He is pleased when you ask for His wisdom and He will generously give it to you (see James 1:5). Just remember to keep your heart pure, allowing no idols (your own will) to distort the pure rhema of God to you. Mark Virkler

The Principle of Pure Focus is this: “The intuitive flow comes out of the vision I am holding before the eyes of my heart.” That is why I am commanded to fix my eyes on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of my faith. That will make the vision pure. Mark Virkler

Only Christianity Can Save Australia

From Daily Declaration

Falling birth rates, lonely young men, exploited young women — the symptoms are everywhere. To save Australia, we must return to the Christian centre our nation has spent decades dismantling.

Australia is in trouble, but the trouble goes much deeper than Canberra, interest rates, immigration numbers, or whichever party happens to be in office. Those things matter, of course — they do — but they sit on top of something far more serious. The country has lost its spiritual centre, and once that happens, everything else starts to come loose.

Australia feels different from how it was a generation or two ago. People were proud of the country and, more importantly, they believed it had a future. Neighbours knew one another, families were stronger, churches were full, and children could stay outside playing until dinner without their parents fearing the worst. There was a sense that if you worked hard, kept your word, and did the right thing by others, you could build a decent life.

That way of life did not appear out of thin air. It grew from a Christian understanding of the world, even among people who were not regular churchgoers. Australians understood that freedom came with responsibility, that marriage meant something, that children were a blessing, and that their duties to family, community, and country mattered more than indulging every passing desire.

We have spent decades pulling that foundation apart, then acting surprised by the cracks in the walls.

Broken Politics, Broken Industry, Broken Manhood

You can see the damage almost everywhere now. Politics has become a career game played by people who often seem more interested in pleasing corporate donors, lobbyists, and global institutions than the Australians who put them there. Too many enter public life to build a profile, win an ideological argument, or secure the next well-paid position. Service has taken a back seat.

The economy tells its own story. Australia once made things. We had industries that employed whole towns and gave people the pride of knowing their work mattered to the country. These days, we dig resources out of the ground, ship them overseas, and buy back the finished products at a premium while politicians tell us this is modern prosperity. Most ordinary Australians can see what has happened. We have become dependent, exposed, and far too willing to sell off the future for a short-term boost to the figures.

The change in our young men is hard to ignore. Boys were once raised to become men who could provide, protect, build, and take responsibility. Now, many grow up hearing that masculinity is dangerous, that their instincts are suspect, and that they are somehow guilty before they have even done anything. After years of that, we wonder why so many retreat into gaming, pornography, and isolation.

I do not believe most of those young men are lazy or beyond hope. Many are simply starved of purpose. They have never been told that their strength can be used for good, that fatherhood is honourable, or that their country may one day need courage from them. A society that spends years tearing down manhood should not be shocked when boys fail to grow into confident men.

How the Revolution Betrayed Women

Young women have been betrayed in a different way. They were once encouraged to aim high, whether that meant becoming doctors, teachers, scientists, mothers, business owners, or community leaders. Now, a huge part of online culture tells them that attention is the same thing as worth and that selling access to their bodies is somehow empowering.

It is a rotten bargain. Platforms such as OnlyFans dress up exploitation as independence, and plenty of powerful people are happy to applaud it because there is money to be made. A young woman can be told for years that dignity, modesty, and restraint are oppressive, then be congratulated when strangers pay to consume her online. That is not liberation. It is an old form of exploitation with better branding.

The same culture has poisoned the relationship between men and women. Social media rewards conflict, resentment, and suspicion because outrage keeps people scrolling. Men are told that women are manipulative. Women are told that men are dangerous or useless. Both sides are encouraged to treat intimacy as a transaction and commitment as a trap.

Then we look around and wonder why people are marrying later, why fewer children are being born, and why so many young Australians feel lonely. Most still want love, marriage, and family. They just live in a culture that makes those things harder, more expensive, and less respected than they were for earlier generations.

The sexual revolution promised freedom, but much of what it produced was confusion, damaged relationships, and people who no longer know what they are meant to be. Our institutions now celebrate almost every form of sexual experimentation while treating Christian teaching on sex, marriage, and family as backward or cruel. Academia promotes it. Entertainment normalises it. Corporate human resources departments enforce it.

Ordinary people can see the imbalance. A Christian who says marriage is between a man and a woman is treated as a problem, while increasingly extreme claims about sex and gender are presented as beyond question. People are expected to nod along, use the approved words, and pretend they cannot see what is happening in front of them.

Read the rest of the article here

A cold wind blows right to the bones. With my bike out of action, I went for a walk around the lake instead. #Narrabri

You cannot reinvent yourself because you did not create yourself. This is why Jesus says you must be born again. Being Jesus’s disciple requires not an acceptance of self, but a denial of self, bringing true peace and freedom. Melissa Dougherty