“Did John’s authority to baptise come from heaven, or was it merely human?”
Observation
Jesus returns to the Temple, and the priests and elders demand to know by what authority He is teaching and performing miracles. Jesus replies with another question: Did John’s authority come from heaven or from men? The leaders are unable to answer this question because they are afraid of people’s reactions.
Jesus then tells a parable about two sons. Their father asks them to go and work in his vineyard. One son says, “Yes” but doesn’t go out, but the other son says “No” but later changes his mind to go out anyway.
Jesus goes on to say that the tax collectors and prostitutes will go into the kingdom of heaven ahead of the religious leaders, because they repented but the leaders refused to do so .
Application
Religious people can get hung up about who can do what in the church. Can women preach? Can lay people lead the sacraments?
We need a certain amount of order in any human organisation, even the church. but that is human authority not heavenly authority.
The Jewish leaders were obsessed with which rabbi Jesus learnt his teachings from. They could not, or would not, see that his authority was not like the rabbis but from the Father.
He has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. He passes that authority onto us, the church.
Specifically, Jesus authorises ass to go and make disciples of the nations, to teach them what He has shown us, and to baptise. He has authorised us to heal the sick and cast out demons, as well as preaching the good news.
As believers, we need to claim that authority that Christ has given us and to use it daily for the glory of our Father.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank you for the authority that comes from heaven to me. Please help me to understand this and to use it. Amen.
Fatherlessness is a growing problem in the Western world. Whether caused by divorce and broken families, or by deliberate single parenting, more and more children grow up in Australia without fathers. Concerned groups have argued that a mother and father are crucial in the raising of children. Father absence has been shown to be detrimental to the well being of children. The following is a summary of the evidence for the importance of fathers and mothers.
One expert from Harvard medical school who has studied over 40 years of research on the question of parental absence and children’s well-being said this:
“What has been shown over and over again to contribute most to the emotional development of the child is a close, warm, sustained and continuous relationship with both parents. Yet this vast body of research is almost totally ignored by our society. Why have even the professionals tended to ignore this research? Perhaps the answer is, to put it most simply, because the findings are unacceptable.”
Educational performance
A number of studies show that children from mother-only families obtain fewer years of education and are far more likely to drop out of school than children from intact families. For example, American children from intact families have a 21 per cent chance of dropping out of high school whereas children from broken families have a 46 per cent chance.
Moreover, the presence of fathers seems to strongly impact on the educational performance and intelligence of children. Research shows that school children who became father-absent early in life generally scored significantly lower on measures of IQ and achievement tests.
One study examined the academic records of more than 18,000 students. The researchers concluded that “one-parent children on the whole show lower achievement in school than do their two-parent classmates”.
Criminal involvement
Studies show a connection between delinquent and/or criminal behaviour, and broken families. One study found that girls in divorced families committed more delinquent acts (e.g., drug use, larceny, skipping school) than their counterparts in intact families.
A British study found a direct statistical link between single parenthood and virtually every major type of crime, including mugging, violence against strangers, car theft and burglary.
A 1987 study of adolescent murderers discovered that 75 per cent of them had divorced or never-married parents. Another study of violent rapists, all repeat offenders, found that 60 per cent came from single-parent homes.
Or consider a study that tracked every child born on the Hawaiian island of Kauai in 1955 for 30 years. It found that five out of six delinquents with an adult criminal record came from families where a parent – almost always the father – was absent.
One study even arrived at this startling conclusion: the proportion of single-parent households in a community predicts its rates of violent crime and burglary, but the community’s poverty level does not. Neither poverty nor race seem to account very much for the crime rate, compared to the proportion of single-parent families.
Involvement with drugs
Offspring from non-intact families are more likely to engage in drug and alcohol use than offspring from two-parent families.
Fathers, it seems, play a particularly important role in prevention of drug use. A 1987 UCLA study pointed out that inadequate family structure makes children more susceptible to drug use “as a coping mechanism to relieve depression and anxiety.” Another study concluded that, although “mothers are more active than fathers in helping youngsters with personal problems…with regard to youthful drug users, the father’s involvement is more important.” Among the homes with strict fathers, only 18 per cent used alcohol or drugs at all. In contrast, among mother-dominated homes, 35 per cent had children who used drugs frequently.
Psychological/emotional well-being – mental and physical health
Studies show that the absence of a parent contributes to many forms of emotional disorder among children, especially anger, rebelliousness, low self-esteem, depression, and antisocial behaviour.
Children of divorce make up an estimated 60 per cent of child patients in clinical treatment and 80 to 100 per cent of adolescents in in-patient mental hospital settings. From nations as diverse as Finland and South Africa, a number of studies have reported that anywhere from 50 to 80 per cent of psychiatric patients come from broken homes.
Marriage is an important factor in all of this. Indeed, one of the most consistent observations in health research is that married people enjoy better health than those of other marital statuses. Compared to married men and women, the divorced and separated suffer much higher rates of disease morbidity, disability, mental neuroses and mortality.
A study of countries like Japan, Sweden, England, Singapore and New Zealand found that “in all cases, despite any differences in marriage behavior that may exist, married persons experience a lower mortality rate” compared to single, divorced and widowed peers.
Suicide rates also tend to be higher amongst those from broken homes. A 1987 study linked the increase in suicides in America to the proliferation of single-parent households. Another study found that youths who attempted suicide differed little in terms of age, income, race and religion, but were more likely to live in nonintact family settings.
Children having children
Children from mother-only families are more likely to marry early and have children early, both in and out of wedlock, and are more likely to divorce. Also, age at the first marriage will be lower for the children of divorced parents who marry, when sex, age, and maternal education are controlled.
For example, a recent British study found that girls brought up by lone parents were twice as likely to leave home by the age of 18 as the daughters of intact homes; were three times as likely to be cohabitating by the age of 20; and almost three times as likely to have a birth out of wedlock.
Conclusion
Broadly speaking, several trends can be observed from the evidence: 1) a child’s development, by every indicator, is best served in the context of a natural, two-parent home; 2) the absence of a parent seems more devastating for a child than poverty or bad neighbourhoods; and 3) single-parent families are more likely to produce a new generation which has the same or even worse problems than the last.
I was going to go to Haire Drive, but roadworks created some traffic congestion. I did a U-ie and headed back to town, then out to the north around Bunnings before following the highway home. A chilly southerly wind increased the pleasure. #cycling #Narrabri #Biketooter
A cold breeze made riding less than ideal but a nice trip to the telescope. Some places have garden gnomes, but here they park old dishes around the property. #cycling #Narrabri #Biketooter
It is worth noting that foundational motivations and the traditions and practices that derived from them are as important as documented mission and vision statements, which are a comparatively recent phenomenon. Most, if not all, founders of organisations that identify as Christian were very much ‘do-ers’ of the word (see Jas 1:22), so their vision will be seen in actions and deeds rather than documents. Stephen Judd et al
Organisational faithfulness is concerned with the ways in which an organisation participates in God’s ongoing mission. It relates to how things are structured and organised, and the general orientation of strategy and management of employees towards the goals of creating life-bringing business enterprises. Stephen Judd et al
“You can pray for anything, and if you have have faith, you will receive it.”
Observation
This follows on from the cleansing of the Temple. Now, the blind and the lame come to Jesus, and He heals them. The children in the Temple are crying out, “Praise God (literally, Hosanna) for the Son of David!” The leaders are indignant.
The next morning, as Jesus returns to Jerusalem from Bethany, He sees a fig tree. He expects to find some figs. When he discovers the tree has no fruit, he curses it, and it withers immediately.
Jesus tells His disciples that if they have faith and do not doubt, they can do things like this. We can pray for anything by faith and receive it.
Application
Jesus says things that seem too definite, too open-ended for our taste. We always want to hedge His promises and water them down.
Jesus says that we can pray for anything and, if we have faith, we will receive it. There are no limitations, no ifs and maybes. It is like this: Faith → prayer → receive
He isn’t promising to fill our selfish desires or to grant what is physically impossible such as the ability to leap safely from tall buildings.
Faith is about trusting in Jesus, and that is based in relationship. The promise is not a blank cheque to get everything that we think we should have. It is more of a promise that what we need in our walk with Jesus, He will supply.
New Life Narrabri 