Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Wed Mar 19th Todays News

It doesn't seem to be reported, although it is a reasonable line, that Obama had given Putin permission to take Crimea as a thank you for not killing his second election chances. Obama has done nothing that could prevent the take over. In the cold light of day, the take over is not the worst case scenario. Neither is it the crime against democracy that some have said. It is an issue. It will affect the way the world operates, devaluing trust in institutions. But the anti democratic movement in the Ukraine which seized control from an elected government is no less damaging to world institutional governments. Russia would never have given up her naval yard based in Crimea since the time of the Tsars. England might choose to send a light brigade, but while glorious, that would not be effective. A bit like that earlier charge. Instead of sabre rattling, and unleashing CNN to propagandise the event, Obama could have chosen diplomacy. He might still choose to do so, once he has organised his community the way he wants it. 

Another travesty for democracy is South Australia. It looks like two independents will commit the same suicide that Windsor and Oakeshott perpetrated. Of course, counting continues. There is a powerful argument for electronic voting. The benefit would be that results would be almost instantaneous. The negative is that in order to get rid of the corruption of voting process that happens right now, electronic voting would have to give up the principle of a secret vote. Not advocating a public vote, but it is essential a voter can verify their vote was registered the way they intended. One problem with that is liars who would claim conflict so a to undermine the process. To break that nexus, a voting card linked to a voter is made which produces the electronic signature. So the vote becomes verifiable and impossible to rort. At the moment, the electoral office prefers corruption. 

For twenty two years I have been responsibly addressing an issue, and I cannot carry on. I am petitioning the NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell to remedy my distress. I leave it up to him if he chooses to address the issue. Regardless of your opinion of conservative government, the issue is pressing. Please sign my petition at http://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/nsw-premier-barry-o-farrell-remedy-the-persecution-of-dd-ball?
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Hatches
Happy birthday and many happy returns Jim Sarver, Ella Han and Kevin Chau. Born on the same day, across the years. Remember, birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
Matches
Despatches
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Angry lefties mad as a March marcher

Miranda Devine – Tuesday, March 18, 2014 (10:09pm)

IT makes sense that those who have made a career out of refugee activism, like barrister Julian Burnside, would applaud the March in March protest over the weekend.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'Angry lefties mad as a March marcher'
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BUFFET BAN

Tim Blair – Wednesday, March 19, 2014 (3:25pm)

It’s a fatwa against fatsos: 
A Saudi cleric named Saleh al-Fawzan has issued a fatwa against all-you-can-eat buffets in Saudi Arabia.
Fawzan said the value and quantity of the food sold should be pre-determined before hand.
“Whoever enters the buffet and eats for 10 or 50 riyals without deciding the quantity they will eat is violating Sharia (Islamic) law,” Fawzan was quoted on al-Atheer channel.
The fatwa attempts to add plate piling eateries to the long list of things outlawed by religious edicts. It has been the subject of condemnation and debate on social media channels. 
(Via Brat)
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CITY OF LEOS

Tim Blair – Wednesday, March 19, 2014 (3:19pm)

Making money in Canberra is as easy as falling off a bike. In other Canberra news, Liberal senator Arthur Sinodinos has stood down as assistant treasurer while corruption investigations into his role with Australian Water Holdings continue.
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Labor settles for second-rate, as long as it’s the ABC

Andrew Bolt March 19 2014 (2:35pm)

Says so much about Labor especially, given that David Speers and Kieran Gilbert, while excellent Sky News hosts and fair, do lean Left:
Even by Parliament House’s standards it seemed a particularly petty squabble: a dispute between Coalition and Labor politicians over which television channel to watch in the parliamentary gym.
The brouhaha erupted earlier this month when Tasmanian Liberal MP Andrew Nikolic and Immigration Minister Scott Morrison were watching Sky News while exercising. This sparked an intervention from Queensland Labor Senator Claire Moore who asked for the channel to be changed to the ABC…
To resolve the dispute, Senator Moore asked for the Department of Parliamentary Services, which runs the gym, to poll politicians on whether the TV should be tuned to Sky or the ABC during sitting weeks.
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The debate that followed split largely along party lines with none other than Prime Minister Tony Abbott weighing in with a preference.
“When I go to the gym I normally ask those who are on the treadmills or on the exercise bikes if they would mind if I turn it onto Sky,” Mr Abbott, a well-known exercise junkie, told 2GB.
”Labor people tend to prefer the ABC and Coalition supporters tend to prefer Sky.”
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Sinodinos steps down

Andrew Bolt March 19 2014 (2:06pm)

Arthur Sinodinos has stepped aside as Assistant Treasurer while he answers questions at the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
I do not believe there was any case against him that required him stepping down. I do not even know what the allegation against him is. All ICAC has said is that he was chairman of a company which put him in line for a $20 million payday if he clinched a deal with Sydney Water. What we’re also told is that the corrupt Eddie Obeid was a secret shareholder - a fact that Sinodinos has long said was unknown to him. No one has yet has offered any evidence to suggest Sinodinos is lying and ICAC has not suggested he has, either.
It is right for ICAC to question Sinodinos closely, and it’s right for Labor to put the whole matter under the microscope.
But the only reason Sinodinos has stepped down is that Labor was making him a political target, and the Government was hurting as a consequence.
This, so far, is just politics.  
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Russia takes Crimea, Obama humiliated

Andrew Bolt March 19 2014 (12:45pm)

And so the borders are redrawn in a world in which the US is weak:

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Crimean leaders have signed a treaty to make the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol part of the Russian Federation. During his address in parliament the Russian leader stressed that Crimea has always been Russia’s integral part and everything in Crimea has always been related to the Russian history.
Charles Krauthammer on the humiliation of Barack Obama:


He is being ridiculed, by Russians especially, because the statement and the policy are ridiculous. He doesn’t have a lot of cards, but he has some cards. And if he thinks that sanctioning seven Russians of a population of about 150 million is a sanction, he’s living in a different world.
The one thing that we could do is to respond to the Ukrainian request when the president was here last week. They asked the Pentagon for weapons and we said no because somehow to arm the victim of aggression is a provocation. So we said no, we’re going to offer them MREs, offer them rations. Well, that’s going to hold off Russian tanks, I’m sure.
And this response of, you know, we are now going to calibrate as if Putin—they’re going to sanction 11 Russians now, so I’ll have to stop where I am is really preposterous. Again, if you are going to do something, do it, otherwise, say nothing. But this really is a humiliating response by a president who can’t even get the Europeans to join him in effective sanctions, which we could do.
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Hear the march of the green stormtroopers

Andrew Bolt March 19 2014 (12:34pm)

Global warming - propaganda
Professor Don Aitkin, former vice chancellor of the University of Canberra:
So the orthodox [warmists] go on waiting impatiently for the warming to return, and becoming even louder and more aggressive in their contempt for those of us who ask for good argument and good data and point out what seem to be problems in the orthodoxy… So to the first of [two recent] articles, which is by Rod Lamberts, Deputy Director of the ANU’s National Centre for Public Awareness of Science. What do you think of this? 
The fact is that the time for fact-based arguments is over. We all know what the overwhelmingly vast majority of climate science is telling us. I’m not going to regurgitate the details here, in part because the facts are available everywhere, but more importantly, because this tactic is a core reason why climate messages often don’t resonate or penetrate. If, like me, you’re convinced that human activity is having a hugely damaging effect on the global climate, then your only responsible option is to prioritise action.
I don’t think that what he proposes is at all a ‘responsible option’. The most responsible surely would be to look hard at what you think are the facts. Like Bernie Fraser, however, of whom he speaks well in this essay, Mr Lamberts knows what ‘the vast majority of climate science’ is telling him, though he won’t tell his readers.. We don’t need any more facts, he says, we need action. Nor is it clear what sort of action he has in mind, other than noisy behaviour.  But then we get this: What we need now is to become comfortable with the idea that the ends will justify the means.
That really worries me, and it should worry anyone. That is not how democracies should behave, and indeed it is what people object to about people who think they know The Truth: they are always telling the rest of us what to do. Mr Lamberts says that deniers should just be disregarded.  Ignore them, step around them, or walk over them. I object to this sort of talk, especially from an academic at the ANU, from which I have my PhD. It is stormtrooper stuff, and has no place either in universities or in a website funded by universities.
The second essay is by Lawrence Torcello, an American academic who teaches philosophy in the USA. It ... is certainly another good illustration of the aggressive style which you can find from the ‘believers’. Here is a sample:

We have good reason to consider the funding of climate denial to be criminally and morally negligent. The charge of criminal and moral negligence ought to extend to all activities of the climate deniers who receive funding as part of a sustained campaign to undermine the public’s understanding of scientific consensus… What are we to make of those behind the well documented corporate funding of global warming denial? Those who purposefully strive to make sure “inexact, incomplete and contradictory information” is given to the public? I believe we understand them correctly when we know them to be not only corrupt and deceitful, but criminally negligent in their willful disregard for human life. It is time for modern societies to interpret and update their legal systems accordingly.
Nowhere in this is any attempt to define anything; apparently it’s not needed by philosophers like Mr Torcello, though I would have thought ‘climate denial’ at least needs some kind of explanation if funding it is to be regarded as criminal behaviour. As I’ve said a few times, I am simply unaware of any funding that flows to me or to the others with whom I discuss AGW…
No matter. Any innocent reading this will come away with the view that ‘climate deniers’, whoever they are, should be jailed. It’s different stormtrooper talk, and just as objectionable.
(Thanks to reader Neville.) 

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No to racism, yes to free speech. Abbott stands firm

Andrew Bolt March 19 2014 (9:11am)

Free speech

The Prime Minister is as firm in his defence of free speech as he is adamant in his opposition to racism - and he is also a man of his word:
TONY Abbott has resisted Coalition rebels and defied criticism from ethnic communities over looming changes to racial discrimination laws by insisting the reforms will “reconcile” support for freedom of speech and the rejection of racism...
Mr Abbott tackled the Coalition concerns in a partyroom meeting that heard calls to maintain the section 18C provisions of the Racial Discrimination Act, which make it unlawful to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate a person on the basis of their race… The robust discussions followed a report in The Australian yesterday suggesting Attorney-General George Brandis was considering a proposal to remove the words “offend”, “insult” and “humiliate” from 18C but keep “intimidate”, and amend the “good faith” provision in section 18D, a key part of the law that led to the finding against Bolt…
Senator Brandis said late yesterday that the government was committed to “rebalancing” the human rights debate in Australia to better protect freedom of speech
I’m told this was cheered in the party room:
Queensland backbencher George Christensen and Sydney MP Alex Hawke spoke in support of his stand yesterday. “Freedom of speech is a God-given right - if we don’t allow the things we don’t want to hear, we don’t really believe in free speech at all,” sources claimed Mr Christensen said.
No to racism, yes to the free speech that allows us to oppose it.
UPDATE

The Australian makes the case for more freedom to discuss what needs discussing on the politics of “race”:
In modern Australia, we should be able to talk about racial issues without being branded racist...
Unfortunately, the timbre of debate over racial issues in Australia was skewed by “guilt politics’’ arising from the 1997 Bringing Them Home report that erroneously referred to the treatment of the Stolen Generations as “genocidal’’ and “a crime against humanity’’. Such hyperbole engendered irrational guilt and anger among many people, regardless of the varied circumstances under which Aboriginal children were removed from their families and local communities from 1910 to 1970. At the time the report was released, about 90,000 Aborigines in outback and northern Australia out of a total indigenous population of 350,000 were struggling with woefully low life expectancies and Third World living conditions. The urban-based Aboriginal lobby, however, egged on by the green-Left, focused almost exclusively on the grievances of the Stolen Generations and their 10,000 descendants, including those in comfortable circumstances in cities. These numbered only a tiny fraction of those suffering acute health, housing and other problems in remote areas.
The spat between Professor Langton and Bolt is grounded in complex issues. His original comments about light-skinned Aborigines seeking advantage reflect the views of many Aborigines themselves. For the benefit of our most disadvantaged citizens, Australia needs a mature, sophisticated debate on the best policies to “close the gap’’. The chances of such debate were stymied, however, when Bolt was found guilty in 2011 of racial vilification under section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. The complainants about his commentary, including Ms Behrendt, the Federal Court found, were likely to have been “offended, insulted, humiliated or intimidated’’. Australia needs to shake off such shackles on free speech and move beyond “guilt politics’’ and the habit of labelling those who express opposing views on indigenous issues with the “racist’’ tag. We should be able to deal in fact on this issue, rather than feelings based on identity politics.
UPDATE
Richard Ackland, the former Media Watch host and Fairfax columnist, is a fool, recklessly ill-informed or simply deceitful. The whole premise of his article is false. No, I never threatened defamation action against the ABC, and in fact repeatedly stated I prided myself on not suing. No, Langton’s apologies were not, when first issued on radio, simply for my hurt feelings but for falsely accusing me of racism and falsely accusing me of believing in a “master race”.  No, I didn’t ask the ABC to apologise for offending, humiliating or otherwise hurting my feelings, but for broadcasting false claims which host Tony Jones falsely termed “facts” - false claims about me heaping “foul abuse” and “racist abuse” on a woman, arguing she had no right to call herself Aboriginal and driving her from “public life”.  Ackland also omits a critical point: that when challenged on radio, Langton repeatedly refused to defend those “facts” because, as I’d proved, they were false.

Is Ackland seriously suggesting I had no right to ask the ABC to apologise for spreading deeply offensive, damaging and false claims about me?
And here is the point. I’ve written all this already. Ackland only had to read my request to the ABC for an apology to establish the basic facts. Instead, he chose to wilfully misstate the case.
UPDATE
We should not have laws to stop us discussing whether we should really insist on trivial distinctions of “race”, or should formally divide the country on the basis of the “race” of one or more of our great-grandparents.
The only restrictions on our free speech should be on racist abuse and actions of the kind to make people fear for their safety. I mean racism like this, recently filmed in Perth:

(Thanks to many readers.) 
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Excuse me, but who is the true shock jock here?

Andrew Bolt March 19 2014 (8:46am)

Weird. A union leader vilifies as woman as a “filthy animal” and talks of a boss needing a bullet “somewhere in the back of the head”. Yet I’m the “shock jock” for objecting:
UNION leader Gary Kennedy has apologised for his verbal attack on Gina Rinehart and Alan Joyce during Newcastle’s March In March rally, after metropolitan shock jocks Andrew Bolt and Ray Hadley seized on his abusive comments on Tuesday.
This from a Fairfax journalist who’s strongest condemnation of Kennedy’s vile comments was this:
Given recent debates over the abusive language aimed at former prime minister Julia Gillard it was perhaps surprising that Kennedy used such descriptions in a public forum, but I believe it would be a shame if they were taken as symbolising an event that was emphasised by its organisers as a ‘‘peaceful’’ protest.
That kind of journalism is what is truly shocking - a failure to be shocked by depravity. 
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Not a soldier for Australia but for Islam

Andrew Bolt March 19 2014 (8:25am)

For an army which has deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia, a worrying example of conflicting loyalities:
A WESTERN Sydney man who died fighting with rebels in Syria has been revealed to be an Australian soldier who went absent without leave more than three years ago.
Caner Temel, 22, is believed to have become radicalised and died fighting with jihadists in January… The rogue combat engineer is the first soldier from a western country to have been killed in the Syrian civil war.
He died while fighting for the extremist group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant against more moderate rebels…
Mr Temel’s death came days after the killing of Sydney man Yusuf Ali and his wife Amira near Aleppo. It was reported they were killed during fighting between rebel factions.
Last September, a Melbourne man became the first Australian to die as a suicide bomber in Syria after blowing himself up at a checkpoint.
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=== Posts from Last Year ===
http://unitedwithisrael.org/israeli-hospital-assists-needy-palestinian-children/

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No pain, no gain! #team9lives #9livesparkour #training #conditioning
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A new genus and species of extinct saber-toothed cat has been found in Polk County, Fla., scientists say. http://oak.ctx.ly/r/33qm

Below, lower jaw fossils of the 5-million-year-old saber-toothed cat (Rhizosmilodon fiteae), a smaller relative of the Smilodon species, recently found in Florida.
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"Blue Mood of March" 3/15/2013
Got the blues? Hopefully this might cheer you up! March sure has put some cheer into me!!
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Arizona Summer Night
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The Patriot (2000)
- Complete Movie -

http://youtu.be/z9auROPt3Pg

The Patriot is an American historical war film directed by Roland Emmerich, written by Robert Rodat, and starring Mel Gibson, Chris Cooper, and Heath Ledger. It was produced by the Mutual Film Company and Centropolis Entertainment and was distributed by Columbia Pictures. The film mainly takes place in rural York County, South Carolina and depicts the story of an American swept into the American Revolutionary War when his family is threatened. The protagonist, Benjamin Martin, is a composite figure based on four real American Revolutionary War heroes: Joseph Plumb Martin, Francis Marion, Daniel Morgan and Thomas Sumter.
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CARR SLIPS THE KNIFE IN GILLARD... but Windsor throws her a lifeline .. Larry Pickering

Bob Carr claims the report is "inaccurate". If it is then one news group and three Labor MPs are lying. 

“We have your back Prime Minister”, yelled Paul Howes to Julia Gillard at the recent AWU National Conference. It was a prescient yet vacuous assurance in an alcohol fuelled environment.

What Howes meant was that the AWU was fully aware knives had been unsheathed for some time and Gillard, the AWU's creation, was the target.

Gillard was certainly the creation of the AWU but only through the acquiescence of Bob Carr’s NSW Right.

Without Carr, Gillard ceases to exist. Thus his appointment.

Time is now of the essence as Gillard’s supporters succumb to the inevitable.

Bob Carr, a major player in the corrupt NSW Right and in tandem with Graham Richardson, is a significant defection as it was he who assisted Gillard to topple Kevin Rudd.

It was he, as NSW Premier, who buckled under pressure from Richardson and Ludwig and appointed the dangerous Ian Cambridge to the NSW Industrial Relations Commission.

The “Cambridge Affidavit” is scathing of Gillard and her lover Bruce Wilson.

Cambridge, an AWU General Secretary, at the time was pressing hard for a Royal Commission which would have destroyed Gillard.

Cambridge had said, “I am not prepared to turn a blind eye to these matters...” Later, as PM, Gillard appointed him to the Bench of Fair Work Australia.

Once on the Bench he said, “I don’t retract what I said … but now I am a member of a quasi-judicial tribunal. As a member of (Fair Work Australia) it is not appropriate for me to make public statements.”

But apparently Gillard’s appointment of Carr to the Senate vacancy and the plum Foreign Ministry was insufficient to guarantee his loyalty.

With those who will now fall in behind Carr, Gillard will have insufficient numbers in Caucus to survive a ballot but that does not mean Rudd has sufficient numbers to take her place.

Gillard’s fall from dubious grace has begun and without a parachute in sight.

Past assurances of loyalty mean nothing as ALP Members cling furiously to their seats in a last ditch clutch at survival.

Only Tony Windsor came to Gillard’s aid.

Last night on the ABC’s Lateline he threw a lifeline to his beloved Julia and the interviewer completely missed the significance of what he said.

With his normal bumbling delivery he said (and I paraphrase): “The ALP needs to get its act together. If it doesn’t they might find there’s an election sooner than they think. There are documents you know...”. Incredibly the interviewer then cut him off.

What Windsor was actually saying is this (and I paraphrase): Sack my Julia if you want but remember it is she who I have “The Agreement” (documents) with, not the Labor Party. If she goes so do I... and so too does the Government.

You see Windsor is aware of Carr’s defection and an imminent challenge. He was issuing a thinly veiled threat, an ultimatum... "Do not sack Gillard or I will take you all down with her."

He wasn’t speaking for Oakeshott but he may as well have been because Oakeshott too has finally had enough.

How could the interviewer have missed such a defining moment? But she did.

A challenge to Gillard could not have happened without NSW factional agreement.

Carr will now marshal those factional forces against Gillard and a challenge is certain unless... well, unless he considers the unheeded threat offered by Windsor last night.

Who can replace Gillard? I don't know but it makes sense that the NSW Right faction will need to placate the Ludwig/Howes faction and that means Shorten.

But will Bill Shorten accept the poison chalice?

Regardless, Gillard will live to rue the day she lured into the Senate that treacherous man who keeps his used chewing gum in his coat pocket.

But she who lives by the sword....
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“Lord of the world,” Buddhists of the Bamiyan Valley called this 175-foot statue of the Perfect One. — National Geographic, 1968. (Destroyed by the Taliban in 2001).
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Denying children a new and loving family

Andrew BoltMARCH192013(7:52am)

Jeremy Sammut says we’ve got to get over this sentimentalising over the evils of adoption when there are so many children in desperate need of a stable family: 
Taking legal action to permanently remove children and provide safe and stable homes by adoption into suitable families is taboo (despite being a proven and effective child welfare strategy) because this is considered akin to forced adoption policies of previous eras.
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March 19: Saint Joseph's Day (Western Christianity); Father's Day in various countries
Sydney Harbour Bridge
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Events[edit]

Births[edit]

Deaths[edit]

Holidays and observances[edit]

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“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” - Romans 15:13
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
March 18: Morning
"Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." -Galatians 3:26
The fatherhood of God is common to all his children. Ah! Little-faith, you have often said, "Oh that I had the courage of Great-heart, that I could wield his sword and be as valiant as he! But, alas, I stumble at every straw, and a shadow makes me afraid." List thee, Little-faith. Great-heart is God's child, and you are God's child too; and Great-heart is not one whit more God's child than you are. Peter and Paul, the highly-favoured apostles, were of the family of the Most High; and so are you also; the weak Christian is as much a child of God as the strong one.

"This cov'nant stands secure,
Though earth's old pillars bow;
The strong, the feeble, and the weak,
Are one in Jesus now."

All the names are in the same family register. One may have more grace than another, but God our heavenly Father has the same tender heart towards all. One may do more mighty works, and may bring more glory to his Father, but he whose name is the least in the kingdom of heaven is as much the child of God as he who stands among the King's mighty men. Let this cheer and comfort us, when we draw near to God and say, "Our Father."

Yet, while we are comforted by knowing this, let us not rest contented with weak faith, but ask, like the Apostles, to have it increased. However feeble our faith may be, if it be real faith in Christ, we shall reach heaven at last, but we shall not honour our Master much on our pilgrimage, neither shall we abound in joy and peace. If then you would live to Christ's glory, and be happy in his service, seek to be filled with the spirit of adoption more and more completely, till perfect love shall cast out fear.
Evening
"As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you." - John 15:9
As the Father loves the Son, in the same manner Jesus loves his people. What is that divine method? He loved him without beginning, and thus Jesus loves his members. "I have loved thee with an everlasting love." You can trace the beginning of human affection; you can easily find the beginning of your love to Christ, but his love to us is a stream whose source is hidden in eternity. God the Father loves Jesus without any change. Christian, take this for your comfort, that there is no change in Jesus Christ's love to those who rest in him. Yesterday you were on Tabor's top, and you said, "He loves me:" today you are in the valley of humiliation, but he loves you still the same. On the hill Mizar, and among the Hermons, you heard his voice, which spake so sweetly with the turtle-notes of love; and now on the sea, or even in the sea, when all his waves and billows go over you, his heart is faithful to his ancient choice. The Father loves the Son without any end, and thus does the Son love his people. Saint, thou needest not fear the loosing of the silver cord, for his love for thee will never cease. Rest confident that even down to the grave Christ will go with you, and that up again from it he will be your guide to the celestial hills. Moreover, the Father loves the Son without any measure, and the same immeasurable love the Son bestows upon his chosen ones. The whole heart of Christ is dedicated to his people. He "loved us and gave himself for us." His is a love which passeth knowledge. Ah! we have indeed an immutable Saviour, a precious Saviour, one who loves without measure, without change, without beginning, and without end, even as the Father loves him! There is much food here for those who know how to digest it. May the Holy Ghost lead us into its marrow and fatness!
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Dan 
[Dăn] - he that judges.
The fifth son of Jacob, and first of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid. Dan was the full brother of Naphtali and founder of a tribal family (Gen. 30:6;2 Sam. 24:15).
The Man Whose Name is Blotted Out
With our finite minds there is a mystery about Dan we cannot solve. The history of the tribe of Dan is darker than the history of any other of the twelve tribes of Israel. When we come to the sealing of the twelve tribes (Rev. 7), Dan's name is left out. The omission is absolute - the tribe is cut off from its brethren and its name blotted out. Yet we cannot be absolutely certain that the tribe of Dan is finally cut off, for in Ezekiel's glowing prophecy there is a portion for Dan (Ezek. 48:1).
The prophecy of Jacob concerning Dan carries a twofold character - "Dan shall judge his people as one of the sceptres of Israel." Tribe also means sceptre (Gen. 49:10). No man among the Judges did so much for Israel single-handed as Samson the great Danite.
A further thought is associated with Jacob's prophecy of Dan. "I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord." This is the first mention of salvation in Scripture. But Dan's history is adverse to the salvation predicted of him. His birth arose out of jealousy and inordinate desire. Dan became the Ishmael of Jacob's family. Persistent idolatry clung to the Danites from first to last. It was because Dan was likened unto a serpent that some of the early fathers predicted that Antichrist would come from him. "They are not all Israel which are of Israel." As there was one among the Twelve Apostles, so there was one among the Twelve Tribes who had not the seal of God. This we do know, Dan's glory as one of the sceptres of Israel with courage as a lion's whelp, is of no avail without the seal of God upon his forehead.
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Today's reading: Deuteronomy 32-34, Mark 15:26-47 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Deuteronomy 32-34

1 Listen, you heavens, and I will speak;
hear, you earth, the words of my mouth.
2 Let my teaching fall like rain
and my words descend like dew,
like showers on new grass,
like abundant rain on tender plants.
3 I will proclaim the name of the LORD.
Oh, praise the greatness of our God!
4 He is the Rock, his works are perfect,
and all his ways are just.
A faithful God who does no wrong,
upright and just is he....

Today's New Testament reading: Mark 15:26-47

26 The written notice of the charge against him read: THE KING OF THE JEWS.
27 They crucified two rebels with him, one on his right and one on his left. 29 Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, "So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, 30 come down from the cross and save yourself!" 31 In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. "He saved others," they said, "but he can't save himself! 32 Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe." Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him....

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Today's Lent reading: Matthew 21-22 (NIV)

View today's Lent reading on Bible Gateway
Jesus Comes to Jerusalem as King
1 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, "Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away."
4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:
5 "Say to Daughter Zion,
'See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.'"

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Today's Prayer

Thanks be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ,
For all the benefits thou hast won for me,
For all the pains and insults you have borne for me.

O most merciful Redeemer, Friend, and Brother,
May I know thee more clearly,
Love thee more dearly,
And follow thee more nearly:
For ever and ever.
-- Richard of Chichester

Today's Scripture Reading: 1 Peter 3:18-22

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits--to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also--not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God's right hand--with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.

Today's Quote

Christ with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me, Christ within me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ at my right, Christ at my left,
Christ in the fort,
Christ in the chariot seat,
Christ on the deck,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
-- from the prayer of St. Patrick

Something to Think About

When people hear your words or witness your actions, do they see a reflection of Jesus Christ? If somebody were to eavesdrop on your everyday interactions at work, school, and home, would they want to know more about the Savior you serve?

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Sincerely,

The Bible Gateway team

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