Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Wed May 14th Todays News

Complaints, many ridiculous, have been made about the Australian budget and children's welfare. So it is worthwhile focusing on child welfare. Today is the birthday of Oona O'Neill (wife of Charlie Chaplin), Bobby Darrin and child entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg .. and Taruni Sachdev. In 1889, the charity National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was launched in London. Not a recent problem, cruelty to children is documented in the Bible. But we still seem to invent new ways. Ariel Castro kidnapped some teens and held them captive for over a decade, exploiting them sexually. Castro was caught, which is more than can be said of Peruvian Lina Medina's abuser. She was five years old when she gave birth by caesarian in 1939 on this day. She was not able to say who impregnated her, although her father was a suspect never prosecuted. Even today, as an adult, she is not saying. Her son, born healthy, died of a bone marrow disease in his early forties. Children are not immune to tragedy too. Actress Taruni Sachdev was fourteen years old when she got on a plane with her mother in Nepal. The plane crashed on this day, her birthday, in 2012, killing both and others. It is not the job of parents to raise children to face the harsh rigours of the world. The inevitable is inevitably faced. However, it is the job of parents to raise children with knowledge of security fostered through love. Because when we are loved we are resilient, and can bear many burdens. So how do those perceived budget weaknesses get faced? One organisation is suggesting that school kids be discouraged from calling their teachers 'sir' or 'miss' because it is perceived that is gender discrimination. 

 With modern cricket, more games are being played and so players pass records by merely being very good. So, it is nice to be able to note that the record for the number of first class wickets being taken over a career was landmarked on this day in 1929 by Wilfred Rhodes. Rhodes had taken his 4000th wicket on his way to taking 9-39. He was a slow bowling left arm orthodox. The next year he retired having taken 4201 wickets at an average of 16.72. He was only 53 years old when he retired, but lived on to 95. And he needed none of the things in his life which have been cut in the Australian budget. 
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For twenty two years I have been responsibly addressing an issue, and I cannot carry on. I am petitioning the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott 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 https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/tony-abbott-remedy-the-persecution-of-dd-ball
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Hatches
Happy birthday and many happy returns Doreen Margaret Yates and Peter Phan. Born on the same day, when in 1796 Edward Jenner began testing cowpox to cure smallpox. Another bovine success story culminating with McDonalds. How is them milkshakes? Lewis and Clark, in 1804 tried to get to the Pacific and back, discovering almost anything was good enough to swallow.
Matches
Despatches
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Through the pain barrier with Liberal budget

Piers Akerman – Wednesday, May 14, 2014 (11:14am)

HARD, or not hard enough?

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'Through the pain barrier with Liberal budget'
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The Liberals’ cigar-led recovery

Miranda Devine – Tuesday, May 13, 2014 (10:00pm)

WHEN Joe Hockey and ­Mathias Cormann popped into the Budget lockup in Canberra to schmooze the media, there wasn’t a Cuban cigar in sight.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'The Liberals’ cigar-led recovery'
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AWNED

Tim Blair – Wednesday, May 14, 2014 (2:58pm)

On Tuesday night in Canberra I saw a man be ordered from a bar because he failed to respect the territorial boundaries of an awning.
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Hockey dances with his wife. Oakes suggests he doesn’t care for the poor

Andrew Bolt May 14 2014 (3:56pm)

Laurie Oakes smears:
Joe Hockey hits back:
Some of the media coverage has just been sick - stupid and spiteful attempts to whip up the crassest of class envy with attacks on Hockey having a private smoke of a cigar and dancing with his wife. 
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Labor plant: the real Vilma, angry Rudd loyalist

Andrew Bolt May 14 2014 (2:00pm)

Sold at first as just another pensioner telling off the Prime Minister:
During one of a raft of breakfast television appearances, on the Ten network’s Wake Up, Mr Abbott was confronted by an elderly woman, named only as Vilma, furious about changes to the age pension, who responded to his explanations on broken promises with: ‘’I have never heard such rubbish in all my life.’’

‘‘Why don’t you leave the pensioners alone? If we pull the belt any tighter we’re going to choke to death,’’ Vilma said. ‘’Why are you picking on me?
‘‘I challenge you: come out and meet some of the pensioners, they’ll tell you a little thing or two.’’
Just another abusive Labor plant, and I wonder how she got chosen:
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Appearing distinctly uncomfortable, Mr Abbott ...suggested to Vilma that it was obvious that she had not voted for the Coalition, to which the indignant Vilma replied ‘’Excuse me, it’s got nothing to do with who I vote for and who I don’t vote for… You’re a comedian, sir you’re a comedian.’’
It emerged later on Wednesday that Vilma is Vilma Ward 85, president of the Bulimba Senior Citizen’s centre. According to a media report from 2010, Mrs Ward served on Kevin Rudd’s election campaign committee in his first run for federal parliament in 1998.
UPDATE
From Women’s Weekly, 1967, evidence that Ward has been a very long-time Labor activist:
Her husband, Mr. Leonard Ward, is organiser for the Queensland Transport Workers’ Union.
Mrs. Ward is a member ot the Balmoral Branch of the Union of Australian Women and is a national committee member. She is also secretary of the Norman Park Branch of the ALP.
UPDATE
Yet more ties between Vilma and Rudd, who has used her himself as a prop.

(Thanks to reader Borderer and Catallaxy File, which has more.)  
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If Scott can’t find 1 per cent of savings in the ABC without weeping he should be replaced

Andrew Bolt May 14 2014 (8:23am)

Anyone working in commercial media outlets - particularly in slashed-hard Fairfax or Channel 10 - will have nothing but contempt for such bleating from ABC boss Mark Scott over a Budget cut of just 1 per cent:

The funding cuts will be disappointing for audiences. The task ahead will be extremely challenging for ABC management and staff.
Reader Baldrick:
The ABC’s budget will be reduced one percent over four years. So for every $1,000,000 the ABC spends it will need to find a saving $10,000. Hardly challenging!
Reader centrepete:

Waking up in Singapore earlier this year, I decided to check out the Australia Network. I was immediately confronted (not for long) with Sarah Hanson-Young telling that part of the world what a pack of absolute bastards we Australians actually are.
I heartily endorse the axing of the Australia Network.
Reader David:
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On the ABC news website, there is a graphic on winners and losers from the budget. Note how the ABC decides the budget is “neutral” for high income earners, ie not affected either way. What extraordinary mind-bending argument and twisted logic did they have to follow to conclude that?

Yes, odd, given the 2 per cent deficit levy, just for starters.  
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More than 400 “real” refugees on Manus

Andrew Bolt May 14 2014 (7:58am)

I’m surprised so many are considered refugees and wonder how that decision was arrived at:

MORE than a third of the 1200 asylum-seekers detained on PNG’s Manus Island have been assessed as genuine refugees in preliminary investigations by authorities.
The same number have been knocked back at this stage as refugees, while authorities have yet to assess the remaining 300 asylum-seekers.
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Answer: no

Andrew Bolt May 14 2014 (7:49am)

I really don’t think this latest Twitter campaign captures the public mood:
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What was Obama doing as Islamists attacked the US post in Benghazi?

Andrew Bolt May 14 2014 (7:35am)

Why is such a basic fact not yet known? It can only be because it’s embarrassing:
What was President Obama doing during the eight hours that the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, was under attack? Amazingly, we still do not know 20 months later.
(Via Instapundit.) 
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Goodes flags the agenda: not to reconcile, but divide

Andrew Bolt May 14 2014 (7:17am)

I don’t know how much clearer Adam Goodes could have flagged it yesterday: the proposed change to the constitution is just one step in creating a nation of tribes, divided by “race”:
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Rudd left by Labor to answer for insulation fiasco

Andrew Bolt May 14 2014 (7:14am)

Kevin Rudd is on the stand today:
KEVIN Rudd has been cut adrift by the Labor Party and two of his former ministers as he faces a searching examination under oath today over the deadly ­debacle of Labor’s $2.8 billion Home Insulation Program…
...supporters of Mr Rudd were furious after opposition legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus failed to follow through on a commitment to supply a written submission to the commission in defence of Mr Rudd and the HIP…

[Former environment minister Peter] Garrett gives some detail of what he told Mr Rudd in his extensive statement.
On at least one occasion, in August 2009, Mr Rudd refused Mr Garrett’s request to reintroduce tougher compliance measures for dodgy installers, requiring homeowners to obtain two quotes for insulation work. The former prime minister agreed to the change only in October 2009, Mr Garrett said, after the first installer’s death and following another written plea from him…

Mr Garrett said he was not told of warnings to his bureaucrats as early as February 2009 that three New Zealand installers were electrocuted under a similar scheme.
He was also not told his department had been warned by a technical advisory group in April 2009 that there was a high likelihood of “catastrophic” consequences — such as death and injury — under the scheme.  
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 So much pain just to halve Labor’s monster debt

Andrew Bolt May 14 2014 (6:23am)

THIS Budget says something terrifying about Australia, so hooked on handouts. How can it hurt so much to do so little?
The Abbott Government is dicing with political death to make so many cuts, raise so many taxes and charges, and break so many promises.
Yet even after all this pain we still won’t post a surplus for at least another five years, and Labor’s debt will keep rising until then.
Oh, just to show the legacy of Labor’s criminally reckless spending, this financial year will leave us with one of the biggest deficits in our history — $50 billion — racked up at a time of growth and high prices for our minerals.
So you think this Government is now too brutal, slashing family payments, slugging uni students, taxing the “rich” with a deficit levy, hiking petrol prices, charging for doctor visits and sacking 16,500 public servants over four years?
Well, stop whingeing: despite all these cuts, government spending is still going up by $56 billion over the next four years, from $411 billion this financial year.
(Read full article here.) 
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Budget: most pain later, adding to the political risk

Andrew Bolt May 13 2014 (11:27pm)

Terry McCrann:
The budget’s nowhere near as brutal as might have been feared. Indeed, it will almost certainly be criticised from ‘the right’ as being too soft — the total of supposedly savage cuts knock less than $2 billion off the $32 billion deficit expected for this year.
Yes, the cuts are projected to grow, to slice a much more impressive $14 billion off the deficit in 2017-18. This, combined with the continued ever-rising harvest of bracket creep, is projected to get the budget bottom line essentially back to balance around then.
Indeed the roughly $30 billion reduction in the deficit is split almost equally between spending cuts and higher income tax from bracket creep.
Now it’s always a worry that most of the pain comes later.
This is the (post-election) budget in which treasurers are supposed to be brutal; by this time next year the government will be into the ‘hand-out’ countdown towards the next election.
David Uren:
The budget savings across the year ahead of $1.7 billion are less than 0.5 per cent of total budget outlays, while they are still tiny in the following year…
The government is making commitments to fix the budget but they will not start to take full effect for years to come, mostly beyond the next election.
The Treasurer justifies his caution saying the economy will still be growing at below its long-term trend for the next two years. He does not want public spending cuts to hurt demand while the recovery is still fragile… The government’s caution is based on its fears of the fallout as a massive wave of construction on resource projects draws to an end....
The cuts outlined in the budget are designed to start taking full effect from 2017-18, by which time the fall in resource investment will have run its course and Treasury expects the economy will be bounding along at an above-trend growth rate of 3.5 per cent. By then business will be taking up the slack left by years of poor performance.
Henry Ergas:
No doubt, there will be controversy over just how large the turnaround is...: a reasonable estimate is that the total deficits over the four years to 2017-18 have been reduced by some $35bn to $45bn.
On any measure, it is spending cuts that are doing the heavy lifting, with policy decisions reducing spending by $28bn (relative to the 2013-14 MYEEFO) over the period to 2017-18.
That means spending reductions, rather than tax increases, account for 77 per cent of the fiscal effort…
But the job is far from done. For starters, sustaining the spending cuts will hardly be easy. In the initial years, they rely heavily on freezing benefits, reducing thresholds at which payments are phased out and tightening eligibility rules: the fiscal physician’s favourite slimming diet, but also that most readily relaxed as an election approaches. Moreover, it is in 2017-18 that the axe really falls, as the government tears up Labor’s Gonski and hospital funding IOUs.
That helps reduce spending growth in 2017-18 from the 5.9 per cent in real terms that retaining those commitments would have entailed to a more manageable 2.6 per cent; but sensible though that decision is, it promises a political firestorm.
After all, by walking away from those agreements, the government is both setting up a massive conflict with the states and aggravating its vulnerability just where the Coalition is weakest: health and education. As a result, it must be likely that as the election looms, the government will negotiate alternatives, with some part of the savings coming undone.
Sinclair Davidson wonders whether the ideology has been overdone:
Then there is the Medical Research Future Fund. This verges on the incoherent. The government will invest all the money from the GP co-payment, increased medicine payments, and savings from medical expenditure into the fund which will then finance research. In other words, the GP co-payment and increased medicine prices will not be used to reduce debt or deficit. So why have it all? Clearly there is no urgent need to introduce these higher prices and co-payments; they are driven purely by ideology. The Medical Research Future Fund exists to detract attention from that decision. Why deprive people of actual medical attention in order to finance research when there is no guarantee of any actual benefit?
Maybe to get the fund to replace the Budget as source of future research funding, and thereby disguising an actual breach of a promise not to cut health spending?
Sinclair continues:

Then there is the broken tax promise… This promise has been shattered by an increase in the top marginal tax rate above $180,000 and the reintroduction of petrol indexation. In time petrol indexation will generate a lot of income, but not in the next financial year. Similarly the increased tax rate (only for three years, we’re told) won’t raise much revenue either. So why break a promise for little revenue gain? This is form above substance measure to share the pain…
Finally, of course, the budget and the forward projections all remain in deficit. Joe Hockey has not produced a surplus and over the foreseeable future isn’t forecasting a surplus either.
Sinclair Davidson puts the “brutal” Budget in context:
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Paul Kelly:
It defines the political battle of the first Abbott government — a choice between the need for community sacrifice versus anger at being punished by a government that broke its promises.
It will be a test of maturity. Labor has a truckload of griev­ances to exploit… The risk for Abbott and Hockey is that in the near term they provoke disproportionate political hostility for the financial savings they generate.  
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Tough - but getting rid of Labor’s debt is even tougher

Andrew Bolt May 13 2014 (8:55pm)

This is the scary bit. We’re screaming about the cuts and the taxes, but even after all that “pain” there will still not be a surplus for another five years:
TAX hikes and welfare cuts will help trim next year’s budget deficit to $29.8 billion in the first stage of wider reforms to prevent debt from soaring to the levels Joe Hockey warned of five months ago.
Confirming deep cuts to family tax benefits and two new big tax hikes, the Treasurer has outlined a federal budget that starts long-term reforms to save tens of billions of dollars.
But most of the savings will come after the four years of the budget forward estimates as the government holds back from faster cuts out of fear of hurting the economy.
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Wabbit season
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G’day my friends,
Well, this Budget is in my opinion the turning point that will put us all on track for a more secure fiscal future A huge first step to finally killing the entitlement mentality that has infected our Australian psyche since the 60’s march through the institutions and in particular since Chairman Whitlam got his red hands on the levers of power.
Talk about political courage. PM Abbott and his budget team have done something that most before them never had the courage to do and that is to think about this countries real long term future rather than their own short term political careers.
 The great thing about us Aussies is that we adapt to change very well and although the “usual suspects” will whinge and moan and continue to rebut the legitimacy of this Conservative Government, with hypocrisy and childish name calling (Did you hear Bill Shorten this morning calling Joe Hockey & Mathias Cormann “Cigar smoking Liberals”?), the vast majority of us will just get the job done. In a short time the so called freebies will no longer be seen as a great loss but rather a milestone around Australia’s neck and something that we should have dropped decades ago. The next and future generations will have a lot to thank this current Government for and above all the removal of dependence on others!!!
Godspeed
Zeg
0414293765
Freelance Editorial Cartoonist/Caricaturist
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=== Posts from last year ===
4 her, so she can see how I see her




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DID YOU KNOW SYDNEY HAS A FLOATING FOREST?
Hey you, with the DSLR! This abandoned shipwreck overrun with mangroves is one of our city's best kept secrets. Where is it? Click here to find out more: www.urbansociety.com.au/urban-insider/things-to-do/sydney-s-floating-forest/
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Melissa Ohden

My thoughts on the Gosnell trial. I am a bleary, teary mess right now. In a world that by and large wanted to overlook and avoid looking at this atrocity, justice was served today. But justice needs to continue to be served today, tomorrow, and in the days and weeks that come. My thoughts: 

I will likely never stand face to face with the abortionist, who thirty-five years ago, executed his job duties and attempted to kill me. I will never stand face to face with that abortionist, who thirty-five years ago, did not, as many pro-abortion people have said, “do his job properly” that day. As we know, by saying that he “didn’t do his job properly,” they mean, “didn’t kill you like he was supposed to.”

I will likely never stand face to face with that abortionist, but because I was blessed to survive the abortion procedure and was provided medical care after it was discovered that I wasn’t dead like I should have been, like it was initially believed I was, I can now stand face to face with abortionists like Dr. Gosnell. In comparison to his victims, I believe that Dr. Gosnell is lucky. Today he was found guilty on 3 of 4 counts of murder. Compared to the children whose lives he ended in the womb, and the children whose lives he ended outside of the womb, he is lucky, indeed. He is lucky to have experienced life, albeit filled with horrific choices that he made. He is lucky to have experienced what it was like to be loved by someone in his life. He is lucky to have been born.
Justice was served today. But it does not stop the other ‘Gosnell’s’ that exist in our world today, who not only end life inside the womb but attempt to end it through their own actions or inactions once the child is outside of the womb. I pray that justice be served for the rest of the children who are affected by abortion and infanticide every day.
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"As an American I regret [UN Resolution 3379 - Zionism is Racism], but I don't let that piece of paper deter my commitment to the survival of freedom and liberty and democracy in Israel. That resolution is bothersome, it is a problem, but it doesn't have anything to do with the substance or the content of our belief. As a Black American, who understands racism, I know that it makes no sense to equate it with Zionism."

Barbara Jordan (1936–1996) 
* First African American elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction 
* First southern black female elected to the United States House of Representatives
* Received the Presidential Medal of Freedom
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"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." Lincoln
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Joe Hockey

Labor revised actual Budget hole 3 times in two weeks($7bn,$12bn then $17bn). They now say trust me with 10 year estimates.
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Something odd in the translation, as he predates by hundreds of years a prevalent monotheistic view. However the answer is simple .. what a person considers evil or distasteful is not the same as God's view. I don't like waking up early, but I should. A good man should not sacrifice their own son .. but Abraham was willing. A person can't resurrect three days after being crucified to death, but Jesus did. - ed
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iPad Music Station..Perfect desktop Music Machine.. Pads, Keyboard, and knobs all for your MIDI fun.. hook it up to your laptop or desktop too..
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Pastor Rick Warren

Leadership is neither showmanship nor dictatorship. Leadership is a stewardship and a partnership.
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May 14: Pesach Sheni (Judaism, 2014); Feast day of Saint Matthiasand Saint Mo Chutu (Roman Catholicism)
Edward Jenner
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Events[edit]

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Holidays and observances[edit]

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“Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.” -Proverbs 31:30
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."
Psalm 30:5
Christian! If thou art in a night of trial, think of the morrow; cheer up thy heart with the thought of the coming of thy Lord. Be patient, for
"Lo! He comes with clouds descending."
Be patient! The Husbandman waits until he reaps his harvest. Be patient; for you know who has said, "Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give to every man according as his work shall be." If you are never so wretched now, remember
"A few more rolling suns, at most,
Will land thee on fair Canaan's coast."
Thy head may be crowned with thorny troubles now, but it shall wear a starry crown ere long; thy hand may be filled with cares--it shall sweep the strings of the harp of heaven soon. Thy garments may be soiled with dust now; they shall be white by-and-by. Wait a little longer. Ah! how despicable our troubles and trials will seem when we look back upon them! Looking at them here in the prospect, they seem immense; but when we get to heaven we shall then
"With transporting joys recount,
The labours of our feet."
Our trials will then seem light and momentary afflictions. Let us go on boldly; if the night be never so dark, the morning cometh, which is more than they can say who are shut up in the darkness of hell. Do you know what it is thus to live on the future--to live on expectation--to antedate heaven? Happy believer, to have so sure, so comforting a hope. It may be all dark now, but it will soon be light; it may be all trial now, but it will soon be all happiness. What matters it though "weeping may endure for a night," when "joy cometh in the morning?"

Evening

"Thou art my portion, O Lord."
Psalm 119:57
Look at thy possessions, O believer, and compare thy portion with the lot of thy fellowmen. Some of them have their portion in the field; they are rich, and their harvests yield them a golden increase; but what are harvests compared with thy God, who is the God of harvests? What are bursting granaries compared with him, who is the Husbandman, and feeds thee with the bread of heaven? Some have their portion in the city; their wealth is abundant, and flows to them in constant streams, until they become a very reservoir of gold; but what is gold compared with thy God? Thou couldst not live on it; thy spiritual life could not be sustained by it. Put it on a troubled conscience, and could it allay its pangs? Apply it to a desponding heart, and see if it could stay a solitary groan, or give one grief the less? But thou hast God, and in him thou hast more than gold or riches ever could buy. Some have their portion in that which most men love--applause and fame; but ask thyself, is not thy God more to thee than that? What if a myriad clarions should be loud in thine applause, would this prepare thee to pass the Jordan, or cheer thee in prospect of judgment? No, there are griefs in life which wealth cannot alleviate; and there is the deep need of a dying hour, for which no riches can provide. But when thou hast God for thy portion, thou hast more than all else put together. In him every want is met, whether in life or in death. With God for thy portion thou art rich indeed, for he will supply thy need, comfort thy heart, assuage thy grief, guide thy steps, be with thee in the dark valley, and then take thee home, to enjoy him as thy portion forever. "I have enough," said Esau; this is the best thing a worldly man can say, but Jacob replies, "I have all things," which is a note too high for carnal minds.
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Mephibosheth

[Mēphĭb'o shĕth] - utterance of baalor destroying shame.
  1. A son of Rizpah, Saul's concubine and the daughter of Aiah. David gave him up to the Gibeonites (2 Sam. 21:8).
  2. The son of Jonathan, son of Saul. Also called Meribbaal, meanning "a striver against Baal" (2 Sam. 4:4; 9:6-13; 16:1, 4; 19:24-30; 21:7; 1 Chron. 8:34; 9:40).

The Man Who Was Lame in Both Feet

Mephibosheth was only five years old when Jonathan, his father, and Saul, his grandfather, both fell in the same battle on Mount Gilboa, and with their death their family fell from the throne. In the terror of that day of defeat and death, the nurse caught up Jonathan's child and fled with him in her arms. But in her haste she let the little prince fall, and thus Mephibosheth was lame in both feet for the rest of his life.
Preachers can find excellent material in what is said of Mephibosheth - a type of the redeemed sinner.
I. He belonged to the royal line, but was made a cripple by a fall (2 Sam. 4:4).
II. He lived in exile from the king but was remembered because of a covenant (1 Sam. 20:14, 15; 2 Sam. 9:3, 4).
III. He was called into the king's presence and exalted because of the merits of another (2 Sam. 9:5, 7).
IV. He was given a glorious heritage (2 Sam. 9:9).
V. He lived a life of self-denial during the king's absence (2 Sam. 19:24).
VI. He was subject to persecution and slander ( 2 Sam. 16:3; 19:27).
VII. He rejoiced at the return of the king and cared little for material things (2 Sam. 19:30).
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Today's reading: 2 Kings 17-18, John 3:19-36 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: 2 Kings 17-18

Hoshea Last King of Israel
1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned nine years. 2 He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, but not like the kings of Israel who preceded him.
3 Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up to attack Hoshea, who had been Shalmaneser's vassal and had paid him tribute....

Today's New Testament reading: John 3:19-36

19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God....
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Do you need Encouragement for Today?

If you could use a bit of everyday inspiration, the newest addition to our collection of email devotionals is just right for you: Encouragement for Today from Proverbs 31 Ministries!

Encouragement for Today is a daily devotional that aims to bring readers closer to the heart of God through insightful, Biblical reflections drawn from everyday life. They're humble, direct, and encouraging--and they're written by a top-notch crew of writers. In the last week, we've read reflections from Glynnis Whitwer, Mary Beth Whalen, Melissa Taylor and Lysa TerKeurst (author of the best-selling Made to Crave).

Encouragement for Today has a special focus on the challenges that busy women face each day, but anyone will find its insights helpful. If that sounds intriguing, you can sign up to start receiving Encouragement for Today, read a short excerpt from a recent devotional, or learn more about Proverbs 31 Ministries at their website . We're thankful to the Proverbs 31 team for making this devotional available on Bible Gateway.
Have you seen the new and improved Bible Gateway?

We recently announced new.biblegateway.com, a preview of the new Bible Gateway website. If you've stopped by to take a look, you've seen that it's got a slick new design and a slew of improvements to the Bible Gateway features you rely on.

At our blog, we've started highlighting some of the biggest improvements you'll find on new.biblegateway.com. So far, we've covered some of the most-requested new features: We'll be adding more of these highlights and tutorials in coming weeks, so keep an eye on the blog! And don't forget to stop bynew.biblegateway.com and share your feedback.

Thanks, and have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

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