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Tuesday, June 27, 2017
In a time of depression, a prayer.
Lord, Thank You even for this time when my mind and spirit are depressed, feeling low, and dull to the things of God and joys of life. Use this darkness so that I can see light. Use these depths so that I can see heights. Use this time as a mirror into my own soul's need for grace. Use the hollow echoes as a resounding reminder of Your presence. Let this be a time of sanctification and growth in grace. Lead us not into despair, but deliver us from the evil one. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Monday, June 26, 2017
I am an unrepentant militant extremist
A recent article in Evangelicals Now reports on Christanophobia in the media during the recent election.Candidates for public office were pilloried for holding various views which I hold unashamedly.
1. Homosexual acts are sinful. Tim Farron was pressured to deny this. He is a member of a church which believes this as does my church which teaches what the Bible says. 1 Corinthians 6:9 - Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,
2. God can answer prayer for healing in a miraculous way. God usually heals by normal medical means but he may heal miraculously.
3. I oppose all abortions except where the mother's life is in danger. 'Thou shalt not kill'. I support pressure to change the law to prohibit abortions after 20 weeks and to stop the present law allowing abortion at any time when the unborn child is deemed handicapped.
For good measure let me add two more extreme beliefs not covered by the article.
4. Jesus Christ the only way to know God as Father. John 14:6 - Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
5. Mohammed did not teach the true way to follow God. He was a false prophet.Read the Koran. It contradicts the truth of the Bible.Sadly the only place in England where one can proclaim this in public is Speakers' Corner, Hyde Park. Preach it in public elsewhere and you may be arrested as a hate preacher.I am not usually an open air preacher. I admire those who are and am prepared to do so myself.
I used to think I lived in a free country with freedom of speech. It is no longer so.
'Anyone rejecting an ideological shibboleth is vilified as racist, sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic, climate-change denier and so on.Such people aren’t being shamed over what they do but what they are. The aim is not to change their behaviour but to disbar them from the community of right-thinking people. In the interests of making a kinder, gentler, nicer world we have become tyrannical.'- MELANIE PHILLIPS, june 27 2017,the times, How we’ve turned into a shameless society
1. Homosexual acts are sinful. Tim Farron was pressured to deny this. He is a member of a church which believes this as does my church which teaches what the Bible says. 1 Corinthians 6:9 - Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,
2. God can answer prayer for healing in a miraculous way. God usually heals by normal medical means but he may heal miraculously.
3. I oppose all abortions except where the mother's life is in danger. 'Thou shalt not kill'. I support pressure to change the law to prohibit abortions after 20 weeks and to stop the present law allowing abortion at any time when the unborn child is deemed handicapped.
For good measure let me add two more extreme beliefs not covered by the article.
4. Jesus Christ the only way to know God as Father. John 14:6 - Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
5. Mohammed did not teach the true way to follow God. He was a false prophet.Read the Koran. It contradicts the truth of the Bible.Sadly the only place in England where one can proclaim this in public is Speakers' Corner, Hyde Park. Preach it in public elsewhere and you may be arrested as a hate preacher.I am not usually an open air preacher. I admire those who are and am prepared to do so myself.
I used to think I lived in a free country with freedom of speech. It is no longer so.
'Anyone rejecting an ideological shibboleth is vilified as racist, sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic, climate-change denier and so on.Such people aren’t being shamed over what they do but what they are. The aim is not to change their behaviour but to disbar them from the community of right-thinking people. In the interests of making a kinder, gentler, nicer world we have become tyrannical.'- MELANIE PHILLIPS, june 27 2017,the times, How we’ve turned into a shameless society
Friday, June 23, 2017
June 23: Rev. James Caldwell
by archivist |
The Rebel’s High Priest
On this day of June 23, 1780, an American Revolutionary Battle took place in Springfield, New Jersey. Ordinarily we might think that this has no place in a historical devotional, but it does, because of the presence of the Rev. James Caldwell, pastor of the Elizabethtown Presbyterian Church.
Rev Caldwell was known as “the Rebel’s High Priest.” His congregation in present day Elizabeth, New Jersey, had provided forty line officers to the American Continental army. And Caldwell himself was the chaplain of Col. Elias Dayton’s Regiment in George Washington’s army.
This military campaign by the British and their German Hessian compatriots was a major push into New Jersey. They had a total of 6000 men. George Washington’s army, faced with diminishing supplies and desertions of men, had only about 3500, and not all of them at Springfield, New Jersey. So they were outnumbered 5 to 1 in their battles.
At the key point outside of Springfield, N.J., the American troops were out of wadding, the paper necessary to fire their muskets accurately. All along the line, there came cries of “Wadding! Give us wadding.” Rev. Caldwell was then riding up on his horse to encourage his men when he heard the cry for wadding. Riding back to the Springfield Presbyterian church and manse, he gathered the psalm hymn books, and threw them to the men. Referring to English hymn writer Isaac Watts, he called out “Give ’em Watts, boys, give ’em Watts boys.”
That line of “given them Watts, boys” has become the symbol of the forgotten battle of Springfield. The British eventually retreated from the battlefield, making the battle of Springfield an American victory. British troops never again entered New Jersey, with this battle being the last one up north in the Colonies.
Rev. Caldwell would be killed a little over a year later, just as his wife had been killed at this battle.
Quotes for Brexit day 2017
On this day in 2016 the UK voted to leave the EUSSR.
The common law will remain the basis of our legal system, and our Courts will continue to operate as they do at present..- British Government White paper 1971 on the effects of the proposed entry into the European Common Market,, quoted in Margaret Thatcher, The Path to Power, Harper Collins,1995, p210
We've been invaded without a shot being fired. It's been an absolute waste of time going to war in 1914 and 1939. Millions of people died who didn't want a federal Europe and now Tony Blair's surrendering it. If you live in South Africa and you're a patriot, they give you the Nobel Prize, If you live in England and you're a patriot, they call you a bigot. Nobody represents us. ----Tom Bromley, Daily Telegraph (UK), November 8, 2000
We are with Europe, but not of it. We are linked but not comprised. We are associated but not absorbed. And should European statesmen address us and say, 'Shall we speak for thee?', we should reply, 'Nay Sir, for we dwell among our own people'. --Winston Churchill - 1953
European integration was a noble idea, born of the desire that France and Germany should not go to war again. - Boris Johnson, Lend Me Your Ears p296
Until the last 50 years the most prominent enthusiasts for a single European state were Napoleon and Hitler --Rod D. Martin, 8 October 1998. Vanguard
I was born a Tory, am a Tory and shall die a Tory. I never yet heard that it was any part of the faith of a Tory to take the institutions and liberties, the laws and customs which this country has evolved over centuries and merge them with those of eight other nations into a new-made artificial state, and what is more to do so without the willing approbation and consent of the nation. --Enoch Powell February 1974
To pretend that you cannot exchange goods and services freely with a Frenchman or an Italian unless there is an identical standard of bathing beaches or tap water in the different countries is not logic. It is naked aggression." --Enoch Powell Article, May 1990
This is not economic. It is a pure political process.-Romano Prodi, 31 Dec 2001, on the launching of the Euro currency.
In my lifetime all our problems have come from mainland Europe and the solutions have come from the English-speaking nations of the world -Baroness Thatcher at the Conservative conference , The Times, 9.10.99
I am not a Europhobe, afraid of Europe, I am a misEU, believing the EU to be a bad thing.- GJW
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
June 21: “What Fundamentalism Stands for Now”
by archivist |
It was on this day, June 21st, in 1925, that J. Gresham Machen's famous essay, "What Fundamentalism Stands for Now" appeared on the pages of The New York Times. What follows is a condensed version of that essay, suited perhaps to your busy schedule today. The full essay can be found reprinted in J. GRESHAM MACHEN: SELECTED SHORTER WRITINGS.
"WHAT FUNDAMENTALISM STANDS FOR NOW"by Dr. J. Gresham Machen, Assistant Professor of New Testament Literature and Exegesis at the Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey.
The term "fundamentalism" is distasteful to the present writer and to many persons who hold views similar to his. It seems to suggest some strange new sect; whereas in point of fact we are conscious simply of maintaining the historic Christian faith and of moving in the great central current of Christian life . . . Despite changes in the environment, there is something in Christianity which from the very beginning has remained the same . . .
The basis of the Christian view of God---by no means all of it, but the basis of it---is simply theism: the belief, namely, that the universe was created, and is now upheld by a personal Being upon whom it is dependent but who is not dependent upon it . . . The transcendence of God, what the Bible calls the holiness of God, is at the very root of the Christian religion. God is indeed, according to the Christian view, immanent in the world; but He is also personally distinct from the world . . .
According to historic Christianity, all mankind are under the just condemnation of God, and are utterly helpless because of the guilt and power of sin. According to another very widespread type of belief, human resources are sufficient for human needs, and self-development, especially the development of the religious nature, is the Christian ideal. This type of belief is optimistic about human nature . . . while historic Christianity regards all mankind as being hopelessly lost . . .
We deserved eternal death, but the Son of God, who was Himself God, came into this world for our redemption, took upon Himself the just punishment for our sins, died in our stead upon the cross, and finally completed His redeeming work by rising from the tomb in a glorious resurrection. There and there alone is found the Christian gospel; the piece of "good news" upon which all our hope is based . . .
Acceptance of this New Testament account of Jesus involves a certain attitude toward Him that is widely different from the attitude assumed by many persons of the Church today. Jesus . . . was not the first Christian, the initiator of a new type of religious life. He stood in a far more fundamental and far more intimate relationship to Christianity than that, because He was the One who made Christianity possible by His redeeming work. At no point does our attitude appear in more characteristic fashion than just here.
CAMERON’S GAY MARRIAGE ENVOY APPOINTED AS MAY’S HEAD OF STAFF
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CAMERON’S GAY MARRIAGE ENVOY APPOINTED AS MAY’S HEAD OF STAFF AND OTHER NEWS | |||||||||||||
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Dear marriage supporter,
The Prime Minister’s new Chief of Staff, Gavin Barwell, is a leading advocate for same-sex marriage.
Barwell, who lost his Commons seat in the election, was David Cameron’s gay marriage envoy during the debates on redefining marriage. He played a key role in drumming up the support of his fellow Tory MPs to back the law (though we should remember that 136 Conservatives voted against redefining marriage at Second Reading, with only 127 in favour).
Barwell was prominent in the media campaign for same-sex marriage and even likened opponents to racists who backed segregation on his website.
His appointment means that traditional marriage supporters will need to be extra vigilant.
Theresa May implied back in 2015 that same-sex marriage opponents would not be caught by Government counter-extremism plans. However, others have been using it as a litmus test for politically correct orthodoxy.
It was while she was a senior Government adviser, that Dame Louise Casey likened Roman Catholic schools’ support for traditional marriage to Islamist extremism.
C4M will be alert to any new moves from the Government to denigrate your views on marriage.
BBC bias – thank you
The BBC’s derogatory treatment of the DUP for its socially conservative beliefs has been astounding. Thank you to everyone who has been sending complaints to the BBC.
Its actions are a blatant infringement of the organisation’s Royal Charter. A number of you have passed us the responses you have received. Incredibly, the corporation is maintaining that it had “fairly reflected that the DUP holds socially conservative views on issues such as same sex marriage”.
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Tuesday, June 20, 2017
You Gov on the general election
General Election outcome
A hung Parliament was a scenario very few Opinion Formers, and indeed people generally, predicted from the UK General Election as we discovered when last month we asked you what you thought might happen;
- 19% envisaged “a landslide majority of over a 100 seats for the Conservative party"
- 57% thought that “a solid Conservative majority of around 50 seats” was almost certain or very likely to happen
- Just 21% predicted “a very small Conservative majority of around the previous level”
- Only 8% predicted a hung parliament, with 4% thinking "the Conservatives forming a coalition government with another party" very likely, compared to 3% who thought Labour forming a coalition government was very likely.
The 2017 General Election certainly seems to fit the general narrative of surprising electoral outcomes around the world.
Saturday, June 17, 2017
HB John Wesley 17 Jun 1703
Tell me how it is that in this room there are three candles and but one light; and I will explain to you the mode of the divine existence. John Wesley
Oh, beware! Do not seek to be something! Let me be nothing, and Christ be all in all.- John Wesley
God...frequently...makes young men and women wiser than the aged, and gives to many, in a very short time, a closer and deeper communion with himself than others attain in a long course of years.-John Wesley ,letter: , 27 Dec 1774
Unless God has raised you up for this very thing [ablishing slave trade trading] you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be with you who can be against you. JOHN WESLEY, letter to William Wilberforce 10 days before Wesley's death
Passion and prejudice govern the world; only under the name of reason.--John Wesley, Letter to Joseph Benson, October 5, 1770
Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can. - John Wesley
It is most desirable, to have neither poverty nor riches; but still you cannot be without temptation, unless you would go out of the world.- John Wesley, letter: DECEMBER 1, 177
I rode over the mountains to Huddersfield. A wilder people I never saw in England. The men, women and children filled the streets and seemed just ready to devour us. John Wesley June 1757
The longer I live, the larger allowances I make for human infirmities. --John Wesley (1703-1791) Letter, 21 Feb 1756 to Samuel Furley.
I desired as many as could to join together in fasting and prayer, that God would restore the spirit of love and of a sound mind to the poor deluded rebels in America. -- John Wesley, Journal, Aug 1, 1777
I am a creature of a day. I am a spirit come from God, and returning to God. I want to know one thing: the way to heaven. God himself has condescended to teach me the way. He has written it down in a book. Oh, give me that book! At any price give me the book of God. Let me be a man of one book. JOHN WESLEY
Beware that you are not swallowed up in books! An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge.
John Wesley (1703-1791) In "The Speaker's Electronic Reference Collection," AApex Software, 1994.
I look on all the world as my parish; thus far I mean, that, in whatever part of it I am, I judge it meet, right, and my bounden duty, to declare unto all that are willing to hear, the glad tidings of salvation. -- John Wesley (1703-1791)
Lord, I am no longer my own, but Yours. Put me to what You will, rank me with whom You will. Let be employed by You or laid aside for You, exalted for You or brought low by You. Let me have all things, let me have nothing, I freely and heartily yield all things to Your pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, You are mine and I am Yours. So be it. Amen.J--John Wesley
Immediately it stuck into my mind, "Leave off preaching. How can you preach to others, who have not faith yourself?" I asked Boehler, whether he thought I should leave it off or not. He answered "By no means." I asked, "But what can I preach?" He said, "Preach faith till you have it; and then, because you have it, you will preach faith." -- John Wesley, Journal, 4 Mar 1738
Many Gentlemen have done my brother and me (though without naming us) the honour to reprint many of our hymns. Now they are perfectly welcome to do so, provided they print them just as they are. But I desire that they would not attempt to mend them - for they really are not able. None of them is able to mend either the sense or the verse. Therefore I must beg the one of these two favours: either to let them stand just as they are, to take them for better for worse; or to add the true reading in the margin, or at the bottom of the page; that we may no longer be accountable either for the nonsense or doggerel of other men.- John Wesley, Preface to a Collection of Hymns for use of the People called Methodists, London, Oct 20, 1779
When I was young I was sure of everything; in a few years, having been mistaken a thousand times, I was not half so sure of most things as I was before; at present, I am hardly sure of anything but what God has revealed to me. John Wesley
Wherever riches have increased, the essence of religion has decreased in the same proportion. Therefore I do not see how it is possible in the nature of things for any revival of religion to continue long. For religion must necessarily produce both industry and frugality, and these cannot but produce riches. But as riches increase, so will pride, anger, and love of the world in all its branches. John Wesley
No one can truly say that Jesus is Lord, unless Thou take the veil away, and breathe the living word. Then only then, we feel our interest in His blood.-JOHN WESLEY, hymn, Spirit of Faith, Come Down.
You have now such faith as is necessary for your living unto God. As yet you are not called to die. When you are, you shall have faith for this also.-John Wesley letter: 17 April 1776
When the witness and the fruit of the Spirit meet together, there can be no stronger proof that we are of God.-- John Wesley , letter: 31 March 1787
Suffer all, and conquer all.... John Wesley (1703-1791)
When you set yourself on fire, people love to come and see you burn~ John Wesley
Every one, though born of God in an instant, yet undoubtedly grows by slow degrees.'- John Wesley letter: 27 June 1760
Let me do all the good I can, to all the people I can, as often as I can, for I shall not pass this way again. - John Wesley in David Jackman, The Communicators Commentary, Ruth1.
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