There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire form the middle of a bush. Though the bush was engulfed by flames, it did not burn up. “This is amazing,” Moses said to himself.
Observation
One day, while tending his father-in-law’s sheep, the Lord appears to Moses in a burning bush. The Lord identifies Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
The Lord tells Moses that He is about to set His people free and so Moses is to go to Pharaoh and demand that he let them go. When Moses objects, the Lord says that He will be with him.
Moses then asks the Lord what name will he tell the people is the name of the God who has sent him? The Lord says “Tell them ‘I Am has sent you.’”
The Lord warns Moses that, although the elders of Israel will receive him, Pharaoh will resist until, through a series of miracles, the Lord will strike the Egyptians.
Application
This must have been an awesome sight for Moses to see- a bush that burned without being consumed. It was unusual enough for Moses to stop what he was doing and listen to the voice of the Lord.
One reason that we don’t hear the voice of the Lord is that we don’t make space for that. We live in a noisy world, surrounded by electronically generated voices clamouring for our attention. We live in an “always on” world,
To hear God, we have to silence the other voices. We need to turn our phones, computers and TVs off then learn to turn our anxious brain off as well. Then, as we focus on God, we can start to hear the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit.
It takes time, effort and conscious decision, but we need to do it to connect to the true God, the source of our life.
Prayer
Come Holy Spirit and speak to me in the stillness. Be the burning bush for me today. Amen.
God heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He looked down on the people of Israel and knew it was time to act.
Observation
A woman from the tribe of Levi gives birth to a baby boy, and rather than having him thrown into the Nile River as the law required, she keeps him at home for three months. Then she makes a little basket and floats him in the river.
Pharaoh’s daughter comes to the river to bathe and discovers the baby. She decides to adopt him. The baby’s mother nurses him until he is old enough to be weaned. When it is time for him to go to the palace, the boy is named Moses.
Many years later, Moses sees an Egyptian overseer beating a Hebrew slave. Enraged, Moses kills the Egyptian, but he realises that he has been found out, and so he flees to Midian. There he settles down and marries Zipporah.
Finally, God decides it is time to act to rescue His people,
Application
Sometimes we overlook the time frames in the Bible. Moses was about 40 years old when he killed the Egyptian, and he was in Midian for another 40 years before he was called by God to set His people free.
At the end of this chapter, God is thinking it is time to act on His promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but still, from a human perspective, nothing is happening.
We might feel something similar about promises we have received from God. Maybe we have been praying for decades for a promise to come to pass.
God’s timing is not the same as ours. But His timing is always perfect.
We live in an era where faster is always better and fastest is still not fast enough.
God works on the principle that there is a right time, an appropriate time for everything.
The people of Israel had no idea of what do was about to do for them. It must have appeared that God had forgotten about them. In God’s time, the perfect time, a great rescue was about to be launched.
Prayer
Lord, please help me to be patient as I wait for your plans to unfold. Amen.
Because the midwives feared God, they refused to obey the king’s orders. They allowed the boys to live too.
Observation
Generations pass and the descendants of Jacob prosper in Egypt. A king arises who knows noth8ing of what Joseph had done for Egypt. He becomes fearful of the threat that the Hebrews may pose to his reign.
The Egyptians make the Israelites their slaves, hoping to wear them down with crushing labour. The king is ruthless, but still the Hebrews prosper.
The king orders the Hebrew midwives to kill all baby boys that are born. The midwives fear God, so they refuse to obey this order. When questioned later, they say that the Hebrew women give birth too quickly for them to get there in time, and so the baby boys live.
God continues to bless the Hebrew people and the midwives. They continue to grow in number and in strength.
Application
The Hebrew people are in a place of captivity. The Pharaoh tries to reduce their population by ordering the midwives to kill all the baby boys. The midwives fear God and so refuse to obey this order.
The king was an absolute monarch. There were no human rights then. The Hebrews were a feared ethnic minority. The midwives stood in defiance of an absolute ruler who could do what he liked to them.
Because these brave women were faithful to God, God blessed them with children of their own and continued to bless the people of Israel.
The Covid pandemic has forced some churches to ask themselves whether it is right to obey the Government and close their doors for a season, or to obey God’s commandment to meet regardless of what the Government says? The availability of technology and shorter shut downs in some areas made that decision easier for some than for others.
Christians in the medical community sometimes have to make a stance against participating in abortions or euthanasia. Some have lost their jobs or licence to practise over these issues.
Whatever the situation, we must always be prepared to defy human rulers if they require us to go against God’s will.
Prayer
Lord, please hep me to be faithful to you, to follow your ways rather than the ways of people. Amen.
Jim Meehan MD meehanmd.com
Wed, 22 Jul 2020 05:49 UTC
A response to people who use the classic fallacious argument, “Well, if masks don’t work, then why do surgeons wear them?”
I’m a surgeon that has performed over 10,000 surgical procedures wearing a surgical mask. However, that fact alone doesn’t really qualify me as an expert on the matter. More importantly, I am a former editor of a medical journal. I know how to read the medical literature, distinguish good science from bad, and fact from fiction. Believe me, the medical literature is filled with bad fiction masquerading as medical science. It is very easy to be deceived by bad science.
Since the beginning of the pandemic I’ve read hundreds of studies on the science of medical masks. Based on extensive review and analysis, there is no question in my mind that healthy people should not be wearing surgical or cloth masks. Nor should we be recommending universal masking of all members of the population. That recommendation is not supported by the highest level of scientific evidence.
First, let’s be clear. The premise that surgeons wearing masks serves as evidence that “masks must work to prevent viral transmission” is a logical fallacy that I would classify as an argument of false equivalence, or comparing “apples to oranges.”
Although surgeons do wear masks to prevent their respiratory droplets from contaminating the surgical field and the exposed internal tissues of our surgical patients, that is about as far as the analogy extends. Obviously, surgeons cannot “socially distance” from their surgical patients (unless we use robotic surgical devices, in which case, I would definitely not wear a mask).
The CoVID-19 pandemic is about viral transmission. Surgical and cloth masks do nothing to prevent viral transmission. We should all realize by now that face masks have never been shown to prevent or protect against viral transmission. Which is exactly why they have never been recommended for use during the seasonal flu outbreak, epidemics, or previous pandemics.
The failure of the scientific literature to support medical masks for influenza and all other viruses, is also why Fauci, the US Surgeon General, the CDC, WHO, and pretty much every infectious disease expert stated that wearing masks won’t prevent transmission of SARS CoV-2. Although the public health “authorities” flipped, flopped, and later changed their recommendations, the science did not change, nor did new science appear that supported the wearing of masks in public. In fact, the most recent systemic analysis once again confirms that masks are ineffective in preventing the transmission of viruses like CoVID-19: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/5/19-0994_article
If a surgeon were sick, especially with a viral infection, they would not perform surgery as they know the virus would NOT be stopped by their surgical mask.
“When the banquet was ready, he sent his servants to notify those who were invited. But they all refused to come!”
Observation
Jesus tells a parable about a king who prepares a great wedding banquet for his son. When the banquet is ready, the invited guests refuse to come.
The king sends out more messengers to summon the guests. Still they refuse, and some even insult and kill the king’s messengers.
Finally the king sends out servants to bring in people from the streets, both good and bad, to fill the banqueting hall.
The king notices that one of the guests is not properly dressed. He orders this person to be bound and cast out into the darkness.
Application
The people of Israel were all invited to God’s marriage feast, but many refused to come. They had insulted and killed God’s messengers, the prophets. Now Jesus is saying that the king is inviting a different group of people, those who had previously not been invited, that is the Gentiles.
It is a wonderful privilege to be a part of God’s kingdom. Even those who previously rebelled against God can now come in and be a part of His party.
The parable contains one jarring note. One man is seen to be not wearing the appropriate clothes. He is kicked out of the feast.
Repeatedly, in the New Testament we are told to take off the old nature and put on Christ. Many are called or invited to be in the Kingdom of God, but it is only through a change of heart that we become acceptable to God.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank you for inviting everybody into your kingdom. I turn away from my sins and choose to follow you today. Amen.
He rejects the Fridays For Future claim that there are only 12 years left.
Climate catastrophe not taking place
In the interview, moderator Tichy reminded that civilization began 7000 years ago, a time when it was “3°C warmer than today”, and Vahrenholt responded saying he expects civilization to continue for another seven thousand years. There was no tipping point back then, why would there be one today? “Warmth and moisture have always been good for mankind,” said Vahrenholt. “Cold has been man’s worst enemy.”
Plenty of time to move rationally
The German professor also said that the claimed catastrophe “is not taking place” and that policymakers are trying to use “panic and fear to get the people to act.” Much of the warming measured since 1850 is the result of natural warming taking place due to the end of the Little Ice Age, he explained.
Germany’s green fantasy
Later the German professor of chemistry calls the belief that wind and sun are able replace fossil fuels “fantasizing” and that Germany, with its 2.3% share of global CO2 emissions, can rescue the global climate “a fairy tale”.
Meanwhile, the warming of the last 150 years is in large part caused by natural cycles. “In the 20th century the sun was more active than at any time over the past 2000 years.”
Economically, Vahrenholt believes that a frenzied rush to renewables will lead to “horrible” economic consequences from European industrialization.
On the topic of a scientific consensus, the German professor says this is a claim made by the IPCC, which run by the UN with an agenda behind it.
Electric cars a “crackpot idea”
Vahrenholt also believes electric cars powered by batteries is not a feasible technology, and that other experts quietly call it “a crackpot idea”, and don’t speak up for fear of losing research funding. The vast majority of funding comes from the German government.
“Paris Accord already dead”
The professor of chemistry, co-author of a recent bestseller, also describes Germany as a country in denial when it comes to the broader global debate taking place on climate science, and declared the Paris Accord as being “already dead”.
“The Accord is already dead. Putin says it’s nonsense. […] The Americans are out. The Chinese don’t have to do anything. It’s all concentrated on a handful of European countries. The European Commission in massively on it. And I predict that they will reach the targets only if they destroy the European industries,” said Vahrenholt.
He characterizes Europe’s recent push for even stricter emissions reduction targets to madness akin to Soviet central planning that is doomed to fail spectacularly.
I would have no greater joy than to hear that my children are following the truth.
Observation
John is writing to a man called Gaius, who he hopes is well in spirit and in body. Some of John’s travelling teachers returned and told John how Gaius is living faithfully to the Lord.
John asks Gaius to continue supporting such itinerant ministers because they are serving the Lord.
Diotrophes opposes these teachers and tells others not to support them. When they do help, he expels them from the church.
Application
Any pastor recognises the reflection of John that we have no greater joy than hearing our spiritual children are “following the truth.”
John uses this phrase to mean that they are walking with the Lord and refusing to be swayed by the false teachers and the heretics. There is clearly a problem with people such as Diotrophes who resists the itinerant teachers who are faithful to the gospel. In 2 John, John calls the false teachers antichrists. It seems that Diotrophes had been influenced by such people.
In the midst of all this, John is blessed to know that some people, such as Gaius and Demetrius, are standing firm and prospering both spiritually and physically.
When I think of people whom I have mentored over many years, it gives me great joy to seeing them moving onward in the Lord. It means that the church of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ are growing in influence across the generations.
Prayer
Lord, I thank you for those people who are faithful to you and who seek to serve you in their work, in the church, and in their families. May they continue to thrive in the grace of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Here is my commentary on Ephesians 3:16. I am publishing these once or twice a week, but you can read all of the available articles at our web-site, http://www.new-life.org.au
Ephesians 3:16
“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being.”
God’s glorious riches are unlimited. We think of wealthy people as being beyond the financial limits that constrain most of us. To people in developing countries, those of us who live average lives seem to them to be wealthy beyond imagination.
But God’s glorious riches are in every way unlimited. The God who created the universe with a word is not limited by physical resources. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, the Psalmist tells us.
The glorious riches of God, though, are not merely physical. He commands a billion human servants and an untold number of angels. He can redirect the courses of nations with just a thought.
A million words cannot come close to describing these glorious riches, out of which He strengthens us.
God is not a hoarder. He does not store up these rich is for his own glory, although He could if He chose to. Instead, He shares them with us, His beloved people.
It is a quality of love that we want to share what we have and who we are with those whom we love. I may not be inclined to give $1,000 to my neighbour down the street, but I will share all I have with my children .
So God shares His riches with us because He loves us and He wants to strengthen our trust in Him.
One way that God strengthens us is through provision of our needs. I have seen on many occasions that the laws of economics fail when God is involved. He equips us to do more with less. He provides things that we could not have dreamed of. All of this is His good pleasure.
Another way that God strengthens us is through the fruit of the Spirit as recorded in Galatians 5:22. We may think that it is impossible for us to fulfil the calling that God has on our lives, but He will give an abundance of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These qualities will not only enable us to do a task, but to become more like Jesus in the process.
Paul prays that God will strengthen us with power through the Spirit.
The power of God is demonstrated through the gifts of the Holy Spirit described in 1 Corinthians 12, and in the book of Acts. The power of God flows through a heart that is totally surrendered to God’s purposes.
When we speak out what God is saying, we may speak words of knowledge and wisdom or prophecy. When we minister the power of God, we see healings, miracles, and deliverance from evil spirits.
We may be strengthened in power through prayers that are answered. There is nothing that encourages faith so much as prayers being answered both through natural and miraculous methods. Many have poured out their hearts to the Lord seeking a blessing that seems impossible and have been awestruck when God came through.
In all of these ways, and many more, God strengthens us. These are manifestations of the power of God.
All of this is brought about by God’s spirit, the Holy Spirit, in our inner being. This Is a miracle.
C.S. Lewis talks about christians being a new species. We are outwardly the same as every other person, but there is something fundamentally different. We know that changes in a molecule called DNA can change an organism, including humans. Inserting a fragment of DNA can bring big changes. In the same way, God insert His Spirit into our spirit being.
All of the signs of God’s power flow from the Holy Spirit through us to the world. In the past, God’s Spirit might have been ”with” a person, but now He is “in” a person.
We no longer should think of God as somewhere else, because he is in us wherever we go. We have no need of temples or special places to meet with God. We are the temple.
The Holy Spirit is alive in each of us. Therefore He can strengthen us with His power that is already in us.
We are often held back by the lies we believe. We might feel that we are not good enough, or holy enough, to be used by God. We might think that we could never be as Godly as that other person.
The truth is that we all have access to the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us.
Key points in this verse:
God has unlimited glorious riches that are physical and spiritual
God shares his riches with us because he loves us
The power of the Holy Spirit is in us and can strengthen us.
From the “whatever happened to the 1.5* C tipping point” school of climate, researchers have identified 24 planets that are likely to be more suitable for life than Earth.
Here is news release from Washington State University and accompanying journal article:
What is especially eye-catching is the criteria behind why these planets are considered super-habitable: “older, a little larger, slightly warmer and possibly wetter than Earth.” Say what? How can warmer & wetter be better for life on Earth? Aren’t we near a tipping point where another 0.5* C of warming becomes an existential threat to humanity, as claimed by certain climate scientists, news outlets, and politicians?
Even more intriguing is what the researchers (the lead author of which is a geobiologist) consider to be “slightly warmer”. This is clarified farther into the article where it states “a mean surface temperature of about 5 degrees Celsius (or about 8 degrees Fahrenheit) greater than Earth, together with the additional moisture, would be also better for life.” Wow!!
That certainly blows away the so-called 1.5* C tipping point, which we all know is a number picked out of a hat for political reasons. More importantly, their research begs the deeper question on exactly what is the optimal temperature for life on this planet. This is certainly a question which should be addressed before implementing any public policy (such as the Green New Deal) that could significantly impact the economy and quality of life.
