Monday, March 31, 2014

Mon Mar 31st Todays News

For twenty two years I have been responsibly addressing an issue, and I cannot carry on. I am petitioning the NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell to remedy my distress. I leave it up to him if he chooses to address the issue. Regardless of your opinion of conservative government, the issue is pressing. Please sign my petition at http://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/nsw-premier-barry-o-farrell-remedy-the-persecution-of-dd-ball?

Putting religion aside, if indeed it involves religion, I don't understand why a 46 year old man would marry a 16 year old girl. The world view is completely different for both. The guy is probably particularly rich or immature or both. I get it that some women are forced into bondage, so maybe the girls hasn't much choice. But in this particular case, there was choice and in eight years, she gave him three children. She was 24 years old when he stabbed her repeatedly. He killed her. And then called emergency and said there was a problem with his wife. It is worse than Prince Charles and Diana. The older man chose a mate and then mistreated her. In Australia, one feels that such a situation would be treated fairly, and the man who committed such a crime would get murder. However, in Australia this happened, and the man was only convicted of a lesser charge of manslaughter. The judge accepted the defence that the man had been provoked by having his manhood questioned. If that is the case, perhaps a new charge can be brought against the man under 18c? Or does 18c mean that the woman could have been charged had she lived? Maybe I misunderstand 18c, but with due respect, he was provoked. Something happened. Surely a law which protects people should, um, protect people? Maybe he wasn't able to resort to 18c ("I'm suing you because you are provoking me") and just used the knife instead. So, what was the problem with the wife which required an emergency call? She would never again cook a meal or clean the dishes .. in his defence, she was 24 years old, and so not the same girl he married. Clearly someone does not understand what marriage is. There is no evidence he is gay. If he was a religious man, it would be good to hear his religious teachers speak up and denounce his actions.

There is a western history of women marrying young. Fausta, daughter of Emperor Maximian, was betrothed to Emperor Constantine age 4 in 293 AD. She married him on this day in 307 age 18 after he had divorced his first wife. He had her killed, smothered in a bath when she was 37 years old. The accusation is she had had an affair with a stepson. Maybe she had questioned Constantine's manhood? Even so, as a Christian, I will say Constantine was wrong to kill his wife. But I felt the same way when I was an Atheist too. I'm not saying that the 54 year old should be put to death for the murder of his wife, we don't do that in Australia. But I feel he should be charged with her murder EVEN IF HE WAS PROVOKED. Considering the young age at which he married his wife, I feel that prisoners should be made aware of his pedophile nature too.
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Hatches
Happy birthday and many happy returns Jenny Trinh
Matches
Despatches
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MY DAY AT ACTIVISM SCHOOL

Tim Blair – Monday, March 31, 2014 (3:30pm)

Activism is back, baby! Following a mostly dormant decade, recent incoherent and obscene March in March demonstrations have returned activism to … well, not the front pages, but at least to page 13.
To learn more about this phenomenon, on Saturday morning I joined a bunch of junior activists at an Activist Training Day at Sydney’s University of Technology, hosted by Greens MLC David Shoebridge and featuring many prominent activism veterans.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'MY DAY AT ACTIVISM SCHOOL'
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I’M BAD

Tim Blair – Monday, March 31, 2014 (3:19pm)

Fairfax TV reviewer Ben Pobjie:

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WORKERS UNITED

Tim Blair – Monday, March 31, 2014 (2:46pm)

Yet more photos of triumphant Work on Wednesday participants (see earlier shots here). Commemorative t-shirts arenow available:

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Icon Arrow Continue reading 'WORKERS UNITED'
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TAKE THE EARTH HOUR PLEDGE

Tim Blair – Monday, March 31, 2014 (1:50pm)

More than 30,000 people celebrated Earth Hour this year under the massive lights at ANZ Stadium, where the Sydney Swans lost to Collingwood.
Actually, “celebrated” might be taking things a bit far. It’s a fair bet that few at the match, and also outside of it, knew the annual turn-your-lights-off-for-Gaia festival was even scheduled for Saturday night.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'TAKE THE EARTH HOUR PLEDGE'
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LOCAL SHARIA

Tim Blair – Monday, March 31, 2014 (4:13am)

A 54-year-old man stabs his 24-year-old wife more than a dozen times, killing her. Some of her wounds are 14 centimetres deep. The young woman, a mother of three who wed her husband when she was just 16, attempted to shield herself with a blanket as she was repeatedly and viciously knifed.
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Murder victim Mariam Yousif
The man claims in court he was provoked by his wife questioning his manhood. The court accepts this, reducing his charge from murder to manslaughter and sentencing him to just nine years in prison.
This didn’t happen in the Middle East. It happened in Sydney.
UPDATE. The husband’s emergency call
Hassan stabbed her at least 14 times then called triple-0 and told the operator “There’s a problem with my wife”. 
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MEDIA WATCH DOESN’T WATCH MEDIA WATCH

Tim Blair – Monday, March 31, 2014 (3:09am)

Three years ago, then-Media Watch host Jonathan Holmes repeated a Guardian claim that News of the Worldjournalists had deleted messages from Milly Dowler’s mobile phone: 
One journalist, at one newspaper – The Guardian’s Nick Davies – kept hammering at the story, and on Tuesday he finally cracked it wide open: “News of the World hacked Milly Dowler’s phone during police hunt”
A 13-year-old murder victim’s voicemail messages not only listened to, but deleted, by News of the World journalists. 
The Guardian was wrong. Late in 2011, the error-prone British paper published a series of corrections. Eventually,Media Watch also ran a “clarification” – attached to the online transcript of its original story. This “clarification” never appeared during a broadcast, and still isn’t listed at the program’s corrections page.
Current Media Watch host Paul Barry evidently missed his own show’s grudging clarification, along with theGuardian‘s more prominent admissions of error. Nearly two years after the Guardian first published its multiple corrections, appended to 37 stories, Barry recycles the paper’s mistake one more time: 
Discussing the News of the World hacking scandal in the UK, Barry said that what had finally “cracked it” was the revelation that the paper had hacked into the phone of a schoolgirl who had gone missing and was subsequently found to have been murdered, Milly Dowler.
It “appeared News of the World (a Murdoch paper) had also deleted some of the messages on her phone,” Barry added …
At no point in the interview did Barry point out that the original story turned out to be wrong. He left uncorrected his false statement that the News of the World appeared to have done the deletions. 
This bloke can’t even follow his own little show, yet the ABC employs him to monitor media Australia-wide.
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MIKE LIKES

Tim Blair – Monday, March 31, 2014 (2:38am)

Way back in October, this site declared posh-voiced fake Englishman Mike Carlton to be the Viscount Mike. Nice to see that the SMH columnist has since formally adopted his title.
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TWICE AS BAD AS ’NAM

Tim Blair – Monday, March 31, 2014 (12:15am)

Nearly 500 Australians were killed during ten years of the Vietnam War. More than twice that number of asylum seekers drowned during just six years of Labor.
Curiously, leftists wanted to stop the deaths in Vietnam but are upset by successful moves to stop the deaths at sea. Something is wrong with these people.
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Is The Age a newspaper or propaganda sheet?

Andrew Bolt March 31 2014 (1:44pm)

The Age has long professed outrage at the “bias” of Murdoch papers. But not only is it blind to its own bias, it indulges in a partisanship so cartoonish that that it would be lame even in a university student paper.
Take these examples from today’s Age website, where even a story of a government success can’t be allowed to be told without a mocking picture:
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The bruvvers, united, can be defeated

Andrew Bolt March 31 2014 (11:41am)

Excellent:
THE militant Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union has been fined $1.25 million for a mixture of civil and criminal contempt offences on the sites of construction giant Grocon in 2012.
And the compensation for Grocon? 
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Greens against jobs

Andrew Bolt March 31 2014 (9:39am)

The green faith is not just anti-reason. Des Houghton gives the latest example of the green crusade against humanity itself:
Greenies and conservation groups have made no secret that they want to delay and disrupt the GVK Hancock coal project in the Galilee which has already won state and federal approval.
This week the Mackay Conservation Group launched a legal challenge to Environment Minister Greg Hunt’s approval of the Abbot Point coal terminal… The parties named in the action – Mackay Conservation Group, Environment Defenders’ Office Queensland and GetUp! – are each signatory to a controversial strategy document, Stopping the Australian Coal Export Boom, released last year…
Meanwhile, the North Queensland Conservation Council has taken the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority to the Appeals Tribunal in another delaying tactic that threatens the project.
And what would Queenslanders lose?
The Alpha mine and its little brothers at Alpha West and Kevin’s Corner will create 23,000 jobs in the construction phase and 20,000 permanent jobs during the life of the mine. And it will pay up to $40 billion in taxes and royalties. So activists are delaying the arrival of revenues to build our hospitals and schools.
The delays anger Bruce Hedditch, the chief of the Bowen Business Chamber.
“Abbot Point has been running as a coal port for 40 years and the water is crystal clear,’’ he said.
“...So the court actions are not about Abbot Point; it’s about trying to stop a coal mine 500km away...” 
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That’s not a spending cut. That’s your taxes being saved

Andrew Bolt March 31 2014 (9:35am)

The Abbott Government isn’t planning spending cuts but preventing tax rises:

The average wage earner will have to pay 22 per cent more in income tax by 2023-24 if nothing is done to rein in spending, new figures from the government show. The estimate suggests an average fulltime wage earner, who by then will be earning $112,000, will have to pay 28 per cent in tax, up from 23 per cent now.
The calculation, released by Treasurer Joe Hockey on Sunday, assumes the government would do nothing about so-called fiscal drag, in which more taxpayers are bumped into higher tax brackets due to inflation or wage gains. Mr Hockey warned that without dramatic policy changes to the budget, spending will outpace government tax receipts every year over the next decade, leaving the budget in deficit for a record 16 straight years.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Bolt Report robbed of panellists. What is this Government doing?

Andrew Bolt March 31 2014 (9:27am)

It’s annoying to have some of the most effective conservative warriors being given long service leave:
FORMER Howard Government Minister Alexander Downer has been appointed the next High Commissioner to the UK, in a shake-up of diplomatic posts…
The Abbott Government was last month criticised for stripping former Victorian Premier Steve Bracks of his New York Consul General appointment, instead giving the plum posting to former Finance Minister Nick Minchin.
That’s two of my Bolt Report panellists gone, too. 
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If I can cop even this, we don’t need muzzles

Andrew Bolt March 31 2014 (9:22am)

Free speech

IF I can do it, who now can’t? I’ve said our laws against free speech are too tough, and I’d set an example by not suing for defamation. 

Some of our biggest media outlets seemed to take that almost as a dare.
(Read full article here.)
UPDATE
Now the ABC publishes a claim that I just don’t like powerful and articulate Aboriginals. Some people seemed determined not to understand or honestly describe the argument
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Coalition recovers out West

Andrew Bolt March 31 2014 (9:13am)

Support in WA for the Coalition has rebounded strongly over the past three months, putting the Abbott Government in a strong position to keep all three WA Senate seats at the rerun Senate election on Saturday. More importantly, Labor could struggle to win a crucial second:
In the January-March period, primary support for the Coalition rose from 41 to 46 per cent after dropping 10 points in the October-December quarter. At the September election, the Coalition received a 51.2 per cent primary vote in WA.
Labor’s primary support dropped from 36 per cent three months ago to 29 per cent — equal to its election result. Greens support jumped from 10 per cent before Christmas, the same as its election result, to 15 per cent while support for “others’’ dropped from 13 per cent to 10 per cent, the same as the election result:
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Turnbull warns ABC board: tackle the bias

Andrew Bolt March 31 2014 (9:02am)

Media

Malcolm Turnbull is perfectly right, of course:
COMMUNICATIONS Minister Malcolm Turnbull says ABC board members who do not want to get involved in ensuring news content on the public broadcaster is accurate and impartial should get off the board.

Revealing he receives hundreds of complaints about the ABC each week, Mr Turnbull said “the law of the land” couldn’t be clearer — the board needed to take responsibility for addressing issues of accuracy and impartiality.

“Some people have said to me, ‘The directors don’t want to get involved’, so I said to the directors, ‘Look, if you don’t want to get involved you don’t have to be on the board’,” Mr Turnbull told The Australian.
“Section 8 of the ABC Act says one of the board’s duties is to ­ensure the ABC’s news and information services are impartial and accurate, according to the standards of objective journalism…
“My very strong view is that the ABC board must take ­responsibility.”
Terry McCrann gives the most glaring example of the board’s failure to take responsibility - Media Watch and its host Paul Barry:
Barry is obsessed, utterly obsessed, with Rupert Murdoch and what Barry perceives as the failings of the man as well as his newspapers…
It is an obsession ...  simply undeniable on any measure of the number of Media Watch segments — by definition, negative — devoted to the News Corp Australia papers…
As a consequence of his obsession, he is fundamentally compromised as the public face of Media Watch in its purported, self-ordained role as a disinterested observer of the Austral­ian media and objective arbiter of what it claims to be journalistic high crimes and misdemeanours.
He ...  should have been removed when his unrelenting agenda became obvious, embarrassing and undeniable.
That responsibility lay first with the ABC’s managing director Mark Scott, in his twin role as editor-in-chief of the organisation. His failure to act has left him in breach of the corporation’s statutory obligations. The failure by the board of directors to subsequently discharge its responsibilities now leaves it collectively in breach as well.
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 Meet Noah, the original eco-loon, and his sinister green God

Andrew Bolt March 31 2014 (8:58am)

The green movement, The new morality


AMAZING. Hollywood just killed God, and almost no critic noticed how it quietly slipped a green human-hater in his place. 

I never thought you could make a two-hour film about Noah and his ark without mentioning “God” even once, but director Darren Aronofsky has managed it in his $142 million epic, which opened last week.
His Noah, played by a muttering Russell Crowe, prays to a different deity, a much nastier one called “the Creator” who seems to brood on global warming.
Hey, what a coincidence! So does Aronofsky, who last year declared, “climate change as an enemy of the people”. So does Crowe, tweeting in most unbiblical language: “F--- denial of climate change.”
And in their film, Noah, they give us their creator, a vegetarian who really does want to “f--- denial of climate change” and put filthy humans in their place so, as Crowe’s Noah rasps, “creation will be left alone — safe. Beautiful”.
As an agnostic, I should barely care which invisible being Crowe talks to, but this switcheroo is freaky.
(Read full article here.) 
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On the media and the unfortunate result of my dog catching a possum

Andrew Bolt March 31 2014 (8:57am)

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There are no such cultural differences if we consider ourselves all Australians

Andrew Bolt March 31 2014 (8:16am)

Derryn Hinch is astonished by another example of the new drive to retribalise Australia - to treat each other as representatives of “races” rather than individuals:
I’VE HAD TROUBLE coming to grips with a dreadful court decision out of the Geelong Magistrate’s Court this week... The [Geelong Advertiser] ...  lead read: 
‘REGISTERED sex offender, Ali Jaffari, accused of attempted child-stealing, has had all charges against him dropped after a Magistrate told prosecutors he would have trouble finding Jaffari guilty.
Magistrate Ron Saines said if he was hearing the matter, he would have reasonable doubt, citing ‘cultural differences’ as one factor, which would result in the charges being dismissed’.
This was a case involving a convicted sex offender. A child stalker who was placed on the sex offenders register only last year after being convicted of sexually assaulting two teenage boys at a local beach.
On that occasion he walked free with community service…
Apparently Jaffari is an Afghan refugee with cultural differences. Is it culturally acceptable there for adults to sexually assault children? I doubt it. But even if it were, it is abhorrent here and our laws say so…
According to the Advertiser, the 35-year-old paedophile was convicted in Geelong Magistrates’ Court in August last year of indecently assaulting one boy and attempting to indecently assault another.
He was placed on a two-year Community Corrections Order with 300 hours unpaid community work…
In court this week he was charged with child stealing, attempted child stealing and unlawful assault.
He allegedly went to Bakers Oval in Geelong West about 6.30pm on January 27, 2013 where a four-year-old girl was playing cricket with her father and brother. While the father was throwing the ball to his son in the nets, the little girl was playing nearby with her own bat. Jaffari took away her bat, grabbed her hand and began to lead her away before she looked up, saw it wasn’t her father, started crying and pulled her hand away…
The prosecutor said, that when interviewed, Jaffari told police, ‘For us is not an issue.”
Magistrate Saines said the prosecution case fell short of criminality and cited cultural differences as a possible mitigating factor.
(Thanks to reader norm.) 
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Consensus cools

Andrew Bolt March 31 2014 (8:07am)

In time more scientists will not want their reputation sullied by association with alarmism:
One of the authors of a U.N. draft report on climate change pulled out of the writing team, saying his colleagues were issuing unfounded “alarmist” claims at the expense of real solutions.
“The drafts became too alarmist,” said Richard Tol, a Dutch professor of economics at Sussex University in England…
Mr. Tol was part of a team of 70 authors working on revisions to a U.N. report on climate change, to be issued in Japan on March 31. The final draft, which is the copy that Mr. Tol found objectionable, included findings that a warming global temperature will lead to disruption in food supplies and stagnating economies — and that coral reefs and lands in the Arctic may already have suffered irreversible damages...
UPDATE
I can see why Tol has quit. One of the most alarmist predictions in the draft Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report is that global warming will cause more golfers:
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(Thanks to reader Me 2.) 
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My Lord gives, and will not be lost
My Lord gives, and will not be lost
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=== Posts from last year ===
WHAT TYPE OF SICK GOVERNMENT INTRODUCES A NEW TAX TO FORCE UP THE COSTS OF KID'S SWIMMING LESSONS ? Craig Kelly

Photo - At Menai Swim Centre with owner Noel Harris and Ian Macfarlane Shadow Minister for Energy and Resources.

Labor’s Carbon will add $10,000 to the electricity bills of Menai Swim Centre this year alone.

And remember, under Labor’s punishing plans, their Carbon Tax increases every year.

Therefore using Labor’s own modelling, Menai Swim Centre will be forced to pay $100,000 in Carbon Tax charges between now and 2020 to stay open.

So either they increase the costs of children’s swimming lessons(with families in the Menai area being slugged an additional $100,000 to pay for the Carbon Tax on kids swimming lessons) or they close their doors.

Last year 284 Australians drowned - and the 'Australian Water Safety Strategy' is to reduce drowning deaths by 50% by 2020.

But with Labor’s Carbon Tax increasing the costs of swimming lessons for children – this will simply result in less children being able to afford to attend swimming lessons, undermining The Australia Water Safety Council’s target of reducing deaths by drowning in Australia.

So what type of sick Government introduces a new tax to force up the costs of kids swimming lessons ?

Answer – the Gillard Labor Government; the worst, the most dishonest, the most dysfunctional and most divided Government in our nation’s history.


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Temple of Poseidon, Sounion Athens - GREECE
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4 her
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Oswin Oswald - now fully converted into a Dalek - struggles to accept that she is no longer human, before advising the Doctor to run for his life. Memorable scenes from Asylum of the Daleks, Doctor Who series 7.

The Brand New Doctor Who Website - http://www.doctorwho.tv
Doctor Who YouTube Channelhttp://www.youtube.com/user/doctorwho
Doctor Who Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoctorWho
Doctor Who Twitter https://twitter.com/bbcdoctorwho

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happy easter y'all :D
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March 31King Nangklao Memorial Day in Thailand; Cesar Chavez Day in various U.S. states
Woodcut picture of Matthew C. Perry by an unknown artist
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Events[edit]

Births[edit]


Deaths[edit]

Holidays and observances[edit]

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

Morning

"He was numbered with the transgressors."
Isaiah 53:12
Why did Jesus suffer himself to be enrolled amongst sinners? This wonderful condescension was justified by many powerful reasons. In such a character he could the better become their advocate. In some trials there is an identification of the counsellor with the client, nor can they be looked upon in the eye of the law as apart from one another. Now, when the sinner is brought to the bar, Jesus appears there himself. He stands to answer the accusation. He points to his side, his hands, his feet, and challenges Justice to bring anything against the sinners whom he represents; he pleads his blood, and pleads so triumphantly, being numbered with them and having a part with them, that the Judge proclaims, "Let them go their way; deliver them from going down into the pit, for he hath found a ransom." Our Lord Jesus was numbered with the transgressors in order that they might feel their hearts drawn towards him. Who can be afraid of one who is written in the same list with us? Surely we may come boldly to him, and confess our guilt. He who is numbered with us cannot condemn us. Was he not put down in the transgressor's list that we might be written in the red roll of the saints? He was holy, and written among the holy; we were guilty, and numbered among the guilty; he transfers his name from yonder list to this black indictment, and our names are taken from the indictment and written in the roll of acceptance, for there is a complete transfer made between Jesus and his people. All our estate of misery and sin Jesus has taken; and all that Jesus has comes to us. His righteousness, his blood, and everything that he hath he gives us as our dowry. Rejoice, believer, in your union to him who was numbered among the transgressors; and prove that you are truly saved by being manifestly numbered with those who are new creatures in him.

Evening

"Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord."
Lamentations 3:40
The spouse who fondly loves her absent husband longs for his return; a long protracted separation from her lord is a semi-death to her spirit: and so with souls who love the Saviour much, they must see his face, they cannot bear that he should be away upon the mountains of Bether, and no more hold communion with them. A reproaching glance, an uplifted finger will be grievous to loving children, who fear to offend their tender father, and are only happy in his smile. Beloved, it was so once with you. A text of Scripture, a threatening, a touch of the rod of affliction, and you went to your Father's feet, crying, "Show me wherefore thou contendest with me?" Is it so now? Are you content to follow Jesus afar off? Can you contemplate suspended communion with Christ without alarm? Can you bear to have your Beloved walking contrary to you, because you walk contrary to him? Have your sins separated between you and your God, and is your heart at rest? O let me affectionately warn you, for it is a grievous thing when we can live contentedly without the present enjoyment of the Saviour's face. Let us labour to feel what an evil thing this is--little love to our own dying Saviour, little joy in our precious Jesus, little fellowship with the Beloved! Hold a true Lent in your souls, while you sorrow over your hardness of heart. Do not stop at sorrow! Remember where you first received salvation. Go at once to the cross. There, and there only, can you get your spirit quickened. No matter how hard, how insensible, how dead we may have become, let us go again in all the rags and poverty, and defilement of our natural condition. Let us clasp that cross, let us look into those languid eyes, let us bathe in that fountain filled with blood--this will bring back to us our first love; this will restore the simplicity of our faith, and the tenderness of our heart.
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Luke, Lucas 
[Lo̅o̅ke, Lo̅o̅'cas ] - light-giving or luminous.
The Man Who Wrote the Most Beautiful Book in the World
Less is known of Luke than any other New Testament writer. This we do know, he was a Gentile and probably the brother of Titus (2 Cor. 8:16; 12:18). Paul speaks of him as a "beloved physician." Luke must have been a man of some wealth, otherwise he could not have traveled with Paul as his friend and useful companion (Acts 1:1Col. 4:142 Tim. 4:11;Philem. 24 ). Tertullian said of this native of Antioch that he received his illumination from Paul.
Luke was a man of learning and knowledge, an exact observer and faithful recorder. His medical training taught him to be exact. He is in the first rank as a reliable historian, scholarly, skilful and sympathetic (Luke 1:1-3Acts 1:1-3 ). His gospel is the most literary of the four. With his Greek mind he had a sense of form, a beautiful style - studied and elaborate. A poet, he was unsurpassed as a word-painter. Luke's gospel has been described as the most wonderful book ever written, the most beautiful book in the world. Above it and within it we hear the rustle of the angels'wings, the music of angels'songs.
Luke's qualifications for his great ministry were manifold. Above and beyond all else, he had the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Then there was his long and close companionship with Paul, and Luke the follower of Paul set down in a book the Gospel which Paul loved to preach. Luke also had abundant opportunities for personal acquaintance with other apostles. His liberal education also indicated that in him God had a proper vessel for the accomplishment of His plan. The wisdom of the divine choice was justified.
Luke's mission was to proclaim Christ's humanity. His is The Gentile Gospel, thus he traces Christ's lineage back to Adam, and gives prominence to the sympathy and sociableness of Jesus as the Man (Luke 15:1) who came to save (Luke 19:10). As the representative of Grecian reason and culture, Luke presented Christ as the true Representative of universal man.
Luke wrote both the gospel bearing his name and the Book of Acts (Luke 1:1Acts 1). The characteristic features of his gospel are clearly defined.
I. Its gratuitousness. It is par excellence the gospel of pardon and redemption (Luke 1:28; 2:40).
II. Its sympathy. Christ is before us as the Healer of broken hearts and the Sharer of our woes. Luke is the gospel of philanthropy.
III. Its joyfulness. How full of praise the Gospel of Luke is! Angelic joy is prominent (Luke 1:14; 2:10, 13; 15:7).
IV. Its thanksgiving. The Church continues the hymns of high praise Luke taught her to sing.
V. Its teaching of the holy spirit. It is profitable to gather out all Luke's references to the special missions of the Spirit (Luke 1:15, 35, 41; 2:23, 26; 3:22; 4:1).
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Today's reading: Judges 9-10, Luke 5:17-39 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Judges 9-10

Abimelek
Abimelek son of Jerub-Baal went to his mother's brothers in Shechem and said to them and to all his mother's clan, 2"Ask all the citizens of Shechem, 'Which is better for you: to have all seventy of Jerub-Baal's sons rule over you, or just one man?' Remember, I am your flesh and blood."
3 When the brothers repeated all this to the citizens of Shechem, they were inclined to follow Abimelek, for they said, "He is related to us." 4 They gave him seventy shekels of silver from the temple of Baal-Berith, and Abimelek used it to hire reckless scoundrels, who became his followers. 5He went to his father's home in Ophrah and on one stone murdered his seventy brothers, the sons of Jerub-Baal. But Jotham, the youngest son of Jerub-Baal, escaped by hiding. 6 Then all the citizens of Shechem and Beth Millo gathered beside the great tree at the pillar in Shechem to crown Abimelek king.

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

Jesus Forgives and Heals a Paralyzed Man
17 One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. 18 Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. 19 When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.
20 When Jesus saw their faith, he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven."
21 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, "Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?"
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Today's Lent reading: Luke 1-3 (NIV)

View today's Lent reading on Bible Gateway
Introduction
Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3 With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.
The Birth of John the Baptist Foretold
5 In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. 6Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord's commands and decrees blamelessly. 7 But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old....
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Today's Prayer

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

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

1 And God spoke all these words:
2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 "You shall have no other gods before me.
4 "You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7 "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
8 "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
12 "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
13 "You shall not murder.
14 "You shall not commit adultery.
15 "You shall not steal.
16 "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
17 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."
Today's Quote

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

Something to Think About

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

The weeks leading up to Easter are a great time to grow in the knowledge of Christ as Savior and Lord. We're happy to announce a 
new daily email Easter devotional focusing on the Christ who died and rose for us!
Knowing Him: An Easter Devotional runs from April 3 through Easter and will help you keep your eyes on Jesus along the road to Easter. Each devotional is written by Dr. Mel Lawrenz, Christian author and minister at large for Elmbrook Church.
Philippians 3:10 says "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection of the dead." This is what we need today--and we hope this Easter devotional will help you toward that goal!
Knowing Him: An Easter Devotional is an opportunity to grow in the grace and power of Jesus. Sign up today!
Nueva Traducción Viviente Bible now online

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

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

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

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

Sincerely,

The Bible Gateway team



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