Thursday, October 16, 2014

Thu Oct 16th Todays News

No Bolt Report on Sunday because of racing. Disappointing, but the great man deserves the occasional day off.
The Ebola message does not match precautions in the US. Aid workers clocking off shifts in Africa and returning to the US along with tourists was always going to be a spread vector. The US was aware of the issue before a victim left Africa, and fell sick in Texas. He has died, and now two of his nurses have been infected. One hopes that both nurses survive unharmed. But, who else has been infected? How? There have been several protocol failures. Luckily, the disease relies on intimate contact through body fluid to be contracted, it is not airborne. Otherwise more would be infected. Imagine if jihadi could weaponise it?

 Jihadi dreams
It is wonderful Obama has decided to fight ISIL and not merely aid them. But it isn't enough to drop bombs on civilians to win a war. There will need to be people on the ground. There needs to be commitment to win. Terrorists claim to be Islamic but do things that are not Koranic .. like cross dressing, killing Muslims, desecrating holy sites and bringing Islam into disrepute. Also, reprehensibly, assigning to Allah works of the devil. They aren't the only terrorists .. look at Ukraine .. North Korea .. China .. Cuba .. Venezuela .. Argentina .. Zimbabwe .. But they have an international fan club and patronage from the UN and press. It turns out Bush was right on WMD and the press have suppressed the fact to support Democrats. And now ISIL have access to the warheads that were made, in some cases, by US contractors. A pranked hospital patient, male, woke up to find he was wearing panties .. one thought that only happened to jihadi. Jihadi are known to wear women's clothes shortly before engaging in terrorist hits. 

ABC discovers a new left wing
ABC bias encompasses abusing the uniform of Australia's Defence force. Patriotism is racism? ABC defames pre election Victorian government over porn ring allegation. A disgruntled former adviser to Baillieu, who was dismissed when Napthine became Premier, has made his claims now, for the first time, shortly before an election. His claims seem unlikely, but that will still excite the ABC. 7:30 Report acknowledges criminal infiltration of CFMEU after Gillard weakened protections with Fair Work. The program details how bikie gangs have gotten involved. Slush funds would be excellent at laundering drug money. An ALP senator uses Pravda to abuse PM Mr Abbott, no reason why they would, but they have. 

Mixed issues
Australia's National Gallery changes direction by becoming competent, hiring a good person after their stolen Indian artefact debacle. The embarrassing Richard Flanagan has won a literary prize and made a statement that he was embarrassed to be Australian because the PM said coal was an efficient power source. If Richard Flanagan doesn't love it here, he can leave. Palmer drops defamation claim. New Deputy Premier for NSW is a member with only six months cabinet experience. He is a former policeman with some twenty two years of experience. He has a good team and should do a great job. Hostage siege in brothel in NSW had three men holding two other men and two women. Channel Nine obscured the face of one of the brothel workers, but the ABC did not. Pistorius might have got more time if he had shot an intruder, the amount of time he serves is not yet known, but someone got eight years for shooting an intruder in Melbourne, recently. 

from 2013
Intense ALP infighting continues. Roxon hits Rudd. She confesses that an imaginary unfair dismissal case could be made for him because he wasn't informed how he was incompetent. Says loads about ALP dismissal laws foisted on everyone else. ALP needs affirmative action, embracing non union officials. McKew hits Rudd. McKew criticises Rudd after an election she was silent on his faults. 

One former union official, Michael Williamson admits he stole millions from poor workers and will not pay it back. He was the ideal ALP President. A foil, while fellow stablemate Craig Thomson held back good government from being achieved. Some say Williamson has paid a high price already. But the betrayal of HSU members alone demands a custodial sentence. Who will hold union officials to account? Abbott has justifiable expenses, but ABC challenges Abbott when it had given a free pass to Williamson and gives free passes to Slipper. 

Sydney Morning Herald fails to fact check its articles. ABC caught in a fact check fail. Bolt criticises Abbott for not being quick enough .. a bit like saying a prize student could achieve more. Julian Burnside shows the same balance lacking in the SMH. Geoff Shaw is assaulted by leftwing extremists. Arctic Ice recovers .. rapidly. Miranda Devine on 2GB radio 4pm daily. Obama and his fans are blaming the GOP for wanting to save money. 
All the details and links are in this article. However, my chief concern at the moment is to do with the issue of raw sewage which came through my unit starting the evening of Monday Oct 7th, a public holiday. I contacted strata straight away and they gave me a number for a plumber, who delayed until Tuesday morning from attending because Monday was a public holiday. I contacted strata at 8:43 in the evening. I explained the blockage, minor at the time, seemed connected to my upstair neighbours. I was assured that was not possible. I bucketed about 50 litres of sewage from my bathroom floor that evening. I went to bed at 12 pm and got up at 6am. By then, the sewage had filled the toilet, vanity, shower and bath tub, and was through the main hall and into the main living area and kitchen. I mopped and bucketed the increasing mess until 7am, called the plumber, and was told plumber would arrive soon. Plumber came at 7:30am. Plumber lifted toilet from mains and tried to use snake to get blockage. I showed plumber where strata pipes were, and he left for strata secretary to get keys. Plumber decides pipes are too rusty to access and tries to access block with snake through bathroom drain. He tells me the snake isn't sufficient at 9:30 and promises to return in 2 hours with the right equipment. I call him at 12:30 in the afternoon and he tells me a "boy drove of with his truck" so he was doing other work elsewhere until he could attend the block with the right equipment. He returns with a truck by 15:30 By this time, I have contacted home contents insurance and an assessor is on hand. The assessor declares my place uninhabitable. I explain I am staying. That is my right. Cleaners arrive and suction off sewage and spray anti biotic anti fungal protection. Then plumbers decide at 17:30 they can't get the blockage that night and will look again in the morning. Fecal matter had come through my unit with recognisable food stuffs processed from the guts of my celebrating neighbours while the plumber was gone in the morning .. cleaners took pity on me and sandbagged the bathroom and left a water vacuum behind overnight when they left at 9:30 pm. I filled the water vacuum by 10:30 pm. Sandbags were breached by 11:30 pm. I hid in my room. Plumber arrived morning two at 8:30 am without truck. They spent an hour outside with old pipes. By 10 am they claimed they had fixed the block without once entering my unit. The sandbags had prevented more fecal matter getting through the unit in its raw form, but the yellow water had flooded entire unit except laundry. Cleaning crew came again, cut up carpet sprayed anti biotic/fungal protection and organised a time to extract all affected furniture. This afternoon they completed their task, leaving my place a concrete, empty shell. But strata had not yet called Strata insurance. Strata insurance claim they won't be able to look at the empty shell until Thursday 24th October, seventeen days after my first call. sixteen days after my place was declared uninhabitable. 

People are willing to help me, but some aren't. If my place had burned down or if I had tripped in a supermarket, this might be national news .. but local news won't go near it. I am desperate. Days from being forced to sell my home .. and I have lost everything but internet access and tv. My tax papers are gone. Everything I've collected over 46 years .. gone. 
===
This column welcomes feedback and criticism. The column is not made up but based on the days events and articles which are then placed in the feed. So they may not have an apparent cohesion they would have had were they made up.
===
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

Or the US President at
https://www.change.org/p/barack-obama-change-this-injustice#
or
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/change-injustice-faced-david-daniel-ball-after-he-reported-bungled-pedophile-investigation-and/b8mxPWtJ or http://wh.gov/ilXYR

Douglas Sutherland-Bruce via David Daniel Ball
Mr Ball, I will not sign your petition as it will do no good, but I will share your message and ask as many of friends who read it, to share it also. Let us see if we cannot use the power of the internet to spread the word of these infamous killings. As a father and a former soldier, I cannot, could not, justify ignoring this appalling action by the perpetrators, whoever they may; I thank you Douglas. You are wrong about the petition. Signing it is as worthless and meaningless an act as voting. A stand up guy would know that. - ed

Lorraine Allen Hider I signed the petition ages ago David, with pleasure, nobody knows what it's like until they've been there. Keep heart David take care.

I have begun a bulletin board (http://theconservativevoice.freeforums.net) which will allow greater latitude for members to post and interact. It is not subject to FB policy and so greater range is allowed in posts. Also there are private members rooms in which nothing is censored, except abuse. All welcome, registration is free.
===

Happy birthday and many happy returns to those born on this day, across the years, including
1396 – William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, English admiral (d. 1450)
1758 – Noah Webster, American lexicographer and author (d. 1843)
1854 – Oscar Wilde, Irish author, poet, and playwright (d. 1900)
1884 – Rembrandt Bugatti, Italian sculptor (d. 1916)
1886 – David Ben-Gurion, Israeli politician, 1st Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1973)
1888 – Eugene O'Neill, American playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1953)
1890 – Michael Collins, Irish politician (d. 1922)
1922 – Max Bygraves, English actor and singer (d. 2012)
1925 – Angela Lansbury, English-American actress and singer
1927 – Günter Grass, German author, poet, and illustrator, Nobel Prize laureate
1958 – Tim Robbins, American actor, director, and screenwriter
2003 – Princess Kritika of Nepal
Walt Disney
Avitus is wasted and you are master. Fire has cleansed. You provide amusement. A walk of a thousand miles begins with a single 'hoy.' You have passed the Bill. Now, party. 
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
===
2014
===

The ebola message doesn’t match these precautions

Andrew Bolt October 16 2014 (9:53am)

I don’t trust the authorities’ claims that it is virtually impossible to contract ebola through casual contact when we see the houses of patients in the West being sprayed and nurses contracting the disease even after taking elaborate precautions.
And this doesn’t help at all:
Dr. Tom Frieden, director for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said during a telephone press briefing Wednesday that you cannot get Ebola by sitting next to someone on a bus, but that infected or exposed persons should not ride public transportation because they could transmit the disease to someone else.
Given that, this strikes me as irresponsible grandstanding by the Greens and Labor:
Labor will increase pressure on the Abbott government to do more to help fight the Ebola outbreak in west Africa by publicly calling for the government to deploy medical assistance teams.
Labor’s deputy leader and foreign affairs spokeswoman, Tanya Plibersek, and health spokeswoman Catherine King will write to Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop and Health Minister Peter Dutton on Thursday to request they immediately make arrangements to deploy Australian personnel to the region…
Mr Abbott told reporters on Sunday his government would not send doctors and nurses to west Africa until it could be “absolutely confident that all of the risks are being properly managed”, adding it would be “irresponsible” for the government to send personnel to the region at this time.
Ms Bishop has previously cited the government’s inability to safely evacuate any Australian personnel who might be infected with the virus in west Africa.
And when those aid workers come home? Pray that our own precautions are far more professional that those taken so far by the Obama Administration:
US authorities are in a desperate race to track down 131 passengers of a domestic flight after it emerged that a Texas nurse with the Ebola virus flew across the Midwest a day before she was diagnosed…
Amber Joy Vinson, 29, was actively engaged in caring for Thomas Eric Duncan in the days before his death on October 8. Records show she inserted catheters, drew blood, and dealt with Mr Duncan’s body fluids. Kent State University in Ohio, where three of Ms Vinson’s relatives work, confirmed she was the latest patient on Wednesday…
The news came as the largest nurses’ union said nurses treating Mr Duncan worked for days without proper protective gear… Nurses were forced to use medical tape to secure openings in their flimsy garments, worried that their necks and heads were exposed as they cared for Mr Duncan, who had diarrhoea and projectile vomiting, said Deborah Burger of National Nurses United.
===

ABC - making mock of uniforms that guard them while Scott sleeps

Andrew Bolt October 16 2014 (9:47am)

The ABC isn’t biased at all. Of course not! ABC boss Mark Scott insists it isn’t biased, and are you going to believe him or your lying ears and eyes?

The Chaser “boys” last night decided to mock the war on the Islamist terrorists who have slaughtered thousands of people, beheaded journalists and aid workers, enslaved and raped women, wiped out non-Muslim Iraqis and taken over huge parts of Syria and Iraq.
So do they mock the Islamic State’s leaders - or Tony Abbott?
Do they mock Muslims - or Catholics, Jews and Buddhists?
Gutless wonders. 
===

Patriotism is the new racism of the scoundrels

Andrew Bolt October 16 2014 (8:53am)

image
PATRIOTISM has been declared racist. Just when we must insist Australia is worth defending, we’re told only scum would say so. 

Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt was outraged this week that two Woolworths outlets sold singlets printed with the Australian flag and “If you don’t love it leave”.
Bandt reposted a tweet blasting these “racist singlets”, fanning the fury of the Twitter Left.
Woolworths took instant fright, declaring the patriotic slogan “totally unacceptable” and promising to never again sell such a wicked thing.
image
But exactly how is the singlet racist? Which “race” does it attack? Which “race” does Bandt think hates Australia so much that they are the obvious target?
No, the haters of the singlet are not trying to protect some Australia-hating “race” they cannot even identify and would insult if they tried.
(Read full article here.) 
===

Vaughan to the NGA

Andrew Bolt October 16 2014 (8:33am)

Excellent, although “safe” is a bit of a put-down:
A SAFE, scholarly museum veteran will take on the task of restoring the reputation of the National Gallery of Australia, in the wake of the Dancing Shiva looted antiquities scandal. 

More than six weeks after he was recommended by the selection panel, art historian and former National Gallery of Victoria director Gerard Vaughan will this morning be announced as the fifth director of the nation’s temple of high art, succeeding Ron Radford who departed two weeks ago after 12 years in charge.
This was a major achievement of Vaughan’s time in Melbourne, leaving the city with a brilliant asset:
From his appointment as Director in 1999, Gerard provided dynamic leadership in the face of extraordinary challenges. The first was overseeing the redevelopment of the NGV on two separate sites (The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia at Federation Square and NGV International on St Kida Road) and raising the significant funds needed for this through a corporate and donors program. This was achieved through launching the Gallery Campaign in 2000, which not only exceeded its target but also identified a new group of important Gallery supporters. This campaign was the most successful of its kind in the history of Australian visual arts.
And theJoseph Brown wing of the Ian Potter Centre particularly is terrific:
He was particularly proud to have raised $120 million during the financial crisis, as well as negotiating the gift of Joseph Brown’s remarkable collection in 2004 and buying a $5.2m Correggio with Andrew Sisson’s money.
===

MP porn ring? Seriously? In the age of the Internet? UPDATE: Faine frames Guy

Andrew Bolt October 16 2014 (8:22am)

I find it highly improbable that MPs traipse over to a ministerial adviser to borrow his porn - allegedly including even animal porn - and put their future in his hands:
A SACKED senior state government adviser is set to tell a court he ran a pornographic ring that lent sleazy movies to Coalition MPs and advisers from inside his office at 1 Treasury Place. 

An adviser to former premier Ted Baillieu, Don Coulson, who was sacked in March last year, days after Premier Denis Napthine took over, is suing for wrongful dismissal.
He is going to the County Court seeking $67,000 and costs in redundancy payments he claims that the Government owes him.
In response, the Government has countersued, claiming that Mr Coulson must return $30,000 in severance pay because he had pornography in his office while working for Mr Baillieu…
It says it can be inferred that he accessed pornography there because in 2001 Mr Coulson “was subject to disciplinary action for downloading a large amount of pornography during work hours and using the resources of his public service employer’’.
But Mr Coulson has told the Herald Sun ... the only material he would have had in his office were memory sticks made available for collection by MPs and advisers to view on their private computers without breaking government IT rules…
“But I believe at least one minister, and MPs, were ­accessing this material....”

A government source has told the Herald Sun material found in Mr Coulson’s office included animal pornography.
This response suggests a more likely theory:

Government spokesman said in response in a statement last night: “This is the first time such allegations have been made, despite a number of meetings between the disgruntled former employee, his legal representatives and the legal representatives of the state. Serious questions have to be asked as to the timing of the allegations made by the individual concerned.”
UPDATE
Naturally, ABC presenter Jon Faine treats the allegations as fact, insisting to Minister Matthew Guy that there was in fact a porn ring, and the Liberals should have contacted the police over a crime that in fact he cannot identify when challenged.
Faine later reads out a text message from a listener claiming Guy thought there was nothing wrong with a Premier’s staffer distributing porn in a government office. Faine says hundreds more texts make the same point, which Faine implies he supports, even though Guy in fact made no such claim at all and the Government is actually counter-suing Colson for exactly that breach of his role. What Faine suggests is actually false.
The ABC’s bias is unrelenting, brazen and in breach of the ABC’s charter, making ABC boss Mark Scott’s denials seem much worse than a case of blindness. It should worry the Liberals that they go to a state election with the ABC’s morning program effectively siding with Labor and the Greens.
Why is this bias not addressed by the ABC board and the government? 
===

But I’m ashamed Richard Flanagan is Australian

Andrew Bolt October 16 2014 (8:15am)

Global warming - dud predictions

FOR once I agree with Richard Flanagan, the novelist muttering eco-pieties in his Tasmanian holdout. 

Flanagan won the Man Booker Prize this week and was asked — apparently being an expert — what he thought of Tony Abbott’s claim that “coal is good for humanity”. Groaned the guru: “To be frank, I’m ashamed to be Australian.”
Me, too. I am ashamed the PM needed to insist on something so obvious — that this cheap and reliable source of power literally brings light to the poor, plus jobs and freedom from backbreaking toil.
I’m ashamed we have so many “experts” who mock that truth.

And I’m also ashamed — well, maybe just ticked off — that Abbott didn’t dare complete his case by pointing out the global warming bandwagon just blew yet another tyre.
(Read full article here.)
UPDATE
Flanagan has a history of feeling ashamed - but not over the bizarre politics he’s shamefully peddled. 
===

The first war aim in Iraq must be: fight to win

Andrew Bolt October 16 2014 (7:40am)

One way or another the coalition, led by the weakest US president in a century, is going to have to step up this war and send in ground forces, even if those soldiers are called something else:

ISLAMIC State jihadists have made important advances in Iraq despite US-led air strikes, Washington’s envoy to the US-led coalition fighting the group warns. 

It was clear the IS group “has made substantial gains in Iraq” and it will take time to build up local forces that could defeat them in Syria and Iraq, John Allen, a retired four-star US general, told reporters.
The Iraqi government and Kurdish forces have halted or pushed back IS militants in some places, including around Mosul dam, but the group has “tactical momentum” in other areas, Mr Allen said.
UPDATE
Even more reason to smash and humiliate the Islamic State, and destroy this inspiration for louts in our own streets:

POLICE have launched an ­investigation into a graffiti ­attack at a Sydney school where vandals scrawled “ISIS R coming” and “ISIS beheads”. 

Teachers at East Hills Boys High School discovered the graffiti on four buildings and a fence yesterday morning and reported it to police.
It comes just weeks after the Australian Federal Police visited the school amid reports a student had travelled to Lebanon and was en route to join IS militants in Syria before he was stopped by his father…
Police attended the school yesterday to investigate the graffiti attack, which is ­believed to have included threats of “beheadings"…
A teacher from the school, who did not want to be identified, told 2GB radio yesterday afternoon he was concerned about the number of students at the school who were speaking openly about IS and voicing their support for the terrorist death cult. 
===

Labor Senator Sue Lines joins Putin in mocking Abbott for demanding answers on dead Australians

Andrew Bolt October 16 2014 (7:32am)

First Labor Senator Sue Lines made a liar of her leader by playing politics with national security, claiming the Abbott Government was just hyping up the Islamist scare to avoid talking about the Budget:
“It’s [the Government] hyping it up, it’s invented the term Team Australia - you’re either in the team or you’re out of the team,” she said.
“And it’s looking for opportunities in the media and elsewhere to try and scare the Australian public and to distract everyone from the budget.”
Now Lines - utterly without class or gravitas - sides with the Russian president who supplied the missile his rebels used to murder 38 Australians on MH17, mocking the Prime Minister trying to hold him to account:
image
The new Labor truly is the party of hate. Your security in their hands?
UPDATE
I suggest Lines look very carefully when Abbott meets Putin and learn a lesson about how to defy bullies, not side with them. 
===

Palmer the bully drops defamation claim. His claims not to be tested in court

Andrew Bolt October 16 2014 (7:01am)

Clive Palmer doesn’t seem to much confidence in his court actions these days, which is no surprise, given his recent record:

SELF-proclaimed billionaire and politician Clive Palmer has dropped his $1 million defamation claim against The Australian newspaper.
Mr Palmer, leader of the Palmer United Party, took the action over five articles that appeared in the newspaper last year by Brisbane-based journalist Hedley Thomas. The articles covered Mr Palmer’s business activities in the mining and tourism sectors, as well as his dealings with the Chinese government-owned mining giant Citic Pacific.
Mr Palmer told the ABC’s Lateline program that The Australian’s reporting about the matter was “an invention”.  But in August, Supreme Court judge David Boddice significantly narrowed the scope of Mr Palmer’s defamation action when he ruled that three of the five articles carried no imputations against Mr Palmer. Nine of the 10 imputations alleged by Mr Palmer were struck out by the court…
Mr Palmer confirmed he had dropped the action, saying a trial would have taken “too long”.
“Action against @australian dismissed by mutual consent. No order of costs. Trial would take too long. Rather spend time with Fairfax voters,” he tweeted.
(Thanks to readers WaG311, Peter of Bellevue Hill and The Village Idiot (Reformed).) 
===

Post by May Wa Leng.

===

Post by The Sydney Morning Herald - smh.com.au.

===

===

Post by Matt Granz.

===

Post by Joe Linus Music.

===

===

===

===

===

===

===

===

===

===

===

===

===

===

===

===

===

===

===

===

===

===

===

===

===

===

===

===

=== Posts from last year ===

Stripe Seekers! Where are Wally, Wenda and Odlaw?
===

===


http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/tony-abbott-loses-a-mentor-and-a-friend-with-the-death-of-father-emmet-costello/story-e6frg6nf-1226741045448
I'm a proud Christian, but agree with JFo .. conservatism is broad. Leftwing ideology very narrow. - ed
===

===

HISTORY IN THE HEADLINES: Last week, researchers announced that they have located living descendants of a prehistoric iceman discovered along the Italy-Austria border in 1991. Known as Ötzi, he is believed to have lived 5,300 years ago. The news of Ötzi’s living descendants is just the latest in a long of discoveries scientists have made regarding the mummy.http://histv.co/1cqnofD
===

===

Sarah Palin'
New Jersey, the eyes of America are on you tomorrow! 

Know anyone in NJ? Call them tonight and remind them to vote for conservative Steve Lonegan tomorrow. 

Don’t know anyone in NJ but still want to make calls? Click here to help out:
https://www.loneganforsenate.com/phonefromhome/

Live in NJ? Remember to vote tomorrow! If we turn out, we win! The stakes are too high to stay at home. Click here for polling hours and locations:
https://voter.njsvrs.com/PublicAccess/jsp/PollPlace/PollPlaceSearch.jsp

And for more reasons to support Steve Lonegan, please see this testifying video from Cory Booker's "neighbors": http://youtu.be/nycXW90H5zU

Let’s make history. Let’s elect Steve Lonegan to the U.S. Senate tomorrow!

===

Holly Sarah Nguyen
If you try to please everybody, life will be miserable. If it doesn't match what God has put in your heart, let it go in one ear and out the other.

===

Can it be more obvious? Thirteen Syrian rebel groups–including the most important in Aleppo and Damascus–demand an Islamist state in Syria and say they don’t care what the official rebel, U.S.-backed politicians say.
By the way, only one of these groups is an al-Qaida group, Jabhat al-Nusra. There is also the large Salafi Islamist group,Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiya. The others include the powerful Liwa al-Tawhid (Aleppo) and Liwa al-Islam. Both groups operated as part of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) umbrella.

===

With the Syrian thriller and its spin-off machinations keeping us at the edge of our seats, who had time to at all notice much less care about the volubility of Ramallah’s honchos?
Too much distracting din made it difficult to pay much mind to Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority cronies. But this didn’t keep them from babbling and what they revealed deserved our attention – even if the utterances in question weren’t the sort that the more politically correct in our midst prefer we dwell on.
===
““How great you are, Sovereign LORD! There is no one like you, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears.” 2 Samuel 7:22 NIV
===
Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening

Morning

"But who may abide the day of his coming?"
Malachi 3:2
His first coming was without external pomp or show of power, and yet in truth there were few who could abide its testing might. Herod and all Jerusalem with him were stirred at the news of the wondrous birth. Those who supposed themselves to be waiting for him, showed the fallacy of their professions by rejecting him when he came. His life on earth was a winnowing fan, which tried the great heap of religious profession, and few enough could abide the process. But what will his second advent be? What sinner can endure to think of it? "He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked." When in his humiliation he did but say to the soldiers, "I am he," they fell backward; what will be the terror of his enemies when he shall more fully reveal himself as the "I am?" His death shook earth and darkened heaven, what shall be the dreadful splendour of that day in which as the living Saviour, he shall summon the quick and dead before him? O that the terrors of the Lord would persuade men to forsake their sins and kiss the Son lest he be angry! Though a lamb, he is yet the lion of the tribe of Judah, rending the prey in pieces; and though he breaks not the bruised reed, yet will he break his enemies with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. None of his foes shall bear up before the tempest of his wrath, or hide themselves from the sweeping hail of his indignation; but his beloved blood washed people look for his appearing with joy, and hope to abide it without fear: to them he sits as a refiner even now, and when he has tried them they shall come forth as gold. Let us search ourselves this morning and make our calling and election sure, so that the coming of the Lord may cause no dark forebodings in our mind. O for grace to cast away all hypocrisy, and to be found of him sincere and without rebuke in the day of his appearing.

Evening

"But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck."
Exodus 34:20
Every firstborn creature must be the Lord's, but since the ass was unclean, it could not be presented in sacrifice. What then? Should it be allowed to go free from the universal law? By no means. God admits of no exceptions. The ass is his due, but he will not accept it; he will not abate the claim, but yet he cannot be pleased with the victim. No way of escape remained but redemption--the creature must be saved by the substitution of a lamb in its place; or if not redeemed, it must die. My soul, here is a lesson for thee. That unclean animal is thyself; thou art justly the property of the Lord who made thee and preserves thee, but thou art so sinful that God will not, cannot, accept thee; and it has come to this, the Lamb of God must stand in thy stead, or thou must die eternally. Let all the world know of thy gratitude to that spotless Lamb who has already bled for thee, and so redeemed thee from the fatal curse of the law. Must it not sometimes have been a question with the Israelite which should die, the ass or the lamb? Would not the good man pause to estimate and compare? Assuredly there was no comparison between the value of the soul of man and the life of the Lord Jesus, and yet the Lamb dies, and man the ass is spared. My soul, admire the boundless love of God to thee and others of the human race. Worms are bought with the blood of the Son of the Highest! Dust and ashes redeemed with a price far above silver and gold! What a doom had been mine had not plenteous redemption been found! The breaking of the neck of the ass was but a momentary penalty, but who shall measure the wrath to come to which no limit can be imagined? Inestimably dear is the glorious Lamb who has redeemed us from such a doom.
===

Today's reading: Isaiah 45-46, 1 Thessalonians 3 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Isaiah 45-46

1 “This is what the LORD says to his anointed,
to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of
to subdue nations before him
and to strip kings of their armor,
to open doors before him
so that gates will not be shut:
2 I will go before you
and will level the mountains;
I will break down gates of bronze
and cut through bars of iron.
3 I will give you hidden treasures,
riches stored in secret places,
so that you may know that I am the LORD,
the God of Israel, who summons you by name.
4 For the sake of Jacob my servant,
of Israel my chosen,
I summon you by name
and bestow on you a title of honor,
though you do not acknowledge me.
5 I am the LORD, and there is no other;
apart from me there is no God.
I will strengthen you,
though you have not acknowledged me,
6 so that from the rising of the sun
to the place of its setting
people may know there is none besides me.
I am the LORD, and there is no other.
7 I form the light and create darkness,
I bring prosperity and create disaster;
I, the LORD, do all these things....

Today's New Testament reading: 1 Thessalonians 3

1 So when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens. 2 We sent Timothy, who is our brother and co-worker in God’s service in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, 3so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. For you know quite well that we are destined for them. 4 In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted. And it turned out that way, as you well know. 5 For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter had tempted you and that our labors might have been in vain.
Timothy’s Encouraging Report
6 But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you. 7 Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith. 8 For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord. 9 How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you? 10 Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith....
===
at

No comments:

Post a Comment