Thursday, March 31, 2011

News Items and comments

The ALP haven't explained their dumb race laws.
CHIEF Magistrate Ian Gray says any offence caused to a man who complained his 19 letter Greek surname was mocked was "sincerely regretted".
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Because we won't won't go nuclear
AUSTRALIA is the fastest- growing emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, according to a submission from the Climate Institute to the Federal Government's climate change committee.
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We have to plan .. To build dams and open up the country.
EVERY Australian family should be limited to just two children to curb the population explosion, millionaire Dick Smith said yesterday.
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The only guarantee is more trouble.
TEENAGERS are exchanging naked photos of themselves as a form of "insurance" -- and the trend of sexting becomes increasingly common.
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Queen Anne Boleyn is said to have said much similar.
BARRY O'Farrell told his team he wanted his government to be the hardest working ever and warned his MPs, in the first party room meeting of his premiership, not to become the subjects of scandal
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Sounds like the baiter won't get cash reward. I hope they pay the court costs.
BENJI Marshall was defending his girlfriend against a torrent of degrading taunts when he lashed out at a man earlier this month, a witness has claimed.
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Sounds like multiple judgement errors by the surgeon.
A COMPETENT surgeon should have known the reason for Heidi Clarke-Lewis' massive blood loss and been able to do something about it, an inquest into her death was told yesterday.
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Expensive euthanasia.
WORRIED their french bulldog Kransky wouldn't survive a flight from Sydney to Frankfurt, Jon Hewitt and Belinda McClory hired "animal travel specialists" to oversee their pet's relocation.
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I can't see Clooney backing a conservative.
HOLLYWOOD star George Clooney and Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo could testify in Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's defence in his upcoming sex trial, a lawyer said.
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A price tag of $100 million for 60 homes
IT'S the energiser town that keeps going and going. In an Australian first, the rural town of Scone will have batteries fitted to up to 20 homes, creating its own "micro-grid".
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Cold and heartless ALP policy
THERE was no surveillance of boats approaching Christmas Island when an asylum seeker vessel crashed and sank last December, claiming nearly 50 lives, the head of Australia's Border Protection Command...
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Under Obama, we don't know what will happen to us, the victims.
UMAR Patek doesn't look like a terrorist murderer but his small stature is deceiving. The Javanese-born terrorist, known as "The Little Arab", is responsible for killing 202 people, including 88 Austr...
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The ALP have taken the west for granted, and still argue as if they have learned nothing.
blogs.news.com.au
Miranda Devine is a leading columnist with The Daily Telegraph and Herald Sun.
10 hours ago · · · Share
    • David Daniel Ball
      The ALP have taken the west for granted and are still expecting the west will walk back into their harness. They might. But they have sent a powerful message. Also, a little maintenance and they will stay with a large Liberal presence. The Liberals ran a clean campaign and were seen to. Meanwhile people like Nick Lalich and Guy Zangari in Cabramatta and Fairfield were seen to run apparently dirty campaigns .. and they only just won.

      Lalich was accusing Dai Le of being in cahoots with Pauline Hanson .. a terrible insult to any reasonable person but a deadly one to a refugee. Dai was gracious in defeat, and so the Liberals may secure that advantage next time .. the local population will not soon forget how they were lied to.

      Guy Zangari joined with previous incumbent Tripodi to visit schools for the ALP late last year during pupil free days which seemed to have been set up so the ALP could run. Zangari also released leaflets lying about Liberal policy daily for the fortnight lead in, and on the afternoon before the election there was a mechanical dialing service advising people to vote ALP. For the first time in my life I was sitting in a marginal seat.

      The press aided the ALP in these seats, damping coverage of their candidates. I think it would frighten the media if they had not been biased and people had knowingly voted for the candidates on policy and the ALP had done worse.
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LITTLE DAN FOOTBALLS

Tim Blair – Thursday, March 31, 11 (05:14 am)

Seven years after CBS and Dan Rather were busted for airing fake memos about George W. Bush’s National Guard service, someone is making excuses: “In the case of the fake memos, CBS News wasn’t pushing something theyknew to be false.”

That someone is reborn leftoid Charles Johnson, whose involvement in the case helped bring down Rather. He seems to regret it. As Daedalus reports:

Charles is now distancing himself … he is disavowing his role …

Charles Johnson, you are the new Dan Rather.

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460 DAYS UNTIL LABOR’S LEEK TAX

Tim Blair – Wednesday, March 30, 11 (11:32 pm)

Interestingly, a proposed carbon tax also looms in Julia Gillard’s native Wales. Note which UK party opposes it:

Labour warned that carbon tax plans in last week’s Budget had jeopardised jobs and investment in Welsh steel production.

Locally, we’ve seen another outbreak of carbon tax hatecrime:

Vandals scrawled anti-carbon tax graffiti across Lindsay federal Labor MP David Bradbury’s office this week.

Mr Bradbury said he understood that many people felt passionate about the issue, but that there was no excuse for vandalism.

‘‘I have never condoned vandalism of any kind,’’ he said.

‘‘I think it’s a great shame that some people think this is an appropriate way to make a political point.’’

Agreed; it is inappropriate and cannot be condoned. But the intriguing thing is the nature of the graffiti. There are no obscenities, nor any threats. There are just two words: carbon tax.

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FIONA BYRNED

Tim Blair – Wednesday, March 30, 11 (08:03 pm)

Marrickville’s anti-Israel candidate loses:

Former deputy premier Carmel Tebbutt has claimed victory for the ALP in the inner-Sydney seat of Marrickville.

Pre-election opinion polls indicated NSW Greens candidate Fiona Byrne would steal the seat but a day later the result was too close to call.

Today Ms Tebbutt claimed that “Marrickville has defied political gravity to remain Labor”.

The three-way battle for Balmain continues, as do Liberal v Labor fights in Newcastle and Swansea.

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POLEYS STRESSED

Tim Blair – Wednesday, March 30, 11 (01:32 pm)

Official government frightmonkey Tim Flannery in 2006:



Key lines:

• “Polar bears are under enormous stress. I honestly do not think that we’ll have wild polar bears on this earth in 30 years time.”

• “Right now it’s about the warmest the planet’s ever been for the last million-odd years.”

• “The old dinosaur fossil fuel industries are investing enormously to try to make sure they get their way. I think that it’s a lobby group who’s operating there at this critical juncture to try to mislead Canadians.”

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OBOMBER STRIKES

Tim Blair – Wednesday, March 30, 11 (01:31 pm)

Readers who selected Before Thursday, April 14 in the Gaddafi Death Poll might be close to the mark.

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Locust Smith calls for fewer insects

Andrew Bolt – Thursday, March 31, 11 (06:37 am)

Dick Smith is just another green authoritarian with a dangerous contempt for humanity:

EVERY Australian family should be limited to just two children to curb the population explosion, millionaire Dick Smith said yesterday.

He called for a China-like quota on the number of kids, warning the growing burden on our resources was like “a plague of locusts"…

“I don’t see it by force. I see it by saying to parents, ‘It’s best to have two kids’...”

Two things about Smith, though. If the “burden on our resources” is a problem, this frequent-flying global warming worrier might use a little less than he currently hogs:


HE has a holiday house, a farm with a homestead, a large house with a swimming pool, two cars, a steam train and all that owning three separate households entail. He’s very open, but for some reason refuses to confirm just how many aircraft he owns; there are at least two helicopters and a jet.

Second, he might try to convince his green friends to drop some of the real restrictions on our prosperity and well-being - restrictions that actually make population growth a bigger problem than it need be:

We can bring in more people than Dick Smith and the Greens say, but not while people like them stop us from preparing all the dams, power plants, land divisions and roads we’ll need to keep us all comfy.

Not while they also refuse to let us even talk about excluding those likely to have trouble fitting in.

But we can also bring in fewer people as the Laheys and other business spruikers say, but not until we use our brains to become more inventive and productive than we lazily tolerate today in this new Land of No.

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What Labor has invited with its “compassion”

Andrew Bolt – Thursday, March 31, 11 (06:27 am)

And surely even those who once cheered Labor’s more “compassionate” policies must admit they’ve brought unfortunate - and uncompassionate - outcomes, including record numbers of people in detention:

Another boat, carrying 37 asylum seekers, was intercepted yesterday and will be taken to Christmas Island, the first since riots broke out this month.

Refugee advocates said yesterday a man held at the Curtin detention centre was in hospital after trying to hang himself.

A 20-year-old Afghan man took his life at the same centre on Monday, and another 20-year-old Afghan committed suicide at the Scherger centre in Queensland a fortnight ago.

Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison is right:

What we are seeing in the absolute mess and misery of our detention network - of those who are drowning at sea, or crashing against rocks at Christmas Island, or those who are wasting in camps as group after group come … I don’t accept that as a morally acceptable outcome.

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How can so many people be too sick to work?

Andrew Bolt – Thursday, March 31, 11 (06:16 am)

Some of Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s ideas to get more people off benefits and back to work strike me as too expensive, too socially regressive, too much the squeezing of the toothpaste tube and too much of a reward to people for doing no more than what we should expect:

At the last election, the Coalition proposed a job commitment bonus scheme for long-term unemployed people under 30 who found a job and kept it,,, (and a) commitment to a paid parental leave scheme giving most mothers six months with their babies at full pay.

Another important policy that the Liberal and National parties took to the election was an incentive payment for employers who hired welfare-dependent people over 50.

But other ideas seem valuable:

(The Coalition has promised) a relocation allowance for young people who moved to take a job and who agreed not to return to welfare within six months. ..

Here are four further economic reforms that even this government should not shrink from:


- Making Work for the Dole mandatory for people under 50 and receiving unemployment benefits for more than six months.

- Quarantining to the necessities of life half the welfare income of all long-term unemployed people.

- Creating a new benefit for people whose disabilities can readily be treated.

- Suspending the payment of unemployment benefits in places where there are unfilled, unskilled jobs.


I didn’t realise how much standards had slipped:

The government vowed to retain Work for the Dole at the 2007 election but has since deliberately allowed it to decay… Since 2007, Work for the Dole participation has fallen by 60 per cent to less than 10,000. Work for the Dole should be the default option for everyone under 50 who has been on unemployment benefits for more than six months.

And disability payments now seem to go to an extraordinary number of people who seem extraordinarily incurable:

Australian disability pension numbers are set to pass 800,000 this year at an annual cost of $13 billion. That’s about 220,000 more working-age people on the disability pension than on unemployment benefits.

With just more than 1 per cent of disability pensioners moving back into the workforce every year and with nearly 60 per cent of recipients having potentially treatable mental health or muscular-skeletal conditions, a reform of this type should be considered here.

A valuable debate,

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Not a Noble Prize

Andrew Bolt – Thursday, March 31, 11 (06:08 am)

Even Barack Obama knows his Nobel Peace Prize was given for purely political reasons - in fact, by as few as two far-Left activists:

US President Barack Obama poked fun at himself overnight for receiving the Nobel Peace Prize as he lauded Energy Secretary Steven Chu for being honoured with his own.

Chu has the Nobel Prize in physics - he actually deserved his Nobel Prize,” Mr Obama said during a speech on US energy at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

A greater man would have refused such an award that so demeaned itself.

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Don’t talk to us about your centre, says East Timor

Andrew Bolt – Thursday, March 31, 11 (05:51 am)

How did Julia Gillard come to promise last year that she would build a detention centre in a country that still refuses to agree to it?

AUSTRALIA’S plan for a regional refugee processing centre in East Timor has been dealt a crippling blow, with the head of Timor’s delegation to the Bali people-smuggling summit rejecting Labor’s bid for one-on-one talks about the controversial proposal

“For us, it’s better to take a regional discussion because this is a regional issue,” (Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Alberto) Carlos told The Australian. “It’s broader, wider than a bilateral issue.”

Mr Carlos was downbeat about the chances of establishing the centre, saying his country had more pressing problems and was not a suitable location....

“A lot of infrastructure needs to be built, so that’s our main priority”.

But as ministers and delegates began leaving the two-day talks, the Gillard government secured a minor victory after members of the Bali summit agreed to consider the possibility of establishing a “centre or centres” somewhere in the region to process asylum claims.

What a farce.

UPDATE
Greg Sheridan says the Government should stop embarrassing itself:

THE Bali meeting has ended in complete failure and humiliation for Julia Gillard’s proposed regional processing centre in East Timor.

The vaguest reference in the meeting’s communique to the possibility of a centre or centres in some unknown place, at some unknown time, for some undefined purpose in the distant future was the best Australian diplomacy could do by way of a fig leaf to cover its shocking policy nakedness…

The East Timorese have never agreed to the idea and repeatedly rebuffed it.

But the federal government, and especially the hapless Immigration Minister, Chris Bowen, keep verballing the East Timorese and pretending that it is a live option…

The East Timor processing centre only ever had one purpose - to get Gillard through the last election, to look as though the government had some positive ideas about how to stop illegal immigrants coming to Australia by boat, when in fact it had no idea.

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd deserves a special meritorious service award for refusing, in almost all circumstances, ever to mention the ludicrous idea to anybody.


Daily Devotional Thursday 31st March

“He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.” -Isaiah 53:3-4
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"He was numbered with the transgressors."
Isaiah 53:12

Why did Jesus suffer himself to be enrolled amongst sinners? This wonderful condescension was justified by many powerful reasons. In such a character he could the better become their advocate. In some trials there is an identification of the counsellor with the client, nor can they be looked upon in the eye of the law as apart from one another. Now, when the sinner is brought to the bar, Jesus appears there himself. He stands to answer the accusation. He points to his side, his hands, his feet, and challenges Justice to bring anything against the sinners whom he represents; he pleads his blood, and pleads so triumphantly, being numbered with them and having a part with them, that the Judge proclaims, "Let them go their way; deliver them from going down into the pit, for he hath found a ransom." Our Lord Jesus was numbered with the transgressors in order that they might feel their hearts drawn towards him. Who can be afraid of one who is written in the same list with us? Surely we may come boldly to him, and confess our guilt. He who is numbered with us cannot condemn us. Was he not put down in the transgressor's list that we might be written in the red roll of the saints? He was holy, and written among the holy; we were guilty, and numbered among the guilty; he transfers his name from yonder list to this black indictment, and our names are taken from the indictment and written in the roll of acceptance, for there is a complete transfer made between Jesus and his people. All our estate of misery and sin Jesus has taken; and all that Jesus has comes to us. His righteousness, his blood, and everything that he hath he gives us as our dowry. Rejoice, believer, in your union to him who was numbered among the transgressors; and prove that you are truly saved by being manifestly numbered with those who are new creatures in him.

Evening

"Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord."
Lamentations 3:40

The spouse who fondly loves her absent husband longs for his return; a long protracted separation from her lord is a semi-death to her spirit: and so with souls who love the Saviour much, they must see his face, they cannot bear that he should be away upon the mountains of Bether, and no more hold communion with them. A reproaching glance, an uplifted finger will be grievous to loving children, who fear to offend their tender father, and are only happy in his smile. Beloved, it was so once with you. A text of Scripture, a threatening, a touch of the rod of affliction, and you went to your Father's feet, crying, "Show me wherefore thou contendest with me?" Is it so now? Are you content to follow Jesus afar off? Can you contemplate suspended communion with Christ without alarm? Can you bear to have your Beloved walking contrary to you, because you walk contrary to him? Have your sins separated between you and your God, and is your heart at rest? O let me affectionately warn you, for it is a grievous thing when we can live contentedly without the present enjoyment of the Saviour's face. Let us labour to feel what an evil thing this is--little love to our own dying Saviour, little joy in our precious Jesus, little fellowship with the Beloved! Hold a true Lent in your souls, while you sorrow over your hardness of heart. Do not stop at sorrow! Remember where you first received salvation. Go at once to the cross. There, and there only, can you get your spirit quickened. No matter how hard, how insensible, how dead we may have become, let us go again in all the rags and poverty, and defilement of our natural condition. Let us clasp that cross, let us look into those languid eyes, let us bathe in that fountain filled with blood--this will bring back to us our first love; this will restore the simplicity of our faith, and the tenderness of our heart.

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Luke, Lucas

[Lo̅o̅ke, Lo̅o̅'cas ] - light-giving or luminous.

The Man Who Wrote the Most Beautiful Book in the World

Less is known of Luke than any other New Testament writer. This we do know, he was a Gentile and probably the brother of Titus (2 Cor. 8:16; 12:18). Paul speaks of him as a "beloved physician." Luke must have been a man of some wealth, otherwise he could not have traveled with Paul as his friend and useful companion (Acts 1:1; Col. 4:14; 2 Tim. 4:11;Philem. 24 ). Tertullian said of this native of Antioch that he received his illumination from Paul.

Luke was a man of learning and knowledge, an exact observer and faithful recorder. His medical training taught him to be exact. He is in the first rank as a reliable historian, scholarly, skilful and sympathetic (Luke 1:1-3; Acts 1:1-3 ). His gospel is the most literary of the four. With his Greek mind he had a sense of form, a beautiful style - studied and elaborate. A poet, he was unsurpassed as a word-painter. Luke's gospel has been described as the most wonderful book ever written, the most beautiful book in the world. Above it and within it we hear the rustle of the angels'wings, the music of angels'songs.

Luke's qualifications for his great ministry were manifold. Above and beyond all else, he had the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Then there was his long and close companionship with Paul, and Luke the follower of Paul set down in a book the Gospel which Paul loved to preach. Luke also had abundant opportunities for personal acquaintance with other apostles. His liberal education also indicated that in him God had a proper vessel for the accomplishment of His plan. The wisdom of the divine choice was justified.

Luke's mission was to proclaim Christ's humanity. His is The Gentile Gospel, thus he traces Christ's lineage back to Adam, and gives prominence to the sympathy and sociableness of Jesus as the Man (Luke 15:1) who came to save (Luke 19:10). As the representative of Grecian reason and culture, Luke presented Christ as the true Representative of universal man.

Luke wrote both the gospel bearing his name and the Book of Acts (Luke 1:1; Acts 1). The characteristic features of his gospel are clearly defined.

I. Its gratuitousness. It is par excellence the gospel of pardon and redemption (Luke 1:28; 2:40).

II. Its sympathy. Christ is before us as the Healer of broken hearts and the Sharer of our woes. Luke is the gospel of philanthropy.

III. Its joyfulness. How full of praise the Gospel of Luke is! Angelic joy is prominent (Luke 1:14; 2:10, 13; 15:7).

IV. Its thanksgiving. The Church continues the hymns of high praise Luke taught her to sing.

V. Its teaching of the holy spirit. It is profitable to gather out all Luke's references to the special missions of the Spirit (Luke 1:15, 35, 41; 2:23, 26; 3:22; 4:1).

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Today's reading: Judges 9-10, Luke 5:17-39 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Judges 9-10

Abimelek

1 Abimelek son of Jerub-Baal went to his mother's brothers in Shechem and said to them and to all his mother's clan, 2"Ask all the citizens of Shechem, 'Which is better for you: to have all seventy of Jerub-Baal's sons rule over you, or just one man?' Remember, I am your flesh and blood."

3 When the brothers repeated all this to the citizens of Shechem, they were inclined to follow Abimelek, for they said, "He is related to us." 4 They gave him seventy shekels of silver from the temple of Baal-Berith, and Abimelek used it to hire reckless scoundrels, who became his followers. 5 He went to his father's home in Ophrah and on one stone murdered his seventy brothers, the sons of Jerub-Baal. But Jotham, the youngest son of Jerub-Baal, escaped by hiding. 6 Then all the citizens of Shechem and Beth Millo gathered beside the great tree at the pillar in Shechem to crown Abimelek king.

...read the rest on Bible Gateway

Today's New Testament reading: Luke 5:17-39

Jesus Forgives and Heals a Paralyzed Man

17 One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. 18 Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. 19 When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.

20 When Jesus saw their faith, he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven."

21 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, "Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?"

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Today's Lent reading: Luke 1-3 (NIV)

View today's Lent reading on Bible Gateway
Introduction

1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3 With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

The Birth of John the Baptist Foretold

5 In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. 6Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord's commands and decrees blamelessly. 7 But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old....

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Lent=Devotions-Header
Today's Prayer

Almighty God, we were lost from the beginning, when it pleased you to extend your hand and restore us to salvation for your Son's sake. Although we daily run headlong to our own ruin, we pray that our continual sin will not provoke you into withdrawing your mercy from us.... Through your Spirit, destroy the wickedness of our heart and restore us to a sound mind. -- John Calvin, adapted from his Commentary on Hosea

Today's Scripture Reading: Exodus 20:1-17

1 And God spoke all these words:

2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

3 "You shall have no other gods before me.

4 "You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

7 "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

8 "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

12 "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

13 "You shall not murder.

14 "You shall not commit adultery.

15 "You shall not steal.

16 "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

17 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

Today's Quote

"The Law is that word by which God teaches what we shall do, as for instance, the Ten Commandments. Now, if human nature is not aided by God's grace, it is impossible to keep the law, for the reason that man since the fall of Adam in Paradise is depraved and full of sinful desires, so that he cannot from his heart's desire find pleasure in the law, which fact we all experience in ourselves. For no one lives who does not prefer that there were no law, and everyone feels and knows in himself that it is difficult to lead a pious life and do good, and, on the other hand, that it is easy to lead a wicked life and to do evil. But this difficulty or unwillingness to do the good is the reason we do not keep the Law of God. For whatever is done with aversion and unwillingness is considered by God as not done at all. Thus the Law of God convicts us, even by our own experience, that by nature we are evil, disobedient, lovers of sin, and hostile to God's laws." -- Martin Luther, sermon on Matthew 11:2-10, #19

Something to Think About

It is common in many churches to periodically read the Ten Commandments during worship services. What relevance do the Ten Commandments--delivered to Israel thousands of years ago--hold for Christians today? Why are they significant to the Easter story?
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Knowing God: a new Easter email devotional

The weeks leading up to Easter are a great time to grow in the knowledge of Christ as Savior and Lord. We're happy to announce a
new daily email Easter devotional focusing on the Christ who died and rose for us!

Knowing Him: An Easter Devotional runs from April 3 through Easter and will help you keep your eyes on Jesus along the road to Easter. Each devotional is written by Dr. Mel Lawrenz, Christian author and minister at large for Elmbrook Church.

Philippians 3:10 says "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection of the dead." This is what we need today--and we hope this Easter devotional will help you toward that goal!

Knowing Him: An Easter Devotional is an opportunity to grow in the grace and power of Jesus. Sign up today!

Nueva Traducción Viviente Bible now online

We're also excited to announce a major new addition to Bible Gateway's library of online Bibles: the Spanish
Nueva Traducción Viviente (NTV)! The NTV is published by Tyndale House and is the result of many years' works by dozens of scholars, all focused on producing a contemporary Spanish Bible translation that carries the same clarity as the ancient Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts do.

You can
start reading the NTV right now, or learn more about itat its information page. To get a quick feel for the NTV, see itsrendering of John 3:16 alongside the New Living Translation.

We're thrilled to add the NTV to our selection of Spanish Bibles, and are grateful to Tyndale for making it available on Bible Gateway.

That's all the news for today. Have a blessed week!

Sincerely,

The Bible Gateway team