Month: December 2022

Reflection on 1 Samuel 23:1-29

/ newlifenarrabri / Leave a comment

Scripture

So Saul quit chasing David and returned to fight the Philistines.

Observation

David hears that the Philistines are stealing grain at Keilah. David asks the Lord if he should go and defend Keilah, and the Lord says to go.

When Saul hears that David is at Keilah, he mobilises the army to go and capture him. The Lord warns David that the man of Keilah will hand him over to Saul, so he and his men flee to the hill country. Although Saul hnts him day after day, the Lord protects David.

On one occasion, Saul and his man begin closing in on David, but Saul receives word that the Philistines are attacking Israel again. He quits chasing David to fight the Philistines.

Application

It is clear that while Saul should have been fighting the Philistines and removing them as a threat to the nation, he instead engaged in a time-consuming hunt for David. He was obsessed with the wrong enemy.

There are many Christians who are in the same category. The heresy hunters go over every word written or spoken by their self declared enemies in order to prove how wrong they are. They don’t fight satan or the enemies of christians. No, they are obsessed with the wrong enemy.

Rather than fighting christian brothers and sisters, we all need to spend our time and energy taking the battle to satan. We do this by sharing the gospel with friends, by loving those who are hurting, by fighting for justice for those whom the system neglects.

Make sure you are fighting the right battles.

Prayer

Lord, please show me how to fight your battles and how to defeat your enemies in the Spirit. Amen.

Quote for the Day

/ newlifenarrabri / Leave a comment

This world is filled with broken, confused, depressed, and lonely people. Let us look to the Author and Finisher of our faith to discover who He says we are. I believe if we will forsake what the world says about us and take to heart our God-given identity and confess His description about us, we will heal from low self-esteem.  Becky Dvorak

Silent Prayer Now A Thought Crime in UK

/ newlifenarrabri / Leave a comment

Silent prayer, just looking like you might be praying, is now a crime in some parts of the UK.

From spiked-omline.com

Thoughtcrime is now a reality in Britain

Why was an activist arrested for praying silently in the street?

ANDREW TETTENBORN

22nd December 2022
Share

 
TopicsFREE SPEECHPOLITICSUK

Donate to spiked this Christmas, and help keep us free, fearless and independent.

A recent event in suburban Birmingham offers a stark reminder of the threat to free speech posed by Britain’s censorious state.

Earlier this month, Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was standing silently in a public street. She was doing, saying and displaying absolutely nothing, apparently lost in thought. A policeman approached her. He asked if she was inwardly praying. When she said she might have been, he immediately arrested her, took her to a police station and searched her. Last week, Vaughan-Spruce was told she faces prosecution.

How did this happen? First, Vaughan-Spruce was known to be a member of a pro-life organisation. And second, she was within 150 metres of an abortion clinic, inside a so-called buffer zone. In September, Birmingham City Council introduced a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO), which makes any ‘act of approval or disapproval’ toward abortion in the surroundings of the clinic a criminal offence, on pain of a £1,000 fine. This restriction applies to any expression related to abortion services, by any method: whether by graphic, verbal or written means, prayer or counselling, or in any other way. So Vaughan-Spruce’s alleged silent prayer was apparently enough. Someone had disapproved of her presence and asked the police to get rid of her. All the ploddingly literal-minded copper needed was Vaughan-Spruce’s admission that she might have been privately communing with her god and might therefore have been illegally praying in a restricted area.

 

Whatever your view on abortion, even if you are strongly pro-choice, this whole episode should worry you immensely. The implications for personal liberty are terrifying. If an arrest for silent prayer is not an instance of Orwellian ‘thoughtcrime’, then I don’t know what is.

Worse still, the restrictions set out in the PSPO give the police huge scope to silence outspoken campaigners. Police can order someone they believe to be breaking a PSPO’s rules to leave the area immediately and to give their name and address. Alleged rulebreakers can also be arrested or fined. After Vaughan-Spruce’s arrest, matters only got worse. As part of her conditions of bail, she was banned from engaging in public prayer, even outside the bounds of the PSPO. Initially, she was even told not to have any contact with a local Catholic priest active in the pro-life movement (though this condition has since been dropped). Nobody should ever be subject to such draconian restrictions on their expression.

 

Read the full article here

Reflection on 1 Samuel 21:1-15

/ newlifenarrabri / Leave a comment

Scripture

Since there was no other food available, the priest gave him the holy bread –  the Bread of the Presence that was placed before the Lord in the Tabernacle. it had just been replaced that day with fresh bread.

Observation

 David goes to the town of Nob to see the priest Ahimelech. David asks him for food. As there is no other food available, Ahimelech gives him the holy bread, the Bread of the Lord’s Presence.

David then asks him for a weapon. Ahimelech give him the sword that David had used to cut off Goliath’s head.

Then David moves on to Gath, but the King of Gath doesn’t want him there.

Application

 The holy bread was not supposed to be eaten by anyone other than the priests. Yet David was allowed to do this, something that Jesus later alluded to.

It is good to have principles and practices, but there are times when we have to move beyond the rules and see what God really wants us to do.

Jesus had many arguments with men who were locked into a legalistic way of thinking. He healed on the Sabbath because God is more interested in compassion then rule keeping .

We have to let the love of God guide us in every situation .

Prayer

Lord, you fed David in an unorthodox way, and you allowed the priest to do this. Please help me to understand your will in every encounter. Amen. 

Andrew Thorburn Vindicated For Faith Position

/ newlifenarrabri / Leave a comment

Andrew Thorburn, who was briefly CEO of Essendon AFL Club in October before being sacked for belonging to a church, has settled with the club over the affair.

The original issue was big news, but you have to go digging through the news sites to find the latest development. Typical of the spineless media.

Thorburn has at all times acted with integrity and in a Christ-like attitude, and it is good to see him being vindicated.

As one commentator noted this morning, there is a fair level of legal protection of religious beliefs in Australia, even though most corporations just bow to the woke mob on these issues. Hopefully there will be more recognition of the concept of freedom of religion in the public sphere.

Recently re-elected Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews also needs to make an apology to Thorburn for his slanderous and vicious comments in October, but I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for that.

From the ABC on MSN:

Essendon Football Club apologises to Andrew Thorburn over handling of his short stint as CEO

 
 
 

The Essendon Football Club has apologised to former CEO Andrew Thorburn over the way it handled the events leading to his departure after just one day in the role.

Mr Thorburn was appointed as the Bombers CEO in October, but resigned a day later after public commentary over his involvement in a church which had shared controversial views about homosexuality and abortion.

Mr Thorburn said at the time it was clear to him that his personal Christian faith was “not tolerated or permitted in the public square”, despite his leadership record.

In a joint statement released on Tuesday, the two parties said they had resolved the dispute over the matter and would work to “enable a wider community conversation on the importance of freedom of conscience, religion and belief”.

Essendon Football Club said it acknowledged “that the events of October should have been handled better and apologises for the impact it had on Mr Thorburn, his family and others”.

“Both parties consider that elements of the public commentary at the time were extreme and wrong and counter-productive to the respectful community dialogue they agree is critical,” the statement said.

 

“Mr Thorburn remains welcome at the Club. The Club reiterates that he is a person of integrity who treats others, whether at work or elsewhere, with dignity and respect.

“He has a strong track record of leadership including with respect to diversity and inclusion of LGBTIQ and other minority groups.”

The statement noted genuine diversity should include people of faith and “everyone should be able to openly express their personal position, in a respectful way, without fear and still feel that they belong”.

As part of the dispute resolution, the Essendon Football Club will make a donation to an ethics institute to prepare a paper on how sporting organisations can build “inclusive communities recognising freedoms including those relating to race, religion and sexuality”.

The statement did not specify which institute would be funded to prepare the paper.