Mushrooms are not common in Narrabri as most of the time the soil is too dry. With all the rain we have had, they are springing up everywhere. This is a selection of what is growing in my garden at the moment.
Australia
Meanwhile Back in 1955
Australia has always been a land of drought and flooding rain, despite what the climate change hysterics would have us believe.
The floods are bad now in parts of NSW and Queensland but were even worse back in 1955.
Godly Sexual Consent
From the “Damascus Dropbear” comes this take on sexual consent apps
Image Credits: Pexels (edited)
New Christian ‘Godly sexual consent’ app launched
by D’bear | Mar 22, 2021 | Christian living, Culture
SYDNEY, NSW – Christian app developer, MoBibleTech, has announced they have designed a “Godly sexual consent” app specifically catering for the Christian market.
The new app is an upgrade on NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller’s ‘sexual consent’ app which has been proposed to addresses the prevalence of sexual assault in Australia.
MoBibleTech founder, Simon Eckles, took the Damascus Dropbear through some of their app’s unique Christian features.
As expected, it opens with the important question “Do you consent?”, but this is immediately followed up with “Yeah, but are you married?”
If you answer yes, the app continues with a series of 40 helpful questions ranging from “Will this be a loving act of service?” to “Do you have any unresolved conflict that you need to pray about together first?”
They even have a question specifically for husbands, asking “Have you done the dishes?”
We asked what happens if the couple answers “no” to the “married” question.
Mr Eckles explained that this unlocked a special random feature that was different for each user.
For some, their mobile device bursts into an all consuming fireball. For others, the ground beneath them opens up and swallows everyone in a five metre radius.
They are also working on a third possibility involving your pastor receiving a fornication alert with your precise GPS location, though the general feedback from beta users was apparently a preference for being burned alive or having the ground swallow them whole.
We asked Mr Eckles whether he thought introducing this sort of technology into the bedroom would be a romantic mood killer.
“We had anticipated that,” he replied.
“Fortunately, the form should only take three hours or so to complete and, once submitted, we’ve added a special feature to set the mood again.”
“The app will start playing a complete audio recording of Song of Solomon read by David Suchet – or as we like to call him, the Christian Barry White.”
The “Godly sexual consent” app will be released later this month and the team at MoBibleTech are confident that its uniquely Christian features will ensure couples can honour their one flesh union in a way that is sensual, consensual and godly.
Piece credited to contributor Simon Camilleri, composer of the viral Nazareth – A Hamilton Parody. For further information around the place of consent in a Christian sexual ethic, see this piece by ThinkChristian.
The Damascus Dropbear exists to develop satirical news which helps people laugh, then think, about theology, culture, church and politics from a biblical worldview. Our mission is to help others to engage with the Bible, explore questions around religion, and ultimately see Christian principles and ethics inform our society. If you would like to support our project click here.
(Satire) Damascus Dropbear: ANU To Drop Word “Gravity”
Image Credits: AAP/Lukas Coch (edited)
Australian National University urges staff to stop using the term ‘gravity’
by D’bear | Mar 19, 2021 | Culture
CANBERRA, ACT – Australia’s leading university, the ANU, has discouraged staff from using ‘force-exclusive’ language such as ‘gravity’ to describe objective scientific realities.
The guidance appears to be an extension of the recent controversy around the release of an ANU Gender-Inclusive Handbook which replaced the terms ‘mother’, ‘father’ and ‘breastfeeding’ with ‘gestational’, ‘non-gestational’ and ‘chestfeeding’.
Vice-Chancellor of the ANU, Professor Brian Schmidt, described the reasoning behind the decision.
“The ANU has come to realise that many of our scientific terms actually discriminate against certain sections of students.”
“We recognise that the concept of gravity brings with it hateful attitudes around individual’s weight, balance and personal physical world beliefs.”
“I am ashamed to say that I am as culpable as anyone in this regard, as in all my Nobel Prize and astrophysics work I never realised the damage I was doing to people’s feelings by basing my supernovae studies on these harmful terms.”
“We hope these changes will uplift transweight and minority post-scientific students so they can be free to fly!”
There has however been strong criticism of the move from several distinguished physicists.
Associate Professor Stoot Frankman has told the Damascus Dropbear that he sees the move as ‘unhinged from reality’.
“When I look at the world I see a set of incredible and profound physical laws designed for human flourishing.”
“I’m just not sure they have fully thought through the unintended consequences of removing the notion of gravity for the sake of avoiding offence.”
“People, and universities, can believe what they want – but as for me my feet are going to stay firmly planted on this solid rock.”
It is further reported that the ANU is looking to turn their ‘University inclusiveness audit’ towards medical treatments, mathematical calculations and engineering structures next.
Creation Ministries: Snakes v. Cane Toads
A good article from Creation Ministries about why snakes adapting to cane toads is natural selection not evolution
Do toads goad snake evolution?
First published: 27 April 2006 (GMT+10)
Re-featured on homepage: 10 March 2021 (GMT+10)
When leading public institutions repeatedly broadcast as fact that ‘we see evolution happening today’,1 it’s not surprising that many people believe it.
One example is a recent prime-time breakfast radio segment on Australia’s national broadcaster, ABC Radio National. The University of Sydney’s Professor Richard Shine told the presenter Fran Kelly that he and his co-researchers studying snakes have observed ‘genuine evolutionary changes’.2
What were they? Allegedly snakes are evolving to cope with the spread of cane toads across the Australian continent. (Cane toads were introduced to north Queensland in the 1930s, and have steadily expanded their range, moving south into New South Wales and west into the Northern Territory.) The changes are making snakes ‘much less vulnerable’ to the toxin in the toad’s skin. (One reason that the cane toad has spread so rapidly is its toxic gland that can kill native predators that eat it.)Creationists do not dispute natural selection—indeed it is an important part of the biblical creation/Fall/
Flood/Dispersion model, and was theorized by creationists even before Darwin!
But as the interview progressed, the discerning listener would have picked up from Professor Shine’s own words that he and his colleagues had not observed evolution at all. Rather, it was an example of natural selection acting to favour certain already-existing genetically determined traits in the snake populations. Creationists do not dispute natural selection—indeed it is an important part of the biblical creation/Fall/Flood/Dispersion model, and was theorized by creationists even before Darwin!
The researchers had firstly been able to rule out learned behaviour as a factor in this case. ‘We’ve done a bunch of trials to see if it could just be that the snakes are learning and so forth but they seem to be remarkably stupid …’, said Professor Shine, going on to emphasize the genetic basis to snake behaviour:
‘Basically you’ve got a strong genetic component to feeding responses, and some snakes really go mad on eating frogs and others really want to eat nothing but mammals and so forth, and it’s actually pretty sophisticated. And there’s a lot of work overseas showing that even within a single litter of baby snakes you’ve got genetic variation in what kinds of things they treat as prey. And it’s just that the only snakes that survive after the toads arrive are the ones that happen to be born with a set of genes saying: “If it looks and smells like a cane toad, don’t eat it.”’
And genetically-determined physical attributes such as the snake’s head dimensions and body size are key factors too.
‘Essentially the size of the toad you can eat depends on the size of your head, so if you’ve got a small head you can’t eat a very big toad.’
So, if you’re a snake, having a small head stops you eating big toads, which have more poison, therefore helps you to survive. And having a big body helps as well:
Read the full story here
Rare albino turtle hatchling has slim chance of survival on Lady Elliot Island
Rare albino turtle hatchling has slim chance of survival on Lady Elliot Island
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,
Supplied: Jessica Buckman
)
Key points:
- Researchers estimate one in every 100,000 turtle hatchlings is albino
- The lack of colour is caused by a melanin deficiency
- The hatchling has limited sight and is more visible to predators
The tiny turtle emerged from its nest this week, taking researchers on the island by surprise.
The Island’s Ecosystem Management Officer Jim Buck said the team had not expected to encounter the unique creature.
“It’s not something that we see walking down the beach regularly,” Mr Buck said.
Supplied: Jodi Carlton
)
“I believe there have been one or two observed here at Lady Elliot in the past, but it’s not something we see regularly.”
A previous sighting of a rare albino green turtle was reported on the Sunshine Coast in 2016.
Pink body, red eyes
Mr Buck said the hatchling’s unique appearance was caused by the absence of melanin.
“The amount of melanin in the system dictates the colour of the animal and in this particular instance the animal was white or pink in colour, indicating that melanin was absent or very, very low,” he said.
Survival odds slim
Researchers have estimated only one in 1,000 green turtle hatchlings survive to adulthood — and the outcomes for albino turtles are even less optimistic.
Mr Buck said poor vision and an inability to camouflage reduced albino turtles’ chances of survival.
“These little guys they struggle to get out of the nest and if they do they’re not well suited to the environment,” he said.
“We would normally expect about one in 1,000 hatchlings to return as an adult [but] in this instance, its chances would be very, very slim.”
Forgiveness Is a Choice
Just on a year ago, the nation was outraged when four young children were killed in an instant as they were riding their bikes to a local shop to buy ice creams. Antony, Angelina and Sienna Abdallah together with their cousin Veronique Sakr. were killed on February 1, 2020, when a drunk driver crashed into their bikes.
Outrage turned to amazement as the parents of these children, devout christians, expressed forgiveness to the driver in the midst of their devastating loss. The Abdallah family have consistently modelled a way of grieving without giving in to anger or bitterness.
“After the kids’ incident happened, and the media approached me and they mentioned the driver, I just mentioned that in my heart I forgive him but I want the court to be fair,” remembered Leila last week.
Jesus told a story about a servant who owed his master millions of dollars but could not repay it. When the boss threatened to sell him, his possessions and his family, he pleaded with his boss for mercy and more time to find the money. The boss relented and the debtor went away rejoicing. Then he came upon a man who owed him a few dollars and he demanded the man pay him there and then. The boss was outraged when heard of this, and threw the first man into prison.
Jesus said this is how it is with us. God has forgiven us so much, yet we can be prone to holding a grudge against others over little things.
The Abdallahs have started a national day called I4give Day to encourage all of us to forgive. To be celebrated on the anniversary of the children’s death, the day will encourage us all to let go of the offences that spoil our relationships.
Just imagine how our lives, our families, our communities, even our nation would be changed if we could learn to make forgiveness our first reflex when we are hurt.
You don’t have to wait until next year to start forgiving others or to receive forgiveness from God. Make a start today!
Evil Facebook
The image below is symptomatic of why people are leaving Facebook.
Apparently Donald Trump was too violent for Facebook and Twitter but this is OK.
Leila Abdallah: ‘If it wasn’t for my faith, I wouldn’t be standing where I am today”
From “Eternity”
Antony, Angelina and Sienna Abdallah.
“God uses you in the midst of your suffering,” Leila Abdallah tells me this week.
One year ago, most of us met Leila and her husband Danny for the first time and under terrible circumstances. The couple from Oatlands, near Parramatta in Sydney, became headline news after three of their six children were killed by a drunk driver on February 1.
Antony (13), Angelina (12) and Sienna (8) had been riding their bikes to get an ice cream. They died at the scene, alongside their cousin Veronique Sakr (11).
Trying to describe to someone what being in the midst of suffering looks like, you might point to the grief and pain of the Abdallah family. Yet when you catch even just a glimpse of the torment experienced by Leila during the past year, there’s something else that stands out. The way she and her husband have responded to what so many of us would consider unimaginable.
“When you read the Bible, Jesus said, ‘Carry your cross and follow me.’ He didn’t say we are going to have a good life … He asked us to carry the cross,” says Leila, who has been a Christian all of her life.
“When Jesus walked this earth, he demonstrated to us how we should live our lives.”
“For me, I look up to him. I think that if Jesus carried the cross, then I’m going to look to him, look at the glory awaiting us in heaven, and I want to carry my cross with dignity and a smile.
“Don’t get me wrong. I feel mixed emotions. I’m heartbroken. I miss my kids, especially coming to the one year mark. I was crying this morning; I cry ever day … but I have accepted my cross and I believe that if Jesus didn’t want my kids, they still would be alive. A miracle would have happened.”
Leila is right. The Bible does record Jesus telling his followers that to follow in his footsteps will include suffering, pain and the toll of rejecting a world at odds with his humble leadership. It’s just that many of Jesus’ followers – this writer included – hope that our faith won’t be put to the sort of test Leila and Danny Abdallah are going through.
But it’s through that very test that Leila has witnessed God using her and Danny. You would have witnessed it as well. Within what seemed like minutes of their children’s deaths, the Maronite Catholic couple – members of Our Lady of Lebanon Co-Cathedral at Harris Park – spoke clearly and powerfully about the forgiveness and peace that flows from God. And they were saying those things about the man who was charged with killing their children.
“The guy, I know he was [allegedly] drunk, driving on this street. Right now I can’t hate him. I don’t want to see him, [but] I don’t hate him,” Leila told the media during the days after the accident.
“I think in my heart to forgive him, but I want the court to be fair. It’s all about fairness. I’m not going to hate him, because that’s not who we are.”
Talk about people putting into practice what they claim to believe and live by.
Leila feels “like God used my lips on that day” with how she immediately spoke about Samuel William Davidson who, last October, pleaded guilty to four counts of manslaughter, as well as other charges. He will be sentenced in March.
Leila and Danny’s approach to Davidson has remained the same ever since. So much so that the first anniversary of the accident, February 1, will be i4Give Day. Created by the Abdallahs and supported by the Federal and NSW Governments, i4Give Day encourages everybody to know and practice that “there is freedom in forgiveness”.
Leila hopes that rather than remembering a tragedy, February 1 becomes an annual day “where you could find someone you can forgive or ask for forgiveness”.
Many people have asked the Abdallahs how they can forgive. Leila continues to point people back to her Christian faith – “forgiveness is essential to us Christians ” – explaining how parts of the Bible shape her outlook.
“Our Father has forgiven our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,” says Leila, speaking of how she wants to live out the Lord’s Prayer. “[Also] Jesus last words on the cross were ‘Forgive them Father, for they do not know what they are doing.’ And he asked us to forgive 70 times seven times … So I forgave [Davidson] because I trust God. He’s a justice God and I leave it in his hands.”
“God is great. God is good. God is giving us the peace of mind that they are in heaven. God is comforting us. He is close to the weary. If it wasn’t for my faith, I wouldn’t be standing where I am today.”
Leila fondly speaks of her three deceased children and their own faith. How Angelina loved praying and Antony wanted there to be a prayer room in the Abdallahs’ new home. To celebrate her eighth birthday, Sienna wanted to be “like Jesus, feeding the less fortunate people”.
“My children loved God so much.”
Before and after the February 1 accident, Leila and Danny’s values stayed the same – God and family. In that order. And Leila’s fierce bond with God even helped her to not blame him for what happened.
“When that accident happened to my kids, my love for God was so strong that I kneeled down to pray to my Father,” remembers Leila. “I [said to] God, ‘I’m crying over my kids. I’m upset.’ And God has revealed to me, ‘You’re upset about your kids – but how do you think I am feeling over the lost souls?’ If anything, that made me relate to him rather than blaming him.”
“God created the heavens and the earth, so how is God feeling about the people who don’t recognise him?
As they have done in the public gaze this past year, Leila again turns our attention back to faith and trust in God, through Jesus Christ. Her discoveries about who God is and how he relates with us have come through immense suffering on her part – but she’s willing to share insights that we all need to grasp.
This ongoing display of Christian hope through the Abdallahs has been noticed by everyone from close neighbours to people they’ve never met on the other side of the world.
“They reach out to me to tell me how much they are affected and how it touched them,” describes Leila about how people from “everywhere” have steadily contacted her family. Just as Leila and Danny have done a remarkable job of counselling other people going through grief, they too have felt loved and supported by family members, total strangers – and God.
“Grieving is already hard. Imagine having to add to it anger and bitterness?” asks Leila. “This is where you end up in mental [anguish]. But when you are grieving and you free up your heart – and you forgive others – and you surrender to God, God will send you the peace from above.
“God will carry you through it and God will give you the strength to deal with everyday life.”
Leila has relied a lot upon God to get through everyday life. “The cross does get heavy, of course, because this is your kids. It’s your life. You are aching and hollow. The most precious gift in life is your kids. The most expensive thing in life has been taken away from us; half of my kids have gone to be with the Lord.”
“Any time you feel that the cross is too heavy, just ask God and he will give you the strength to keep going and keep going and keep going.”
Leila finds strength in prayer, listening to worship music or opening the Bible. “When you ask God to come to you and touch your heart, he will give you the peace that comes from above.”
“The strength doesn’t come from within; this strength comes from God.”
Leila and Danny know life is for a relatively brief time so they want to live well for God.
“In everything we want to do, I just want to serve the Lord with all our hearts and honour God and our kids. Really, that’s what matters to us.”
“I’m a shy person but the reason that I do media is that it my chance to honour God on television and media. For people to see God … and what he wants us to be.
“I love my God. I love my God.”
From eternity.com.au
Cell Ministry in the 21st Century
Not long after we moved to Narrabri, a town of 7000 people in the wheat belt of Eastern Australia, the Lord started talking to us about a “new thing” that He wanted to do with us in this place. We weren’t sure what this new thing was, but in 1996, we stepped out in faith and left our denomination to start New Life Christian Fellowship.
About that time, I read Ralph Neighbour’s book, “Where Do We Go From Here?” which documents in great detail the decline of the evangelical churches in the USA since the glory days of the 1950’s. That trend has only increased into the current century, as leaders have recognised that a whole generation has left the church.
This decline has also been felt in Australia, perhaps more so. Since I became a christian in 1976, churches generally have lost their influence in the community and many people are suspicious, even hostile, towards any expression of christian faith.
Ralph goes on to describe the new- old cell church paradigm for churches that was far more effective than the Program Based Design. While PBD churches add never-ending programs to meet the expressed needs of special groups in the church, the cell church disciples everybody in small groups designed to grow disciples and reach out to the local neighbourhood.
In the traditional style of church, Bible Studies were optional extras for the committed members, but in the cell church the cell was the primary expression of the church. Later on, Ralph would coin the phrase “Christ’s Basic Bodies” to describe the primacy of cell groups.
This description of cell church hit me as a revelation of what Jesus intended the church to be. I was so excited to be planting a church at the same time that I was seeing what we needed to do.
Over the last 24 years I have devoted my time and energy as a Pastor to encouraging my cell leaders and equipping them for their task. Of course we gather on Sunday morning for worship and preaching of the word, but my thoughts are always about growing our cell groups. At times it has been exhilarating, at other times disappointing. Regardless of my feeling at the time, we know this is the path God has set for us.
When we started out, I believed that we would eventually grow to be a church of 1000 people. When I prayed into that, I would envisage a large auditorium filled with a huge crowd of people. Now I see 100 cell groups spread across the town and the surrounding farm lands, shining the light of Christ into the darkness.
Following a television promotion some years ago, our town was crowned “The Sportiest Town in Australia,” but by God’s grace I hope that one day it will be “The Godliest Town in Australia” as our cell groups take seriously the commission to make disciples.
New Life Narrabri 