Sunday, June 22, 2014

Sun Jun 22nd Todays News

There has been substantial loss on this day. Garland (1969), Astaire (1987), McGrath (2008) and as well, CJ Dennis (1938). The great Australian poet who was the first to use Australian vernacular, explained the enormity of WW1 with his Songs of a Sentimental Bloke and Ginger Mick. Almost unreadable for modern children, it would be tragic if Dennis were forgotten. Even now, the school child's struggle with Shakespeare is better described by Dennis than any teacher's description of Hamlet. And his story of love exceeds any offering  of tv drama. But his soldiers are real. His pride is real. Forget English, new migrants should be made to answer comprehension questions of CJ Dennis poetry. And I'll stoush anyone who disagrees or cheats by using Dusk. He died on the eve of WW2, of old age. A broken and dishevelled Garland had sung of a land over the rainbow. Dennis brought it to us. It is Australia, mate. 

In 1633, Galileo was made to recant his view that the universe travelled around the sun, in favour of the absurd theory that the sun travelled around the Earth. And while Stephen Fry might claim on QI that there was never a time in recorded history that authorities thought the world was flat, it was on this day they came closest to it. In 1783, a poison cloud that was not man made floated from Iceland to France .. but it was natural, not man made, so we didn't need to address it. In 1813, a woman keen to defend Beaver walked 30 km to warn a Fitzgibbon. In 1839, Cherokee John Ridge was assassinated for his signing a document that resulted in the death of a quarter of Cherokee on the trail of tears. In his defence, he had negotiated a bad deal with a Democrat President Andrew Jackson, Old Hickory. 175 years of reform later, Democrat Obama is no better over Iraq. 

In 1954 in Christchurch, two heavenly creatures gave rise to a Peter Jackson film when they murdered the mum who they felt threatened their friendship. In 1990, Checkpoint Charlie was dismantled in Berlin. In 2009, Kodak consigned Paul Simon's Kodachrome song to history by stopping the production of their film. 
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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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Happy birthday and many happy returns Kaspar Lundsby. It is Teachers' Day in El Salvador. In 1593, Ottoman forces were crushingly defeated by the Habsburgs at Sisak (now in Croatia), triggering the Long War. In 1807, The British warship HMS Leopard pursued and attacked the American frigate USS Chesapeake in the belief that the latter had deserters from the Royal Navy. In 1941, World War II: As over 4.5 million Axis troops began their invasion of the Soviet Union, the Lithuanian Activist Front started an uprising to liberate Lithuania from Soviet occupation and establish a new government. In 2009, Citing declining sales due to the emergence of digital photography, the Eastman Kodak Company announced that it would discontinue sales of the Kodachrome reversal film, concluding its 74-year run as a photography icon. Your day teaches much to those who would flog pictures that have died. Those who would run away will be soon under foot. Careful of unleashing your millions unwisely. Enjoy your day. You deserve it.
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
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Unrepresentative circus coming to the Senate

Piers Akerman – Sunday, June 22, 2014 (7:44am)

AT the end of this week, the current moderately sane Senate will sit for the last time.
When next it sits — next month — the Senate will be a ­circus unmatched in Australian parliamentary history.
Former PM Paul Keating’s oft-quoted observation that it was “unrepresentative swill” will be more than justified.
This situation has been created by the rise of minor and micro parties achieving some success through the clever ­manipulation of preferences.
Thus we see individuals with little or negligible popular support taking senate seats on the basis of preference deals brokered between parties with no shared values.
While the major parties will usher in a few new senators — some smart, some not so bright — the loud-mouthed Queensland self-promoter Clive Palmer will be welcoming his team of three Palmer United Party senators, led by former rugby league player Glenn Lazarus.
Palmer, who can occasionally be viewed slumped in the Lower House, will call the shots for fellow Queenslander Lazarus, Western Australian Zhenya (Dio) Wang and Tasmanian Jacqui Lambie, and, at the moment, anyway, Motoring Enthusiasts party senator Ricky Muir. Lazarus, whom Palmer nominated as PUP’s leader in the Senate may actually say something of substance when he takes his seat, but so far he has been silent about PUP and its intentions.
Wang has said he agrees with everything Palmer says (much like Opposition leader Bill Shorten rushed to agree with everything Julia Gillard said, even when he didn’t know what she said) and Lambie has said too much already, revealing a profound ignorance of the topics she has tackled.
Veteran broadcaster Mike Willesee needed no tricks to persuade the PUPs to show how ill-equipped they are for parliamentary office when he interviewed them recently.
Ringmaster Palmer has barely been unable to keep his clowns in order to date, and the odds are that whatever instructions he can give while he is ­recumbent in the House will doubtless be poorly understood by the time they reach his minions in the Senate.
The government has given the Leader of the House Christopher Pyne and Senate Leader Eric Abetz charge of all the cross-benchers but they do not appear at all minded to make special efforts to peel the PUPpies from Clive’s kennel.
The government seems to be prepared to wait until they stray of their own volition — certainly none of the PUPpies has shown the confidence to speak with the government unless Palmer is present.
Lazarus and Wang will probably stay close to Palmer as they have shown no independence of thought so far.
Lambie, a former army corporal who has variously worked for Labor and been a member of the Liberal Party, is at best a loose cannon. She could go anywhere.
Palmer, possibly the least politic individual to self-finance a party into parliament, demonstrated his knuckle-headedness on his ­arrival in Canberra by ­demanding (with threats) the government give party status to his lacklustre band and the extra staff that groups which qualify for party status are ­eligible for, even though PUP did not have sufficient elected members (five) to meet the House rules.
If the extra staff are needed for PUP, and quite obviously, the PUPpies have shown they aren’t up to the task of understanding the processes government without assistance, Palmer might have inveigled Muir into dumping his handful of Motoring Enthusiasts and joining the PUP litter, giving them the critical mass needed to get extra staffers.
Had Palmer not been so brash, it is possible the government may have spoken quietly to independent senator Nick Xenophon and DLP senator John Madigan and brought about some staffing changes.
Having publicly broadcast his ­demand, Palmer ensured that no party — and certainly not the government — would permit itself to be seen breaching the rules to accommodate his bullying demands in return for some legislative trade-offs.
The government will be able to work more coherently with Family First’s senator-elect Bob Day and incoming independent David Leyon-hjelm as they are patently better equipped intellectually for the demands of office.
The Greens, who hope to win some support from Muir, at least, are still fighting internal battles.
Greens Leader Christine Milne was able to keep the simmering challenge from Melbourne MP Adam Bandt at bay in the aftermath of the lift in support at the disputed WA senate election, but Bandt supporters are now saying that boost was largely a protest vote and not reflective of any personal support for Milne.
Whether any of the PUP senators are capable of meeting the demands of the six-year senate term is another consideration.
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DEATH TO DEMOCRACY

Tim Blair – Sunday, June 22, 2014 (4:35am)

“What about truth?” asks the Sydney Morning Herald‘s Elizabeth Farrelly. “What about climate change?” And then, naturally, she calls for the destruction of democracy: 
We can’t wait for governments to make this call. It’s time to act. A people’s revolution is required. Democracy is failing us. So far, smugness and stupidity seem a more likely sinkhole for the democratic experiment than the bloodshed and tyranny that George Washington predicted, but if climate change really gets going it could still come to that. Democratic governments are abject moral cowards. 
These youthful climate activists are on your side, Elizabeth:

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And here’s another batch of anti-democracy enthusiasts, wearing some form of protective shield against dangerous global warming:

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Warmies and other fundamentalists have a long anti-democratic tradition. Meanwhile, everything’s going plumb loco in Age columnist Suzy Freeman-Greene’s garden
It’s June but my backyard plum tree sprouts blossom while wearing a mantle of yet-to-fall leaves. Basil – a summer herb – is only just dying off in the tardy cold. Spring bulbs started coming up in a neighbour’s garden in May. 
Why, it’s total anarchy! There are blossoms, people! And BULBS! 
The weather’s changing and we monitor it furiously on phones and websites. 
Of course you do. You live in Melbourne
Does this checking of hourly temperatures and rain forecasts offer a semblance of control when so much seems out of our hands? 
Suzy must be nearly 50 by now and still hasn’t worked out that the weather is beyond human control. 
If we’re unsettled, consider the animals and plants. In southern Queensland, more than 45,000 flying foxes dropped dead on one mega hot day this year. They fell from the sky, little corpses piling up by the thousands. 
It’s a well-known fact that bats can’t take the heat. Keep on hyperventilating, Suzy: 
In Queensland’s wet tropics, birds and possums are moving higher up the mountains in search of cooler air. Eventually, there’ll be nowhere left to go. 
Try Melbourne! There are plenty of bulbs and blossoms to eat, all year round. A final climate horror indicator from Freeman-Greene: 
Just last week, it was reported that rising sea levels have dislodged the remains of 26 Japanese World War II soldiers from their graves on the Marshall Islands. 
According to a local, the dislodged corpses were due to king tides eroding a mass grave on the beach. Still, for safety’s sake, let’s follow Elizabeth’s advice and ban democracy. Bulbs and bones are a bad combination.
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BAD HAIR DAY

Tim Blair – Sunday, June 22, 2014 (12:52am)

Former first hairdresser Tim Mathieson threatens Victorian Premier Denis Napthine with legal action: 
The tirade, obtained by The Sunday Telegraph, was recorded after Mr Mathieson called the Premier’s Warrnambool electorate office after hours and got the answerphone.
In a 32-second message, Mr Mathieson complains the Premier, who worked as a veterinarian before entering politics, had mentioned him in Parliament in connection with rogue MP Geoff Shaw’s misuse of his taxpayer-funded car. 

“Of course you’re busy – because you’ve been bullshitting all day in Parliament,” Mr Mathieson said. “So, if he mentions the Prime Minister’s partner one more time, one more time, there will be a legal action against Denis The Vet.
“You hear me? One more time against the ex-Prime Minister’s partner there will be a lawsuit against him so long – I am not, I am not, anything to do with Geoff Shaw, in any way shape or form. So, if he mentions me one more time, I am telling you right now. OK? That’s it. Bang!” 
Some background to this dispute: 
Three years ago, Ms Gillard wrote a personal cheque for $4243 to repay the entitlements after Mr Mathieson used the Prime Minister’s taxpayer-funded car to sell shampoo and hair products.
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The Bolt Report today, June 22

Andrew Bolt June 22 2014 (6:41am)

On Channel 10 at 10am and 4pm…
A video warning from Iraq, where Australian jihadists now fight.
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison on boats and immigration in the age of terror.
The panel: Janet Albrechtsen and former Labor advisor Bruce Hawker, made a scapegoat by a Labor report on the 2013 election.
NewsWatch: Sharri Markson - on Clinton, Palmer and a reporter who wore a bottle of beer.
The videos of the shows appear here.
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Gillard whites out black history to claim a first

Andrew Bolt June 22 2014 (6:33am)

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Julia Gillard tells the US audience of the Diane Rehm Show a porky:

GILLARD11:40:36 Well, I’m happy to report that there has been some progress on that issue. And I can say one of the things that I did in my time as prime minister was ensure that my political party selected for our Senate an indigenous woman, Nova Peris, who now serves in the Senate. And she’s the first indigenous Australian to be a federal parliamentarian. 
So what was Senator Neville Bonner? An Eskimo?
And Ken Wyatt, then?
Seems Gillard can’t see Aboriginal politicians if they’re Liberals.

(Thanks to reader Gab.)
UPDATE
Reader Jim (with readers Warwick, Cal J and others):
And what about Aden Ridgeway ? 
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Tim Mathieson goes “bang”

Andrew Bolt June 22 2014 (5:58am)

A threat from the former First Bloke:
Tim Mathieson has threatened Victorian Premier Denis Napthine with legal action in a furious phone message that ends with him saying “Bang!” ...

In a 32-second message, Mr Mathieson complains the Premier, who worked as a veterinarian before entering politics, had mentioned him in Parliament in connection with rogue MP Geoff Shaw’s misuse of his taxpayer-funded car.
“Of course you’re busy ­because you’ve been bullshitting all day in Parliament,’’ Mr Mathieson said. “So, if he mentions the Prime Minister’s partner one more time, one more time, there will be a legal action against Denis The Vet.
“You hear me? One more time against the ex-Prime Minister’s partner there will be a lawsuit against him so long — I am not, I am not, anything to do with Geoff Shaw, in any way shape or form. So, if he mentions me one more time, I am telling you right now. OK? That’s it. Bang !”
Really, what a classy couple we once had in the Lodge.
So what’s Mathieson’s objection? Is the following false?
Three years ago, Ms Gillard wrote a personal cheque for $4243 to repay the entitlements after Mr Mathieson used the Prime Minister’s taxpayer-funded car to sell shampoo and hair products.
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New green apocalypse sought

Andrew Bolt June 22 2014 (5:52am)

What could possibly be worse than the end of humanity on a superheated planet? Or is The Age subtly indicating that its deserting a sinking ship to find a new green crisis?
Something more sinister than climate change stalks the human future – and it is high time we gave it the same attention. Few people have much idea of the scale of the universal chemical deluge to which we are now subject, daily, and of the growing peril which we – and all our descendants – face.
Why are greens so addicted to apocalypses? 
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Mike Carlton and the fools who know no history

Andrew Bolt June 22 2014 (5:33am)

Sydney Morning Herald columnist Mike Carlton fancies himself as a bit of an historian:
We saw in Vietnam that democracy cannot be imposed at gunpoint. Wilfully blind to the errors of history, the fools repeat them.
Some countries made democratic “at gunpoint”:
Japan after World War II
Germany after World War II
Italy after World War II
South Korea after the Korean War
Grenada after the 1983 US invasion.
Afghanistan after the 2001 US invasion.
Iraq (imperfectly) after the 2003 invasion.
Panama after the 1989 US invasion.
East Timor after the Australian intervention. 
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Fairfax columnists demand overthrow of democracy to stop bulbs sprouting

Andrew Bolt June 22 2014 (5:24am)

One Fairfax columnist panics that global warming is causing the neighbor’s bulbs to rise. Another frets that the crisis is so terrible that “democracy is failing us” and “a people’s revolution is required”.
Both are women, incidentally, which doesn’t help address the stereotype.
Tim Blair does some fisking.
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Not the way for Labor to show it can now be trusted to stop the boats

Andrew Bolt June 22 2014 (5:13am)

Not true, and I wouldn’t trust the assurances of a party with its record of dud predictions:
Processing asylum seekers who are already in Australia won’t result in a resurgence of people smuggling boat arrivals, the federal opposition says...
“This decision has no bearing on whether or not we will see asylum seeker vessels coming to Australia,” [Opposition immigration spokesman Richard] Marles told reporters on Saturday.
“Whatever you do in relation to the people who are already here can be neither a deterrence or incentive.”
So potential boat people waiting in Indonesia won’t be encouraged to see those who before be accepted as refugees?
Really? 
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Abbott such a subtle sexist that he actually listens more to women

Andrew Bolt June 22 2014 (4:59am)

Nothing subtle, though, about Sue Boyce’s treachery or unfairness:
Prime Minister Tony Abbott is ‘’a sexist’’ and the Coalition has been ‘’dog whistling’’ with its asylum seeker policies, says retiring Liberal senator Sue Boyce in an extraordinary exit interview.
Reflecting on her career in Parliament - she retires at the end of June - Senator Boyce said she thought Julia Gillard’s famous misogyny speech was ‘’powerful’’ and, for Ms Gillard’s purposes, ‘’a brilliant speech’’. But she thought the former prime minister had used the wrong word to describe Mr Abbott.
‘’I think it would have been more accurate if she had called him a sexist,’’ she said.
But then again:
‘’But singling [Mr Abbott] out as a sexist was not reasonable either,’’ she added, saying the Prime Minister was one of many ‘’subtle’’ sexists in federal Parliament.
And even that can’t be backed up:
Senator Boyce did not offer examples for Mr Abbott’s alleged sexism and conceded she had found the Prime Minister more willing to listen to the views of women than many of her other male colleagues.
Yes, Abbott’s sexism is so subtle that Boyce can’t give a single example of it. In fact, it’s so subtle that Abbott actually appears more women-friendly than most.
And damn that cunning Abbott for being so subtle a sexist that he puts out such women-friendly policies:
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Sue Boyce really should apologise for this stupid smear.  
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=== Posts from last year ===
4 her, so she can see how I see her




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Frontier Life in the West

http://independentfilmnewsandmedia.com/frontier-life-west/

Between 1887 and 1892, John C.H. Grabill sent 188 photographs to the Library of Congress for copyright protection. Grabill is known as a western photographer, documenting many aspects of frontier life — hunting, mining, western town landscapes and white settlers’ relationships with Native Americans.
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What would you do to describe someone who just robbed you? You may describe the size of the person, the color of their skin, their voice, or any other definitive features.
Ok, now what would you do to describe someone who just robbed you while you were wearing a blindfold? “Uhh. Its voice was deeper than your average person, and it’s skin was not that soft?”
Well, that is exactly what the New York City Council is asking the NYPD to do if the world’s most shortsighted bill in recent memory passes. And rest assured, the NYPD Captains union is pissed about it. Duh.
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Frozen Soap Bubble!
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LABOR’S CUTS TO AUSTRALIAN CUSTOMS SERVICE

In addition to dismantling Australia’s border protection, the Rudd and Gillard Labor governments have also systematically dismantled the capabilities of Australia’s Customs Department, by cutting funding in every budget since coming to office – a total $125.5 million and 870 staff cut.

Despite a growing workload - and with guns, illegal drugs and contraband flowing into the county, there are now over 15% less Customs personnel than in 2007 when Labor took office.

And under the Howard Government, 60% of air cargo consignments were inspected, but now, following Labor's cuts, less than 9% of air cargo undergoes inspections.

This opens up holes in the net, with the only result that criminals are more likely to be successful in smuggling guns & drugs into Australia.

Further, these drastic cuts to our nations Customs resources have hindered the agency’s ability to effectively do its job and increased their vulnerability to infiltration from organised crime.

Just another reason, why Labor MUST be voted out office at the coming election - no matter whom Labor put up as leader.

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Heracleion, a much prosperous and a known city had been engulfed underwater 1500 years ago. This grand city had also been mentioned by the Greek writer Herodotus, the 5th-century BC historian. He had told a wonderful tale of Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in the world, who had launched a thousand ships, travelled to Heracleion, then a port of ‘great wealth’, with her glamorous Trojan lover, Paris. 
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If you were the innkeeper, would you have welcomed Mary and Joseph?
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"A line is a dot that went for a walk."
- Paul Klee
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Diego Maradona
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Events[edit]

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Holidays and observances[edit]

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“Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.”Psalm 91:1 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"Thou art fairer than the children of men."
Psalm 45:2
The entire person of Jesus is but as one gem, and his life is all along but one impression of the seal. He is altogether complete; not only in his several parts, but as a gracious all-glorious whole. His character is not a mass of fair colours mixed confusedly, nor a heap of precious stones laid carelessly one upon another; he is a picture of beauty and a breastplate of glory. In him, all the "things of good repute" are in their proper places, and assist in adorning each other. Not one feature in his glorious person attracts attention at the expense of others; but he is perfectly and altogether lovely.
Oh, Jesus! thy power, thy grace, thy justice, thy tenderness, thy truth, thy majesty, and thine immutability make up such a man, or rather such a God-man, as neither heaven nor earth hath seen elsewhere. Thy infancy, thy eternity, thy sufferings, thy triumphs, thy death, and thine immortality, are all woven in one gorgeous tapestry, without seam or rent. Thou art music without discord; thou art many, and yet not divided; thou art all things, and yet not diverse. As all the colours blend into one resplendent rainbow, so all the glories of heaven and earth meet in thee, and unite so wondrously, that there is none like thee in all things; nay, if all the virtues of the most excellent were bound in one bundle, they could not rival thee, thou mirror of all perfection. Thou hast been anointed with the holy oil of myrrh and cassia, which thy God hath reserved for thee alone; and as for thy fragrance, it is as the holy perfume, the like of which none other can ever mingle, even with the art of the apothecary; each spice is fragrant, but the compound is divine.
"Oh, sacred symmetry! oh, rare connection
Of many perfects, to make one perfection!
Oh, heavenly music, where all parts do meet
In one sweet strain, to make one perfect sweet!"

Evening

"The foundation of God standeth sure."
2 Timothy 2:19
The foundation upon which our faith rests is this, that "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." The great fact on which genuine faith relies is, that "the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us," and that "Christ also hath suffered for sin, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God"; "Who himself bare our sins in his own body on the tree"; "For the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed." In one word, the great pillar of the Christian's hope is substitution. The vicarious sacrifice of Christ for the guilty, Christ being made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, Christ offering up a true and proper expiatory and substitutionary sacrifice in the room, place, and stead of as many as the Father gave him, who are known to God by name, and are recognized in their own hearts by their trusting in Jesus--this is the cardinal fact of the gospel. If this foundation were removed, what could we do? But it standeth firm as the throne of God. We know it; we rest on it; we rejoice in it; and our delight is to hold it, to meditate upon it, and to proclaim it, while we desire to be actuated and moved by gratitude for it in every part of our life and conversation. In these days a direct attack is made upon the doctrine of the atonement. Men cannot bear substitution. They gnash their teeth at the thought of the Lamb of God bearing the sin of man. But we, who know by experience the preciousness of this truth, will proclaim it in defiance of them confidently and unceasingly. We will neither dilute it nor change it, nor fritter it away in any shape or fashion. It shall still be Christ, a positive substitute, bearing human guilt and suffering in the stead of men. We cannot, dare not, give it up, for it is our life, and despite every controversy we feel that "Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure."
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Today's reading: Esther 3-5, Acts 5:22-42 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Esther 3-5

Haman's Plot to Destroy the Jews
1 After these events, King Xerxes honored Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, elevating him and giving him a seat of honor higher than that of all the other nobles. 2 All the royal officials at the king's gate knelt down and paid honor to Haman, for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor.
3 Then the royal officials at the king's gate asked Mordecai, "Why do you disobey the king's command?" 4 Day after day they spoke to him but he refused to comply. Therefore they told Haman about it to see whether Mordecai's behavior would be tolerated, for he had told them he was a Jew....

Today's New Testament reading: Acts 5:22-42

22 But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they went back and reported, 23 "We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside." 24 On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were at a loss, wondering what this might lead to.
25 Then someone came and said, "Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people." 26 At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force, because they feared that the people would stone them....
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Aristarchus

[Ărĭstär'chus] - the best rulerA Macedonian of Thessalonica and one of Paul's travel-companions. This convert from Judaism is spoken of as Paul's "fellow-prisoner," implying imprisonment for the Gospel's sake (Acts 19:29; 20:4; 27:2; Col. 4:10; Philem. 24).
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