach zero,” state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell said.
While novel coronavirus cases have spiked across several parts of Europe, including Spain, France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, Sweden—where a countrywide lockdown was never issued—continues to report a downward trend in new cases and new deaths.
……the infection rate has fallen sharply. That’s amid an increase in testing over the period. “The curves are going down and the curves for the seriously ill are beginning to approach zero,” Tegnell said.
Swedish Covid Cases Trend Down
Source: Health Agency of Sweden
The development follows months of controversy over Sweden’s decision to avoid a full lockdown. The unusual strategy coincided with a much higher Covid-19 mortality rate than elsewhere in the Nordic region.Per 100,000, Swedish deaths even exceeded those in the U.S. and Brazil.
I Looked Up What Happened When Sweden Refused To Shut Down – They Were Right, We Were Wrong
The Nordic country defeated COVID-19 without seeming to break a sweat — fever-induced or otherwise. They effectively showed that Fauci & Co. were completely wrong about a shutdown being necessary to save civilization as we know it.
While that accomplishment should be lauded and their efforts duplicated around the world, the media has instead chosen to blast the Nordic state and paint a dismal picture that simply doesn’t exist.
A few examples (among many, many others) are below:
CBS Newsdeclared: “Sweden becomes an example of how not to handle COVID-19.” Similarly, theUniversity of Virginia Health Systemissued a news release titled: “Lack of Lockdown Increased COVID-19 Deaths in Sweden.”
Taking a stab at prognostication,Newsweeksaid: “Sweden COVID-19 Deaths Linked to Failure to Lockdown as Country Prepares for Second Wave.” Always eager to bravely embrace the status quo,The New York Timesran a piece headlined: “Sweden Tries Out a New Status: Pariah State.”
Finally,Business Insiderreported: “Sweden’s coronavirus death toll is now approaching zero, but experts are warning others not to hail it as a success.”
It’s all awfully prickly from a leftist media that used to adore Sweden’s welfare state. The reason for the barbed headlines is simple — Sweden dealt with COVID-19 in its own way.
The country didn’t truckle to the tyranny of over-educated, under-experienced experts. It didn’t implement authoritarian policies designed as much to break spirits as to break the pandemic. And it didn’t turn its voters into quasi-prisoners.
In other words, Sweden responded more or less the way the rest of the developed world has responded to contagious diseases until 2020, which just happens to also be President Donald Trump’s re-election year.
Jo Nova writes that hard borders are popular in the West:
Freedom and hard borders are 96% popular — a third of West Australians want to secede
A telling incident in Western democracies about borders
The electoral power of strong borders is vastly underestimated.
Western Australia has hard borders at the moment, and no coronavirus — other than a few cases getting caught in the mandatory quarantine. That’s 2.5 million people who are almost living a normal life. This is not to boast (we wish you could be here), but to point out how politically popular closed borders are in the current pandemic. The Premier is wildly popular, polling close to 90%. To all the people who said “states can’t close borders” the message is that it’s bonkers not to close borders. When the Commonwealth government joined the bizarre High Court push to force them open, the pushback was ferocious. A poll today showed that West Australians are fed up. The West Australian collected 245,000 signatories to a petition supporting the border closure.
Not only do 96% say the borders should stay shut, but when asked, a whopping 34% of Western Australians said the state should secede. How fast did it come to that?
Never, have I seen such vitriol towards the Commonwealth from WA. …the Commonwealth’s decision to effectively join hands with Palmer in the Federal and High courts risked making Morrison and the Federal Liberals public enemy No.1 here in WA. It beggars belief that the Morrison Government would ever let it get to this point, that the Federal Government would ever be part of any legal action to force WA to open its borders.
Exclusive polling conducted by The West Australian showed 34 per cent of the 837 people surveyed this week support the move for WA to become a separate nation.
Close to three quarters of West Australians said that since the COVID-19 pandemic the Federal Government has put the needs of the eastern states ahead of West Australians. More than 35 per cent of those canvassed by Painted Dog Research strongly agreed with the statement that Canberra is too focused on the needs of the eastern states which has been to the detriment of WA.
Only last week Scott Morrison was saying he was sure WA would lose in the High Court and he had some mealy mouth words about doing it to protect us. But faced with a Liberal Party wipe out coming in WA elections, and the growing debacle of “open borders” on the East Coast, where infections are spreading, he finally backed down. The question is, what was he thinking in the first place?
The tank looks largely unchanged from last week. Very sad.
I have again double dosed with “Vibrant” after doing the normal water change.
At this stage, barring any big improvement in the next week, it will be back to the old regime of rubbing algae off the glass with a scrubbing cloth and siphoning off the bottom.
Apparently the “Black Lives Matter” group is now burning Bibles in the US. It sohuld be clear to everyone that this is just a front for Marxism using anti-racism as a cover. Any christians sympathetic to this group need to repent- now.
From Mario Murillo:
BURNING BIBLES IN PORTLAND SHOWS THEIR TRUE COLORS
Black Lives Matter has started burning Bibles. They knelt with their Black Lives Matter signs leaning against them, and burned a pile of Bibles.
Writing to you about this feels so inadequate. I wish I could sit across a table and look you right in the eye to see your reaction. I desperately need to get through to you. Do you have any idea what this means?
In ten years at Berkeley during the height of riots and demonstrations, I never saw a Bible burned.
Ask yourself: What does burning copies of the Word of God have to do with black lives? Answer: It has to do with black lives about as much as Black Lives Matter does. Absolutely nothing. This is something evil and so dangerous that we must prepare for the fight of our lives.
Here’s what Ian Cheong, a Twitter user, who posted the video said: “Left-wing activists bring a stack of Bibles to burn in front of the federal courthouse in Portland.”
Later in the Twitter thread, Cheong pointed out that the violent and chaotic nature of these protestors has no correlation with “protesting against police brutality.”
“I don’t know what burning the Bible has to do with protesting against police brutality. Do not be under the illusion that these protests and riots are anything but an attempt to dismantle all of Western Civilization and upend centuries of tradition and freedom of religion,” he continued.
But many Christians are still under that very illusion. I believe that the patience of heaven is wearing thin toward American Christians who are still on the fence.
It is not a coincidence that as communist agitators grow bolder in the U.S., China is intensifying a crackdown on Christian congregations in Beijing and various provinces. They are destroying crosses. And, like their counterparts here, they too are burning Bibles!
And the other things China is currently doing, such as closing churches and ordering followers to sign papers renouncing their faith, is the next part of the Left’s plan for America.
The similarities between BLM/ Antifa agitators in the United States and the Chinese Communist Party continue to grow as the two groups come together over their goal of removing President Trump from office in November, and forcing the United States into irredeemable decline.
The silence in the media, the total lack of coverage about this Bible burning, will tell you all you need to know about the Democrat Party. Joe Biden will not mention it, let alone condemn it. You will also hear absolutely nothing about this from the press.
That silence—that tacit approval—is why these looters, rioters and thugs believe they can operate with impunity. Tucker Carlson said it best: “they are the armed militia of the Democrat Party.”
There can be no question in your mind why we must vote every Democrat out of office. This is no longer a political party. It is a shill for violent revolution.
And book burning is darker than you may realize. Heinrich Heine, the German poet, said in 1820, “Where They Have Burned Books, They Will End Up Burning People.” His chillingly prophetic statement that where books had been burnt, people would eventually be burnt, came true at the infamous May 10, 1933 book burning of more than 25,000 volumes in Berlin’s Opera Square, which was presided over by the most intellectual of the Nazi leaders, Dr. Joseph Goebbels. They later built ovens to incinerate Jews, “undesirables,” and dissidents.
The act of burning Bibles in Portland is not innocent or harmless. There is something evil unfolding in our nation. Our stance toward the Left must change. We must raise our voices if we wish God to honor us as a people that He can bless with continued freedom.
So long as we ignore the clear signs of tyranny—the overreach of leftist governors in the pandemic—the censorship of social media and news media—the calculated brainwashing of Christians to turn them away from their moral duty—we risk a dark and evil world for our children and grandchildren.
We have nothing to fear but complacency, tolerance, and apathy—the cancers the modern church is prone to. Fear of being called a racist is right behind this unholy trio as the sickness of our generation of believers.
Heaven is not surprised by any of these threats. Hell has created a weapon of mass damnation and it is in full vigor before our eyes. But again, heaven is not passive. God saw this coming and forged a weapon for this specific evil. He yearns for someone to rise up in the Name of Jesus, take up that specific weapon and thrust it into the very heart of darkness. Let it be you!
Isaiah 6:8, “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me!”
First Aussie-made COVID swabs reveals manufacturing pivot
Posted 46mminutes ago, updated 32mminutes ago
Howard Wood’s company has become one of the first to sell Australian-made COVID-19 swabs.(ABC Radio Sydney: Matt Bamford)
They are a crucial frontline tool in the fight against coronavirus, and now one Sydney company has joined the fray, becoming the first to sell Australian-made medical swabs.
Key points:
An Australian company is first to sell locally-manufactured swabs
The pandemic presents an opportunity to transform Australian manufacturing
There are calls for government to fund more research and development
The development was the latest example of industry ingenuity as the Australian manufacturing sector adapts to the pandemic, as well as strengthening the case for more government support for research and development (R&D).
When Howard Wood co-founded 3D Printing Studios seven years ago, most of his business came from producing models for the construction sector.
Demand was steady, but hardly booming.
Recently, he said, something started to shift; more companies were coming to him for locally manufactured products.
“A few companies who do get stuff done in China are now using us to produce their parts,” he said.
Mr Wood’s business has been transformed by COVID-19.(ABC Radio Sydney: Matt Bamford)
Gap in market for Aussie PPE
As the pandemic exposed Australia’s reliance on overseas imports for essential medical supplies, Mr Wood saw a gap in the market for personal protective equipment.
He tried making face shields but found more success with swabs, after locating a design online from the Harvard Medical School.
Months of discussions with health departments and the Therapeutic Goods Administration are starting to bear fruit.
This month, the four-person company landed its first customer, with the Northern Territory Government placing an order for 10,000 swabs.
Mr Wood said it marks the first sale of Australian-made swabs in the country.
“We are thrilled, the prospect of producing this is very exciting,” he said.
Mr Wood is also in discussions with the Victorian and South Australian governments over orders of up to 1 million swabs, and has received a positive response from Sydney’s Westmead Hospital.
“They were very pleased with what we have produced,” he said.
The deals would more than double Mr Wood’s business.
He is already recruiting six more employees, with plans to move into a larger space and install a second printing machine.
“There are international opportunities in New Zealand and South East Asia, but we have enough to get on with in Australia for now.”
3D Printing Studios is the latest in a series of smaller companies to take advantage of the new landscape.
Gin distilleries have been producing hand sanitiser and other 3D printing companies have started making crucial components for ventilators.
The NT Government has order 10,000 swabs and Mr Wood is in talks with other states.(ABC Radio Sydney: Matt Bamford)
Nation ‘lagging behind’
It is the kind of growth those in the manufacturing sector have looked for after a long period of decline.
Australia imports more medical supplies than it exports by a ratio of 7:1 for diagnostic equipment, and 2:1 for instruments, according to the Australia Institute.
The combined trade deficit in those two sectors was around $2.6 billion in 2019.
The pitfalls of that reliance on imports were exposed earlier this year, prompting calls for a national rethink on the future of local manufacturing.
Emeritus Professor Roy Green, from the University of Technology Sydney, has seen many local companies fold trying to compete with imports.
He said the COVID-19 pandemic was an opportunity to turn the sector around, with the right governance.
“We have ended up with only 6 per cent of our GDP constituting of our manufacturing compared with 15 to 20 per cent elsewhere in the world.
“This is important not just to supply local needs, but it also contributes to the industries across our economy.”
Roy Green says Australia has an opportunity to transform its manufacturing sector due to COVID-19.(Supplied: Port of Newcastle)
Professor Green said investment in research and development is crucial to making a change.
“The decline in our R&D [research and development] spending as a country has dropped in the last few years to 1.79 per cent of GDP, whereas the OECD average is 2.4 per cent,” he said.
Next week, a Senate Committee is expected to report its findings on whether to cut tax incentives for R&D by $1.8 billion.
Professor Green said the incentive program was not perfect, but cutting funds sent the wrong message at a time when more investment was needed.
‘Integral part of growth’
Federal Minister for Industry, Karen Andrews, said the Government has committed around $9.6 billion for R&D in the last financial year.
“Growing manufacturing in Australia is critical to our economic prosperity and to creating well-paying jobs,” she said.
Professor Green said many will be looking to the federal budget in October for signs the Morrison Government is “serious” about transforming the sector post-COVID.
But Mr Wood is already pushing ahead with plans to begin manufacturing a wider variety of medical equipment.
Source: Health Agency of Sweden
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