The devil isn’t stupid. He always looks for your weakest moment so he can steal, kill, and destroy. If he cannot get you in the daytime, he will come at night. John Ramirez
Quote for the Day
My Biking Year
I ended the year having ridden 5922 km in 2023. This is my best year ever in terms of bike riding. I rode a total of 11.3 days.
Today’s Bike Ride
My last ride for 2023 was to the Australia Telescope. The dishes are pointing roughly north, a fairly unusual direction. #cycling #Narrabri #Biketooter
He Gives Strength To The Weary
Reflection on Isaiah 18
Scripture
For the Lord has told me this: “I will watch quietly from my dwelling place – as quietly as the heat rises on a summer day, or the morning dew during the harvest.”
Observation
Isaiah prophesies against Ethiopia. He tells their swift messengers take a message to Ethiopia to be attentive when God raises his battle flag.
The Lord watches over the affairs of men quietly. He will cut off their plans the way we might cut off a new branch. Their armies will be left dead in the field for the vultures and wild animals to eat.
Application
The world is in a constant state of upheaval like the restless ocean. People make their plans for war or business, but God watches silently – as silent as the heat that rises or the dew that falls. But then He will act often in ways that don’t seem to be divine interventions, and all the ripening plans of men and women are cut off in an instant.
Because the Lord most often does not speak in a loud and obvious way, we must make it our habit to stop and listen. It is in the still small voice rather than the storms and earthquakes that the Holy Spirit often speaks to us.
The voices of the world are loud and clamour for our our attention. It is very hard to shut them out and focus instead on the Lord. This is a discipline that we must learn to grow in.
Prayer
Speak Lord, your servant is listening. You watch quietly and speak quietly. Please help me to hear you. Amen.
Predicted Droughts Give Way To Floods, But It’s Not the BOM,s Fault!
From Jo Nova
The BOM predicted a hot dry summer right before the flooding rains came…
By Jo Nova
Australians are angry the BOM didn’t see the flooding rains coming
Worse, we’re betting the nation on the BOM’s ability to predict the climate.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) tells Australians that record breaking extremes are getting worse because of our cars and our air-conditioners (that’s “The State of the Climate“). But when the BOM can’t predict record breaking rain a month in advance, or even the day before, we know the BOM doesn’t understand what drives the climate.
Somehow the BOM expect Australians to spend trillions and rearrange their economy based on their fifty year prophesies, but not to mind when “this summer” goes right off the rails.
Back in September the BOM issued its El Nino alert, and Australians were told it would be a hot and dry and to prepare for a summer of bushfires. Farmer sold their lambs, and adjusted harvest accordingly.
This was the BOM solemn prediction in late October, for the very next month of rainfall
Across most of Australia the odds were only 20-40% of getting average rain.
Instead this is what happened:
And in December most of the country was predicted to have a fifty fifty chance of getting “average” rain.
But the real weather gods had another idea, and all the places under any shades of green below got somewhere from 100% to 300% of the average rainfall. The indigo and purple zones got even more.
This was a savage downpour — seven feet of rain in five days fell at one location:
No fewer than 12 locations across far north Queensland posted record rainfall totals.
Some areas received a year’s rainfall in a single day, isolating towns, closing highways and leaving hundreds stranded by surging floodwaters. Black Mountain near Cooktown recorded a cumulative 2189mm over the five days, while Mossman South, an hour northwest of Cairns, had 1935mm.
As the Mayor of Douglas Shire said:
“If this is so record-breaking, how did no one know this was going to happen … we need to have forecasts closer to what is going on.”
The BOM suddenly wants to absolve itself of liability
People have noticed there is now a mandatory check box forcing users to agree to a legal disclaimer clearing the BOM of all liability:
Users of the BOM app now have to agree to a 699-word “terms and conditions” statement that includes “information at this app … may not be accurate, current or complete”.
“To the maximum extent permitted by law, the bureau excludes any liability that may arise in connection with the BOM Weather app or any information or material presented therein or your access to or use of any of the same,’’ the bureau says in a “terms and conditions” statement that appears when a user attempts to download its app. — Mackenzie Scott, The Australian
They know they are in trouble.
I say the BOM can have immunity the same day Australians can also tick a box excluding ourselves from any and all costs, imposts and taxes related to any BOM predictions.
The Australian editors gives the BOM an escape valve it doesn’t deserve:
To be fair to the BOM, a hysterical and ill-informed media has allowed climate alarmism to infect reporting of what should be routine weather events.
For thirty years the Australian media has made hyperbolic scare stories about the weather while the BOM tacitly stood by and smiled. Where were they as the tenets of science were trashed, and critics were called “climate deniers”? If the BOM are victims of this hyperbole now, they reap what they sowed.
The BOM raised the stakes, and they don’t get to weasel out by saying “we used the best science” as if the best science wasn’t riddled with holes. If the science is good enough to throw away trillions of dollars, then the worst failures need a truckload of explanation.
Predicting the weather is hard. We could forgive the BOM for getting a complex immature science wrong, but not when they also tell us it’s just simple physics, they’re absolutely sure, and there is no doubt they’re wrong (give us your money!).
Today’s Bike Ride
What a beautiful morning in Narrabri today! A lovely ride along Yarrie Lake Rd. #cycling #Narrabri #Biketooter
Quote for the Day
The spirit of fear is rampant in today’s world and is paralyzing and destroying people everywhere. Believers and nonbelievers alike are suffering, and the devil is working around the clock via social media, television, and propaganda from news outlets. John Ramirez
Daily Bible Verse
Reflection on Isaiah 17
Scripture
Then at last the people will look to their Creator and turn to the Holy One of Israel. They will no longer look to their idols for help or worship what their own hands have made.
Observation
The Lord will destroy Syria, which will share the fate of Israel’s departed glory.
In Israel, the whole land will look like a grain field after the harvest. There will only be a few people left to tend the land.
Then at last, God’s people will return to Him, giving up their idols and false gods.
Even though the armies of the enemies roar like the ocean, God will silence them and they will run away. In the evening Israel waits in terror, but by morning its enemies are dead.
Application
God’s purposes are always redemptive, that is they seek to draw us back to Him.
The Lord did not punish Israel out of vengeance. He sent them into exile to force them to abandon their idols and turn back to Him.
When we go through difficult times, we can choose to battle them on our own ability, or we can draw close to God and listen to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit.
I have found that in the darkest and most troubling experiences of life, the Lord is always there. He does not necessarily remove the suffering, but He does give us hope to sustain us.
Prayer
Thank you Lord for your promise never to abandon us. Please help me to always turn my attention to you in every circumstance. Amen.
New Life Narrabri 