So apparently if you add up all the positive integers 1+2+3+4+5….. the answer is -1/12
I missed this bit in Uni, despite doing advanced pure maths in both 1st and 2nd Year. I would say that this is obviously a mistake, except it turns up in physics.
Today’s Sermon
Sadly our sermon did not record today due to technical issues.
Electricity Price Shock
The brave new world of energy poverty is about to hit one of the most prosperous and energy-rich nations in the world. With electricity prices jumping by about 20% next month we are in for a tough time economically and financially. And of course the burden will as always fall hardest on the poor.
As Jo Nova points out this is how the climate change scare mongering policy is working out:
Many are blaming a “failure of energy policy”, but miss the point entirely — this is not failure but success. The aim of those energy policies was to close down coal fired stations and it worked. The Renewable Energy Target, the carbon tax, and other anti “carbon” policies did what they were supposed to do and forced the closure of both the Port Augusta power stations and Hazelwood (which supplied as much as 5% of Australia’s electricity). That left us dependent on gas instead of having the flexibility to ignore the current gas price outlandish cost.
With politicians and Chief Scientist Finkel colluding to drive up the price of electricity by forcing more renewables on us, there is no way that electricity prices are going to stabilise or fall.
At the moment, Government policy requires that retailers must take all wind and solar available at whatever price is set. Coal generators then get the left overs, but here is the rub- they cannot quickly slow down their systems (or speed them up for that matter) and coal generators run most efficiently at close to maximum power. Ironically all those wind turbines and solar cells do little to reduce the CO2 production at these plants.
So the operators of coal generators have to basically burn more coal than they optimally need to, take the price set by the Energy Market Operator and provide the “left overs” that wind and solar cannot supply on any day. Despite all the hidden subsidies in the electrical supply market, wind costs about $80 per Megawatt hour, solar $100 MWh and the wholesale price for coal is about $20 MWh.
The system is set up to destroy our cheapest form of energy generation in the long term. There will be no more coal powered generators constructed because the current policy makes them unviable The only reason the we have any coal powered generators left in Australia is that the costs of constructing them were paid off decades ago.
Throw into that horrible mix the requirement of the Finkel review that all renewable systems must include batteries, that must surely double the cost of power generated that way- great for energy security but lousy for affordability. And then require all operators to give three years notice before exiting the industry- you have to maintain a loss-making business for three years- what planet are these people living on?
Meanwhile all of that heavy industry that used to be the life blood of Australia’s economy will go to places where electricity is cheaper- India and China most likely. Ironically the cheaper electricity in those two countries is partially fuelled by Australian coal. And of course under the Paris agreement those two countries get a free pass until 2030 from any reductions in their carbon emissions.
Australia is either being run by lunatics or traitors. I’m not sure which.
Reflection on Romans 6:1-11
Passage: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans 6:1-11
Scripture
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Observation
We cannot live in sin under the excuse that God’s grace ignores it. We were baptised into Christ, into His death and into His resurrection. We have died with Him, and so our sinful nature has died, setting us free from sin.
Therefore we must consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God.
Application
We struggle with sin in any different ways. People all have their own particular weak spot that satan zeroes in to target with temptations.
I cannot withstand temptation on my own will power. It is not in me to be perfect in my own strength. But God has the strength. In fact He has planted that strength in me in the person of the Holy Spirit.
I cannot be perfect. But He can be perfect in me.
We focus on being born again, but Paul says that we must die before we can be born again. Death must come before the resurrection.
In Christ I have died to sin. In Him my old nature was put to death and buried. Now I am alive in God.
This means my old sinful nature no longer has control over me. I have been set free from sin and death.
Of course satan is always there, denying that I am new, whispering lies of the attractiveness of sin, trying to draw me back to the old ways.
Paul says, Consider yourselves dead to sin.” This sin belongs to the old me, the one that is buried. It is no longer a part of who I am.
This is not mind over matter. It is not will power. It is me agreeing with God. The power of the Holy Spirit brings strength to my spirit to stand firm in the new reality in which I now live.
Yes, I will continue to fall. Yes there are some parts of my life that are still stained by sin. By the grace of God the old me is dead and I am free from the power of sin to hold me in bondage.
Prayer
Hallelujah Jesus my Saviour! You are working your perfect will in my new nature. Help me to stand firm in you, considering myself dead to sin and alive in you. Amen.
Mainstream Climate Scientists Discover a Pause in Global Warming Ten Years After “Deniers”
Anyone who gets their news from anywhere other than ABC and Fairfax would be aware that global temperatures were flat for the last 20 years. Of course the activists were decrying “The Pause” as a lie of big oil or Trump or whatever. The computer models failed to predict The Pause so warming must be continuing and they chose to believe the models rather than the measured facts. And of course they continued to call disbelievers “deniers” and heretics.
But now the climate science team are starting to acknowledge The Pause and admit that perhaps hteir models are perhaps less than perfect. Amazing! Garbage In- Garbage Out even applies to climate models.
From Watts Up With That
The New ‘Consensus’ On Global Warming – a shocking admission by “Team Climate”
Renewables and Energy Policy Are Killing Us
From Jo Nova:
Stupid Nation: Australians crave cheap energy, yet think “low cost” renewables need support
It’s like an Easter Island moment for an advanced economy: somehow “cheap” energy can’t compete in a free market without government subsidy. A Nation of Serfs have forgotten what a free market is. Will cheap desirable stuff sell itself, or not?
The contradictions mount. Electricity and gas prices are hitting escape velocity:
The wholesale electricity spot prices was about $35 a megawatt hour during 2011, rose to $58 after the carbon tax was introduced and is now about $130 as gas prices push up energy generator costs.
Not surprisingly 70% of Australians want cheaper, more reliable electricity. Only one person in four would rather cut emissions than cut the bill. Yet the agitprop telling people that renewables are “cheap” has been so pervasive that fully 38% of Australians think the government should raise the renewable energy target, and 23% think it should stay the same. It follows that around 4 in 10 Australians apparently hold the bizarre idea that wind and solar are cheap and yet in need of government support, as if there are no investors willing to put money into supplying something that 100% of people want at a price cheaper than what they currently pay. So screwed is our national commentary that a large slab of the nation think a cheap and highly desired product can’t profit without complex schemes and assistance.
Message to Australia, if renewables were cheap they wouldn’t need a RET, LET or CET scheme. People would just buy them!
No wonder there is policy gridlock. The situation won’t be resolved until the propaganda bubble pops and the national debate advances to the point where people know how expensive renewables are. Find me one country in the world running on wind and solar that has cheap electricity and no interconnector supplying coal or nuclear powered electrons. Exactly.
The answer for the Liberal-conservatives is clear, unless they get the message out that renewables are a hideously expensive deadweight burning a hole in our wallets they can’t possibly win this debate. As long as the nation blindly drinks from the Kool-aid-Cauldron the Conservatives are on a hiding to nothing – locked into endless cycles of “uncertainty” and hip-pocket pain.
Welcome to the clean green future — pack the whole family under one electric blanket while boat loads of our cheap coal set sail for China.
Canberra offers tips on snuggling up for a clean, green winter
Angela Shanahan
A few weeks ago I received a pamphlet from the ACT government on energy-saving tips. For winter it featured a picture of a family all in overcoats and beanies, huddled under an electric blanket.
Welcome to your clean green future huddled under an electric blanket, and reverting to wood fires to keep the house warm.
The Finkel report aims to provide incentives for all energy sources that produce electricity with lower greenhouse gas emissions, but the suggested benchmark means a high-efficiency, low-emissions power plant with carbon capture and storage would not qualify. That is why plenty of people think this is a backdoor attempt to block coal and even gas with an effective “tax on coal”.
The crisis has arisen because of the over-reliance on wind and solar power. In South Australia, combined with the closure of two coal-fired power plants, one in SA and one in Victoria, it has destabilised the whole grid. Added to that is the shortage of gas and the lack of storage for renewables.
Meanwhile, despite the domestic opposition to coal, we send our coal to Japan and China to be used in high-efficiency, low-emissions coal-fired generators to produce cleaner and cheaper power where people don’t have to sit inside wearing beanies under an electric blanket.
Reflection on Genesis 21:8-21
Passage: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+21.8-21
Scripture
Then God opened her eyes and, she saw a well of water. She went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.
Observation
After Isaac is born, Sarah becomes jealous of her servant Hagar and Ishmael, the son she had born to Abraham. She tells Abraham to cast mother and son out into the wilderness so that Ishmael will not inherit what should be Isaac’s.
Abraham is distressed by this, but the Lord tells him that Ishmael will become a nation as well as Isaac. Reluctantly, Abraham sends Hagar and Ishmael away.
Hagar runs out of water and is ready to die along with her son. Then God sends an angel to bring words of comfort, and opens her eyes to see a well.
Application
Ishmael was conceived from unbelief. He was Sarah’s way of making God’s plan work when it was obvious that they needed a miracle.. Yet, because of his father, God still honoured him and provided for him.
God cares for the outcast.
God is not ashamed of our shame.
God accepts us In out rejection.
When we fell that we deserve nothing from God’s hand, then we are ready to receive all things from Him.
Sarah failed to believe in God’s power when she hatched her plan to help Him out. But now Hagar is desperate- there is no life without God’s intervention.
Sometimes when we are in a place of desperation we need to see God’s provision. We might fear God has not answered our prayer. In those times we need to ask God to open our eyes to see what is already there.
Prayer
Lord, please help me to see the well that you provide, the answer to desperate prayer that is already here. Amen.
Today’s Sermon
Margaret Court and Diversity
Here is a letter to the editor which I sent to The Courier a couple of weeks ago while the media and the leftists activists were demanding Margaret Court’s head for daring to stand up for the existing law of the land that marriage is between a man and a woman. Due to other pressing issues at the time, they published it yesterday.
Tolerance and diversity are buzz words in our culture. Of course if you deviate from the politically entitled view tolerance comes to an end and diversity is discouraged.
Tennis great Margaret Court, now Senior Pastor at a big Perth church, stated that because of Qantas’ constant promotion of same sex marriage, she would not fly with them any longer unless there was no alternative means of transport. As a christian she believes in the Biblical view of marriage as between one man and one woman.
All the enlightened, “progressive” media and celebrities, led by Ten program “The Project”, piled on, calling her a homophobe and a bigot. Sam Stosur called for a boycott of Margaret Court Arena until the name was changed; on recent form she would probably only miss one match there anyway.
This is what passes for civil debate in this age. If you disagree with me, I will shut you down by just calling you names. We must not allow any rational debate that might upset the status quo.
By insulting a great tennis player who happens to be a significant christian leader in Perth, the knee-jerk attacks have also alienated tens of thousands of people who agree with the Christian view of marriage. A boycott might just be a blip on the bottom line of Qantas, but it might be enough to push Ten over the edge.
The supporters of diversity and tolerance would do well to actually look up the meaning of those words, and show real tolerance to those who really are diverse.
Reflection on Matthew 9:35-10:8
Passage: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+9.35-10.8
Scripture
“Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment , give without payment.”
Observation
Jesus goes about teaching and preaching and healing all kinds of sickness. He has compassion on the people of Israel and tells the disciples they need to pray for the Lord of the harvest to send workers into the fields.
Jesus gives His twelve disciples authority then sends them out to preach the kingdom, to cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers and cast out demons.
Application
Jesus sent out His closest disciples with a fairly broad commission to continue His work by healing people and preaching His message of the Kingdom.
They did this successfully even before Jesus had died and risen, and before they had received the Holy Spirit. We who have the Holy Spirit fail to do these things because we do not trust in the authority that is ours in Christ.
Everything in God’s kingdom is about authority not about power. God has all the power to do as He pleases, but He has chosen to delegate all that to His disciples- that is to you and me.
We have the power to heal the sick and raise the dead- that is the Holy Spirit.
We also have authority from Christ to heal the sick, preach the gospel and raise the dead.
I think that the problem is simply we lack faith. Not lack of faith in God but lack of faith in God’s ability and willingness to use me.
We have the Holy Spirit with us always. We have the authority of Christ to proclaim His reign. Let’s be obedient and trusting to His command.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I thank you that you have given me all authority. Help me to grasp that authority and see your kingdom revealed as I walk with you each day. Amen.
