Parents need to have the confidence that they can educate their children about what made western civilisation work well. We must demonstrate to our children that the ways of the Kingdom are a superior system to their ways of this world. Paul Botha
Scripture
You must warn each other every day while it is still “today” so that none of you will be deceived and hardened against God.
Observation
The Holy Spirit warns us not to harden our hearts when we hear the voice of God. The Israelites did this when they rebelled in the wilderness. God therefore took an oath that they would never enter His rest.
Therefore we must be careful not to harden our hearts lest we turn away from God. We must warn one another so that we can all be faithful and endure to the end.
It was God’s people who rebelled against Him and made Him angry. Because of unbelief they were unable to enter His rest.
Application
As a christian community we have a responsibility to one another to warn each other against sin.
God’s plan is not for a church you go to for an hour’s entertainment and spiritual food. No, His plan is that the church should be a strong and deep community where we encourage, exhort, and even warn each other of the dangers of sin .
This presupposes a level of transparency and mutual accountability that makes uncomfortable many people in our highly individualistic culture.
The truth is that we need other people in order to grow in our faith in the Lord. We need people that we can trust, be honest with, and share our deepest failings with.
This kind of community is a rare thing. Yet it is what every congregation should aspire to be.
Prayer
Lord, I pray for my church that you will make us into the community of faith you want us to become. Amen
Spring is definitely here today, a day early. Stunning weather and great riding.
Authors of the report released yesterday – Sydney university academic Professor Emerita Suzanne Rutland and Professor Zehavit Gross from Bar Ilan University in Israel – found Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Hindu students had all experienced being teased or being made fun of because of their faith.
Cases of vilification were higher in Sydney and Melbourne the researchers discovered, after conducting hundreds of interviews with students, teachers and families in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania.
The report – titled ‘Exploring the Value of Special Religious Education in Australia’ – also showed that school principals and other leaders were often unaware of or reluctant to deal with religious bullying, and students and families often played down the abuse.
“This is a real phenomenon. Now the question we have to face is, are we going to ignore and deny it, or are we going to deal with it openly and professionally?” – Professor Zehavit Gross
“I was shocked,” Gross told Eternity about the extent of religious bullying they found in Australian government schools.
“This is a real phenomenon. Now the question we have to face is, are we going to ignore and deny it, or are we going to deal with it openly and professionally? I think that if we as adults fail to protect our children, we are not fulfilling our duty of care.”
Gross said she was also “shocked and surprised” about the “denial of this phenomenon.”
“We went to the principals. We went to parents. We went to SRE [Special Religious Education] teachers. And they all denied this phenomenon.
Read the rest of the article here
The parenting crisis also results in a discipleship crisis. Just as parents are rendered impotent by spoiled children, so the church is weakened by spoiled adults. Paul Botha
Scripture
But Christ, as the Son, is in charge of Gods entire house. And we are gods house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ.
Observation
We must think carefully about Jesus, who is God’s messenger and High Priest. He was faithful to God, just as Moses was faithful.
But Jesus deserves more glory than Moses, just as the builder of a house deserves more praise than the house itself.
Moses was faithful as a servant of God, but Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is in charge of God’s house, which is us, the faithful followers of Christ.
Application
Moses was a faithful servant of the Lord in leading the people of God, the house of Israel. But now Jesus comes to us as the Son of God, and he is leading a greater house, the house comprised of all who follow Christ.
Not only is this house a greater house than the old one, its leader is also greater. The old house was just Israel, but this new house comprises a worldwide Fellowship of believers. Moses was just a man, a servant of the Lord, but Jesus is the Son of God.
In the face of persecution some Jewish believers were going back to following the law of Moses. But why would you swap this greater expression of God’s love for something that is lesser and is passing away?
When we are tempted to turn away from God, the question is the same – why would you pass up the greater to take on the lesser thing?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, your kingdom is far greater than anything we can see or imagine. Help me to stand firm in you when the temptations surround me. Amen
From the Caldron Pool
Front and centre in heated discourse is the Uluru Statement from the Heart, a document written by certain indigenous leaders and endorsed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on behalf of the Australian Labor Party. The statement itself seeks to bring about “structural reform” and “constitutional change” through a voice to parliament, advocating that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the “first sovereign nations” of Australia.
Caldron Pool colleague Mark Powell has shared legitimate and compelling reasons for Australians to reject the Uluru Statement in his piece Enshrining Victimhood into the Constitution, reasoning that it will perpetuate the failures of the ATSIC, distort Section 116 of the Australian Constitution, diminish the moral agency of Aboriginal people, promote more racial division, etc. In line with his insights, I shall provide more reasons, for pastors and elders, in particular, to do the same.
The Uluru Statement—both in its wording and intent—must not gain a foothold in Australian churches.
First, from a pastoral perspective, we ought to listen to the voices of ethnic minorities, because all of them are our neighbours and God’s image-bearers. However, I cannot stress enough the importance of employing prudence and impartiality when it comes to gauging the indigenous Australian experience. As is evident, indigenous Australians are divided over issues of race. No doubt many agree with the message of the Uluru Statement, but many indigenous Australians also vehemently disagree.
Pastors and elders, therefore, must not assume that an entire demographic shares a singular experience when it comes to race relations, as the Uluru Statement does. Yes, we must unequivocally condemn racism and oppression—but we must also care enough to listen to the indigenous voices on each side and engage our fellow image-bearers endearingly, not in a one-size-fits-all manner, but pastorally, on the merits of their own experience as Australians.
Moreover, the Uluru Statement is dehumanising because it peddles a white guilt narrative that is rooted in a white saviour complex (i.e., the assumption that indigenous Australians need to be acknowledged and saved by whites in order to live their lives). In relation to this, Jacinta Price has stated, “It is suggesting we need this voice because we are in a position of marginalisation; the way I see it, I would like to see us all as equally taking advantage, having these opportunities, and to live our own lives, which would make us equal to everyone else; and we would not then need to be a stand apart voice…”
Last of all, amid ongoing debates in the church, pastors and elders must be diligent to protect their congregations from the Uluru Statement, because it simply does not comport with the message of the gospel wherein Jesus secured reconciliation between ethnic Jews and Gentiles in his atoning death (Matt. 27:51); and despite being a persecuted Jew himself, Jesus’ message was never “Jewish lives matter” but rather “repent” (Matt. 4:17) and “preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15) because all have “sinned” (Mark 2:17).
As pastors, we are also called to keep the main thing the main thing. If your colleagues or congregants want you to, in a plea for racial unity, express approval for what is in the Uluru Statement, just lovingly explain to them that Jesus has already achieved racial reconciliation on the Cross, which means the unity that people experience within the true body of Christ far transcends any sin allegedly inherited from British ancestors (Eph. 2:11-13).
From faithwire.com
August 29, 2022
A woman who survived and fled China’s Communist Revolution is warning Americans against what she sees as an abandonment of freedom and a dangerous embrace of socialism.
“I just want to say it’s so ironic — 36 years ago, I run away from socialism when I left China to come to this great country for freedom,” Xi Van Fleet said on “Fox & Friends Weekend.” “Today, so many Americans [are] abandoning freedom and arriving into socialism.”
Fleet said these people do not understand socialism and have no concept of what it is like to live under its precepts.
In such, a closely monitored and controlled society, she said there are “no choices” and “no freedom,” appealing to her own experience to corroborate her contentions.
“I lived under Mao’s socialism. When the government controls everything and makes all the decisions big and small and decide how much grain, meat [and] cooking oil I could have,” she said. “What I should learn in school, where I should live, and what job I should have and how I should think.”
Van Fleet said there is an intentional intent to weaken and dilute the word “socialism,” explaining how socialism is the first stop on the perilous pathway to communism.
“China is a socialist country. Cuba is a socialist country, and so is North Korea. They are a socialist country run by communist parties,” she said. “And what’s the difference? What’s the difference between socialism and communism? Not much.”
Van Fleet added, “Socialism is the initial stage of communism, according to Karl Marx.”
This isn’t the first time Van Fleet has spoken out about her experience, warning last year that efforts to silence parents speaking out about contentious issues in schools are similar to crackdowns she saw at the hands of Chinese Communist Party officials.
Van Fleet specifically spoke at the time about disparaging labels given to parent protestors by the National School Boards Association.
“When I was in China, I spent my entire school years in the Chinese Cultural Revolution, so I’m very, very familiar with the communist tactics of how to divide people, how they canceled the Chinese traditional culture and destroyed our heritage,” told Fox News last year. “All this is happening here in America.”
Van Fleet continued, “They call them racists for a long time, but that did not work. So, they have to upgrade to ‘domestic terrorists.’”
The situation in China today remains contentious and dangerous for many.
Van Fleet’s warnings — considering the history — are undoubtedly noteworthy for Americans navigating the difficult moments of the current political structure.
***As the number of voices facing big-tech censorship continues to grow, please sign up for Faithwire’s daily newsletter and download the CBN News app, developed by our parent company, to stay up-to-date with the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.***
One of the consequences of removing the guardrails of Biblical discipline is a dumbed-down generation who act without critical thought. Biblical discipline produces a capacity for self-discipline in people. Paul Botha
Scripture
Because God’s children are human beings – made of flesh and blood – the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could be could he break the power of the devil who holds the power of death.
Observation
God chose to bring many beings to glory. Jesus was made a leader through suffering to bring us into salvation.
Now Jesus and the ones he saved have the same Father. He calls us His brothers and sisters.
Because we are flesh and blood, Jesus had to be also made flesh and blood in order to die and set us free from the power of death. Jesus was made in every way like us so he can be our High Priest before God.
Application
Jesus is the one who leads us to salvation. Because we are human beings, He also had to be made human in order to die for our sins.
The divine Son of God could not die without becoming a person, a part of the creation.
This is wonderful news for us. Jesus in dying on the cross took our place. The perfect Son of God received the punishment for our sins so that we could be free.
When Jesus overcame death, he also defeated satan’s power to condemn us. Death cannot hold down those who follow Jesus.
Prayer
Thank you Lord Jesus for defeating sin and death. Thank you for the promise of eternal life. Amen
New Life Narrabri 