Freud’s fingerprints are all over the Western culture of the last century, from university lecture halls to art galleries to television commercials. Carl Trueman
Quote for the Day
Author: newlifenarrabri
Reflection on Judges 11:1-28
Scripture
“You keep whatever your god Chemosh gives you, and we will keep whatever the Lord our God gives us.”
Observation
Jephthah is a son of Gilead, but to a prostitute. The sons of Gilead’s wife drive him off the land so he flees to Tob, where he gathers a band of worthless rebels.
When the Ammonites attack Israel, the elders of Gilead send for Jephthah. They make him there ruler and commander of the army.
Jephthah then sends a message to the king of Ammon, demanding to know why they are attacking. The king says that Israel stole their land.
Jephthah writes back to say that they never stole any land from Ammon. In any event, the land is a gift from the Lord. The Ammonites can keep whatever their god gives them, but Israel will keep the land the Lord gives them. Not only that, they have held this land for 300 years, and the Ammonites never tried to take it back before.
Application
Jephthah was right to see this war in spiritual terms. Israel lived in land given to them by the Lord. The Ammonites had their own gods to gift them land. Therefore, any invasion was a test of whose God is the greater.
We live in a culture which does not recognise the reality of the unseen realm, except in romanticised terms. The reality is that we are in the thick pf a supernatural war. As Christians, everything we do advance as either God’s Kingdom or satan’s realm.
This battle is personal, but it is not human. We do not fight against people, but against powers and principalities, rulers and authorities in the spirit realm. The primary weapon of this warfare is prayer. As we surrender ourselves to God and listen to the indwelling Holy Spirit, He directs us how to pray and how to live in such a way as to destroy the works of satan.
The battle belongs to the Lord, and His victory is guaranteed.
Prayer
Lord, please grant me the gift of discernment of spirits. Open my spiritual eyes so that I can truly see where the battle is and how to fight it. Amen.
Today’s Bike Ride
Much milder morning, you can almost think spring is near. A nice ride down Jacks Creek and Gun Club Roads
Quote for the Day
Nevertheless, there is a key subsequent development that is necessary for us to understand if we are to appreciate fully the way our contemporary culture thinks, and that is the move from understanding sex as an activity to seeing it as absolutely fundamental to identity. Carl Trueman
Reflection on Judges 10:1-17
Scripture
Then the Israelites put aside their foreign gods and served the Lord. And he was grieved by their misery.
Observation
Two judges, Tola and Jair, between them ruled over Israel for 45 years. It Seems to have been a time of peace.
But then the Israelites turn again to foreign gods. They abandon the Lord. So the Lord abandons them to the Philistines and the Ammonites.
The Israelites call out to the Lord to rescue them. At first, He is unmoved. He tells them to call out to their foreign gods to rescue them. They repent from their wicked ways and their idolatry, so the Lord determines to rescue them.
Application
It would be very confronting have the Lord say to you: “You have been serving other gods so let them save you.”
Sometimes we can think we can take up the Lord and put Him down again, that our faith is like a buffet dinner where we can take what we want at anytime.
God is looking for relationship, for intimacy and faithfulness. He isn’t interested in what we may do to serve Him from time to time. He wants our hearts, our minds, our will.
People sin, even spirit-filled born again Christians. We repent and turn back to the Lord, and He welcomes us back. What He does not like is the uncommitted, fickle faith that ignored God six days and then wants Him on Sunday or, worse still, only ever calls to God when a problem needs to be fixed.
We must stay faithful to the Lord, everyday.
Prayer
Lord, I confess that I do not always do what is right by you. Please forgive me for being so easily distracted from following you and help me to follow you more faithfully. Amen.
The Daily Mail: Masks Do Not Work In Practice
The astonishing data that may prove masks DON’T work as Covid cases in Singapore and New Zealand OVERTAKE Australia despite SUPER strict mandates: ‘They don’t matter’
- Covid cases in Singapore and New Zealand have overtaken Australia per capita
- Both still have very strict mandates in place unlike Australia where rules eased
- Death rates in New Zealand are also higher than in Australia despite masks
- Data shared by infectious diseases professor in post saying masks ‘don’t matter’
- It’s the latest damning data to counter calls for a Covid clampdown in Australia
By Kevin Airs For Daily Mail Australia
New data shows Covid cases in Singapore and New Zealand have overtaken Australia in the latest Omicron wave despite ultra-strict mask mandates.
Masks are worn everywhere in the densely-populated Asian city while New Zealanders are forced to wear them in all indoor public places, such as shopping centres and libraries.
But both now have higher case numbers per million than Australia, where compulsory mask rules have been abandoned in most indoor settings.
Shock data has revealed Covid case numbers in New Zealand and Singapore – where masks are reularly worn all the time outdoors, as seen here – have overtaken Australia in the latest Omicron wave despite ultra-strict mask mandates
These figures appear to smash the push now on in Australia for a return to mask mandates, which are currently compulsory only on public transport and in aged care and healthcare centres.
Since Australian mandates began to ease last October, per capita case numbers in Singapore exceeded, matched or lagged behind Australia, before rising ahead again.
In New Zealand, case numbers were six weeks behind Australia’s Omicron wave in January, but since February they have matched or exceeded Australia.
Death rates in New Zealand also overtook Australia per capita at the start of March, despite the Kiwis being on the highest code red mask mandate restrictions – and have stayed higher ever since.
In New Zealand, case numbers were six weeks behind the peak of Australia’s Omicron wave in January but since late February they have matched or exceeded its Tasman neighbour
Since Australian mandates began to ease last October, Singapore’s case numbers per capita exceeded, matched or lagged behind before overtaking Australia’s again
Death rates in New Zealand overtook Australia per capita at the start of March while the country was still at code red for mask mandates and have stayed higher ever since
In Singapore, death rates in the city dropped lower in April after racing ahead between October and Christmas, but are now surging wildly again and set to overtake Australia once more
Read the full article at The Daily Mail
Today’s Bike Ride
Cloudy morning today, but that kept the heat in overnight 😊
Covid Vaccines For Children- Like A Horror Movie!
From Jo Nova:
Vaccines for babies? FDA and CDC staff fear speaking up: “It’s like a horror movie I’m being forced to watch”
No one silences experts because they have a great product
‘People are getting bad advice and we can’t say anything.’
Photo by Colin Maynard
Right now, internal critics of these agencies are focused on one issue above all: Why did the FDA and the CDC issue strong blanket recommendations for Covid vaccines in children?
The calls and text messages are relentless. On the other end are doctors and scientists at the top levels of the NIH, FDA and CDC. They are variously frustrated, exasperated and alarmed about the direction of the agencies to which they have devoted their careers.
“It’s like a horror movie I’m being forced to watch and I can’t close my eyes,” one senior FDA official lamented. “People are getting bad advice and we can’t say anything.”
That particular FDA doctor was referring to two recent developments inside the agency. First, how, with no solid clinical data, the agency authorized Covid vaccines for infants and toddlers, including those who already had Covid. And second, the fact that just months before, the FDA bypassed their external experts to authorize booster shots for young children.
Formerly great institutions are being eaten from the inside:
…
That doctor is hardly alone. At the NIH, doctors and scientists complain to us about low morale and lower staffing: The NIH’s Vaccine Research Center has had many of its senior scientists leave over the last year, including the director, deputy director and chief medical officer. “They have no leadership right now. Suddenly there’s an enormous number of jobs opening up at the highest level positions,” one NIH scientist told us. (The people who spoke to us would only agree to be quoted anonymously, citing fear of professional repercussions.)
The CDC has experienced a similar exodus. “There’s been a large amount of turnover. Morale is low,” one high level official at the CDC told us. “Things have become so political, so what are we there for?” Another CDC scientist told us: “I used to be proud to tell people I work at the CDC. Now I’m embarrassed.”
The data shows a 4% efficacy for Moderna in babies, nothing for Pfizer, and with no long term studies on side effects:
Using a three-dose vaccine in 992 children between the ages of six months and five years, Pfizer found no statistically significant evidence of vaccine efficacy.
Moderna’s results—they conducted a study on 6,388 children with two doses—were not much better. Against asymptomatic infections, they claimed a very weak vaccine efficacy of just 4% in children aged six months to two years. They also claimed an efficacy of 23% in children between two and six years old—but neither result was statistically significant.
Dr. Marty Makary is a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the author of The Price We Pay, and a medical advisor to Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin. Dr. Tracy Beth Høeg is an epidemiologist affiliated with The Florida Department of Health who has published research on Covid-19 in schools in the CDC’s journal MMWR.
None of this would have got this far, if it weren’t for the failing of the legacy media. The journalists are as scared as the family doctors are. None of them want to publicly disagree with the sacred scientists at the FDA and CDC — the same ones who are also too scared to speak up.
Quote for the Day
The social imaginary emerging in the nineteenth century was one that intuitively placed human beings as the sovereigns at the center of a universe to which they could give shape and significance. Carl Trueman
Do Not Be Afraid!
The recent Covid Pandemic showed how much fear rules the lives of many people, including those who claim to be christians.
Governments fanned the fears so they could institute tyrannical lock downs, vaccine mandates and mask mandates. They didn’t have to try very hard because people were already hyperventilating in fear of a new disease.
If you have no god other than yourself, fear is a natural response to almost everything. If you are responsible to control everything in your life that is a terrible burden. No wonder people were so happy to contract this to government officials- just tell me what to do to stay safe and I will be happy.
The commandment “Do not be afraid” occurs hundreds of times in the Bible. There are also commandments to “Rejoice” and to not be anxious.
There is only one thing that makes these commandments feasible. We are told in 1 John 4:18 “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”
When we know that God loves us we have nothing left to fear. If a pandemic kills us or cancer or we have a fatal car accident, we know that we will go to be with God in perfect eternal joy. And if we lose all of our money or our job, God has got that as well because He promises to meet our needs.
When you know God, really know Him, and you know His promises and commands, then there is nothing that can ever make you afraid. There is nothing that is stronger than God. Nothing can snatch you out of His hands. Nothing can steal your salvation.
Don’t be afraid. God loves you perfectly.
