This is a story of betrayal, violence, shame and honour.
A Bedouin woman, Maviah, finds herself at the mercy of conflicting kings and warriors in the convoluted politics of the Middle East around the year 30 AD.
She meets up with another king, Yeshua (Jesus), who shows her that there is another kingdom that is not of this world- a kingdom of love rather than hate, of forgiveness rather than fear.
It is different to much of Dekker’s writing, but still has his trademark action plots exploring confrontation between good and evil.
I really believe that God wants His people to prosper in every part of their lives, including financially. I am not a prosperity preacher, preaching a gospel of wealth for all, but it is God’s will to see us handle well the resources we have been blessed with in order to bless others.
The first step in growing in prosperity is tithing. Ten percent of your gross income to your local church- no ifs or buts. This is not a legalistic demand but it is God’s way to releasing favour in our lives.
The second step in growing in prosperity is simply saving a small part of your income each week and establishing a pattern of saving. Here is one very doable saving plan that starts easy- everyone can find $1 or $2- but builds up as you establish that pattern of saving in your life.
If you don’t do cash, set an alarm on your phone for every week and do an internet transfer straight away.
Pro tip: put this money into a Christmas saver or other savings account where you cannot withdraw it until a set date.
So here’s the plan. It’s dead simple. Whatever the week of the year is, put that amount into your savings account. Week 1= $1, Week 2= $2 and so on. By the end of the year you will be putting away $50 a week that you din’t even know you had. Then next year get serious and keep putting away $50 every single week.
The world says outlawing abortions “forces” women to seek so-called backyard operators. The truth is different.
From Life Site News:
This country banned abortion and now, abortion promoters can’t believe their eyes!
“Outlaw abortion and abortion won’t stop. Women will just do it illegally and women will die!”
Or so the argument goes… But facts are pesky things, and they show that the opposite is true in Chile.
According to new research from the MELISA Institute, since Chile’s ban on abortion, not only has maternal health improved but the number of women seeking illegal abortion has plummeted!
Since Chile banned abortion in 1989, the number of maternal deaths decreased from 41.3 to 12.7 per 100,000 women (69.2% reduction). That puts Chile in second place for the lowest maternal mortality rate in the Americas (that’s right, even better than the United States).
Prof. Elard Koch, a molecular epidemiologist and lead author of the study, says educating women enhanced their ability to access existing health care resources, and since those resources included skilled attendants for childbirth, that directly led to a reduction of maternal deaths during pregnancy and childbirth.
As Dr. Koch explains, “it is a unique natural experiment conducted in a developing country.” During the fifty-year period under study, the overall maternal mortality rate dramatically declined by 93.8%, from 270.7 to 18.2 deaths per 100,000 live births, making Chile a leader in maternal healthcare outcomes in the Americas.
But wait. If abortion is legally banned, wouldn’t we expect to see the number of women hospitalized due to illegal abortion procedures increase? Aren’t women just seeking abortions outside of proper healthcare facilities?
No. Not only is Chile one of the safest places in the world for women to give birth, but the number of women actually seeking abortion is also declining. According to data from the Chilean Ministry of Health, the country displays a continuous decreasing trend of hospital discharges due to complications of abortions suspected to be illegally induced at a rate of 2% per year since 2001. In contrast, a decreasing trend was not observed in hospital discharges due to miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy, which have remained constant during the same period.
Dr. Koch’s research also found that a large sample of abortion-minded women in Chile displayed a vulnerability profile marked by coercion and fear, which accounted for nearly 70% of the reasons women considered abortion. Moreover, the research indicated that support programs directed to vulnerable women can prevent most illegal abortions, with an outcome of live birth (with or without adoption) ranging between 69% and 94% depending on the risk group.
It’s not sheer coincidence that Malta, The Republic of Ireland, and Chile, all of which have prohibited abortion, have lower maternal mortality rates than the United States. In Africa, where 56% of all maternal mortalities occur, abortion-related maternal mortality is less than half what it is in developed countries. Yet there are more restrictions on abortion in Africa than in developed countries! So what’s the deal? In countries with higher abortion restrictions, fewer women have to seek treatment for “unsafe abortion” than in countries where abortion is “safe and legal.”
The result’s of Chile’s natural experiment is bad news for the pro-abortion lobby. But it’s great news for mothers and the unborn!
Mary responded, “I’m the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.
Observation
The angel Gabriel appears to a virgin named Mary and says, “Greetings favoured woman! The Lord is with you!”
The angel then goes on to tell Mary that she will conceive and give birth to a son she will name Jesus. He will be the Son of the Most High and He will reign over Israel for ever.
Struggling to understand, Mary asks him how this can be. The angel tells her that the Holy Spirit will overshadow her and the baby will be called the Son of God.
Mary responds, “I am the Lord’s servant.”
Application
To a young girl in a tiny village these events must have seemed incredible, An angel brings a revelation of an impossible event with world-changing implications. And she is in the middle of it all.
It is Mary’s response that really sets her apart from most if us. “I am the Lord’s servant,” she says,
This is the attitude God is looking for in all of us. My life is all about serving the Lord, not about serving me.
God is looking for people with that kind of humility that enables them to be entrusted with great destiny.
Prayer
Lord, I am your servant. May I be found obedient to your plans for my life. Amen.
This is just breath-taking. I was blown away by the thought of a heat exchanger cooling air from 1000 degrees to 150 in a few hundredths of a second. You can take the man out of chemical engineering….
From The Week
Skylon space plane ‘could reach Sydney in four hours’
Skylon space plane
Approval for British Sabre jet engine marks another step towards hypersonic Skylon passenger plane
The European Space Agency has given its approval to technology developed by a British firm which could transform space travel – and lead to the development of an airliner capable of taking 300 passengers from Europe to Australia in four hours.
The Skylon aircraft is still at the theoretical stage, but the government is funding its development.
Reaction Engines Ltd, based in Oxfordshire, has developed a new type of jet engine, known as Sabre (Synergistic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine), which they say could power the space plane. The company has not yet built a full version of the engine, but it has constructed a critical component.
The heat exchanger made by Reaction is the key to the new technology, says The Independent. It cools air from 1,000C to 150C in one hundredth of a second, allowing the engine to use air as fuel, rather than oxygen from a tank.
Existing space rockets must carry tanks of oxygen with them – and the weight slows everything down. Reaction believe their new technology could make space travel 95 per cent cheaper.
The latest development is that the ESA have looked at Reaction’s data and agreed that the heat exchange technology is viable and workable. The next stage is to build working prototype of the full Sabre engine.
Last year, says the Daily Mail, the government announced it was investing £60m in building just such a prototype.
The Sabre technology could make space travel much cheaper and easier, allowing a jet aircraft to carry satellites and other spacecraft beyond the earth’s atmosphere before returning to the planet below. It could also be used to transport passengers quickly between distant locations on earth.
Reaction have designed an aircraft, the Skylon, which would use Sabre engines to carry 300 passengers from Europe to Australia within four hours. They hope to launch it as soon as 2019.
“Your house and your kingdom will continue before me for all time and your throne will be secure for ever.”
Observation
King David decides that he should build a temple, a house for the Lord. At first the prophet Nathan thinks this is fine, for the Lord is with David. But that night the Lord speaks to Nathan.
David is not to build a house for the Lord, but his son will. Better still, God will build a house for David- his kingdom will continue for ever.
Application
Sometimes we get an idea that we want to serve God. Like David, our passionate love for the Lord drives us to express itself in service.
We need to make sure that we are serving God in His way and not just doing something that we think is a good idea.
Even when God’s plans are different to what we expect, His grace is enormous. David wanted to build a house for the Lord, but God build David a house, a dynasty that culminates in Jesus.
David could not have begun to imagine what God would promise in return for a desire to serve Him.
The power of grace is seen in this- whenever we sincerely seek to obey God, we get it right, even when we get it wrong.
Prayer
How awesome you are Lord. Please help me to honour you by doing the deeds you want and not just doing good deeds. Amen.
The church is a community of Christians living as the on-the-ground expression of the supremacy of Jesus by advancing his gospel in distance and depth. As theon-the-ground expression, and since gospel advance happens in distance, the local nature of the church is indispensable. The church is the place — the here and now — of Jesus’s new creation reign in an old creation world.
As the assembly of those made new in Christ, we come together in space and time, and we make Jesus known in those blessed limitations. Advancing the gospel in distance means we cross the street, and the oceans, to tell others the good news. It means we go out there into the darkness with the light of God’s love.
Far As the Curse Is Found
But we also remember that out there isn’t the only darkness. If we know our own hearts, we know it gets dark in here, too. So not only must the gospel advance in distance, it must also advance in depth. Jesus came to make his blessings flow “far as the curse is found,” and that means both the curse out there among the highways and hedges of this world, and the curse in here among the nooks and crannies of our soul.
Ted Dekker at his best!
