'New York Times' Launches All-Out Attack on Christianity

'New York Times' Launches All-Out Attack on Christianity

Apparently, The New York Times is in favor of faith in the public square—if the purpose is to mock it. Editors at theTimes poured gasoline on the fire of Atlanta's latest controversy with an editorial that should shock even their most liberal readers. Just when you thought the media couldn't sink any lower, the Times takes on the same First Amendment that gives it the freedom to print these vicious attacks on Christians.

In a stunning column on Jan. 13, the newspaper argues that men and women of faith have no place in public management of any kind. The piece, which shows a remarkable disinterest in the facts, claims that Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran didn't have permission to publish his book on biblical morality. Not only did Cochran have permission from the city's ethics office to publish his book, but he only distributed it in his personal capacity at church—where a handful of his coworkers attend.

But the shoddy journalism didn't end there. Editors insisted that Cochran's book was full of "virulent anti-gay views"—when in fact, the 162 page book only mentioned homosexuality twice. And both times, the conversation merely echoed the Bible's teachings on the subject. For that—privately espousing a faith that a majority of Americans share—Kelvin was fired.

"It should not matter," The New York Times conveniently suggests, "that the investigation found no evidence that Mr. Cochran had mistreated gays or lesbians. His position as a high-level public servant makes his remarks especially problematic, and requires that he be held to a different standard." And what is that "standard," specifically? That he has no First Amendment rights? If so, that's the height of hypocrisy for these editors, who just days ago championed the press's freedom to ridicule religion in the public square. Apparently, The New York Times believes in the freedom of the press to attack faith, but not the public's right to hold a faith in the first place.

God, Gays and the Atlanta Fire Department, New York Times.

Revealed: Shame of the growing number of working Scots who have to rely on food banks, by Andy Philip, Daily Record

 DESPERATE Scots on low wages are forced to rely on charity hand-outs over Christmas.

RECORD numbers of desperate Scots on low wages were forced to rely on food banks over Christmas, a major charity said yesterday.

About 10,500 adults and children were given a three-day supply of “emergency” food in December, according to the Trussell Trust.

Shockingly, low income climbed above benefit changes or delays as the main reason given by people referred for help across the country.

The total was a 13 per cent increase from the 9263 people using the trust’s 48 food banks in the same month in 2013.

The final figure is likely to be even higher as volunteers continue to update their databases.

Ewan Gurr, the charity’s network manager for Scotland, said: “Low income is normally behind benefit problems, but topped the reasons in December last year and 2013.

“It highlights the impact of the rising cost of food and fuel.

“When you add to that insecure employment and poor wages, it’s a lethal

cocktail. Deeply concerning are the words to describe it.”

He added: “In the most harrowing accounts, we hear from the families choosing whether to prioritise heating their homes or feeding their families and parents losing weight because they overlook their own health and wellbeing to feed their children.

Read more here:

Further Reading:

Record numbers use Scottish food banks by By Marc Ellison Data journalist, BBC Scotland

Labour's private hospital stitch-up: Shocking evidence of how the Left sabotaged NHS success story by Guy Adams & Sophie Borland, Daily Mail Story.

Shocking evidence of how Labour and union figures had the first privately run NHS hospital declared a failure has been uncovered by the Daily Mail.

There are growing calls for an inquiry into how Hinchingbrooke in Cambridgeshire was rated ‘inadequate’ by the Care Quality Commission watchdog – only months after winning an award for patient care.

But the Mail has learned that:

·         Individuals who helped draw up the CQC’s damning report have close ties to the Labour Party and unions which oppose NHS privatisation.

·         The local NHS body, which suddenly slashed the hospital’s funding and imposed arbitrary fines, is heavily influenced by Labour activists.

·         The watchdog’s lead inspector, Dr Jonathan Fielden, was previously a senior member of the doctors’ trade union, the British Medical Association, and has warned of the dangers of privatisation.

·         A second inspector, Dr Nigel Sturrock, has been associated with the Keep Our NHS Public group.

·         And a doctor employed by the hospital who is suspected of briefing the CQC about its supposed failings happens to be the Labour candidate to be the area’s MP. Dr Nik Johnson is believed to have influenced the report’s severe criticism of children’s services in the A&E unit.

The inspection report by the CQC last week led to Circle, the firm running Hinchingbrooke, withdrawing its contract. The hospital has now been placed in special measures and could be closed down.

MPs whose constituents include hospital staff and patients are urging the Health Secretary to begin an inquiry into the inspection. They say the report’s findings are entirely at odds with an award last May naming it as the best performing NHS trust in the country.

David Campbell Bannerman, Tory MEP for the Eastern Region, said: ‘This is a Labour stitch-up. I wonder how many of the CQC’s other inspectors are quietly sympathetic to keeping the NHS public

Read more here:

Words for The Wise, A People of Purpose, Galatians 6 NIV

 

 Galatians 6 New International Version (NIV)

Doing Good to All

6 Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. 2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3 If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. 4 Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, 5 for each one should carry their own load. 6 Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor.

7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

Not Circumcision but the New Creation

11 See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand!

12 Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13 Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your circumcision in the flesh. 14 May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which[a] the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. 16 Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule—to[b] the Israel of God.

17 From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.

18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.

NIV Application Commentary

Galatians 6V7-10

People will have to stand before God. [Paul's] point here is clear: since we will stand before God, we must live now before God, and that means living in the Spirit. Put differently, we must do good to all people, especially to the church, which may well have been neglected by those caught up in the divisions at Galatia.

That the antithesis of flesh and Spirit has been in Paul’s mind since he began these injunctions at verse 1 becomes clear with verse 8. What we envision here is a divisiveness that was leading to shunning sinning brothers and sisters, to arrogant leadership, to comparing one’s righteousness with another’s, and to outright ugly treatment of teachers. Such kinds of behavior are “works of the flesh” (5:19–21).

So Paul enters with the strongest foundation that one can perceive: God is the Judge, and people cannot sneer at him. Paul knows that “moral indifference would be an imperfection in God, not a perfection.” If a person lives to the flesh, that person will “reap destruction” (condemnation); if a person lives “in the Spirit,” that person will “reap eternal life.” What Paul is saying is what I have said on numerous occasions in this book: while works do not save us, no one is saved without works. Why? Very simply, because works are the sure indicators of a person’s heart, orientation, and status before God. Every judgment in the Bible is a judgment according to works (cf. Matt. 7:13–27; 16:27; 22:1–14; 25:1–46; 2 Cor. 5:10; Rev. 20:11–15). A person’s final standing before God will be determined by that person’s relationship to Jesus Christ as revealed in his or her works. While it is absolutely true that our grounds of acceptance is the sacrifice Jesus Christ made on our behalf, our connection to that sacrifice is by way of a faith that works itself out in the many good works in a person’s life.

So Paul speaks of “doing good,” because doing good is what it means to sow “to please the Spirit.” We should not become weary in doing good because, he repeats, our judgment is based on this (“we will reap a harvest if we do not give up”; v. 9). Paul then argues that the Christian is to do good “to all people,” regardless of their culture, nation, or sex (3:28). But the Christian’s deeds of mercy are especially (though not exclusively) to be directed toward “the family of believers.”

In sum, Paul interweaves two highly fundamental ideas for Christian ethics: mutual accountability and personal responsibility. Indeed, John Barclay sees the alternation between two themes as the structural impulse behind our section. He uses the terms in a reverse direction (personal accountability to God and corporate responsibility to others), and I shall change them to my terms to ease understanding. His structure (changed in terms only) is as follows:

The Bible Panorama

Galatians 6

V 1–5: BEARING BURDENS The outworking of the previous teaching to the Galatians means that the Christian bears the burdens of others. This means a genuine desire to restore those who have gone astray, in a humble and gentle spirit, and a realistic assessment of one’s own ‘nothingness’ apart from Christ. Self-examination is called for.

 V 6–10: SOWING SEED Generosity is a hallmark of a spiritually alive person. He will constantly support those in Christian work, sow generously God’s word in his own life and in others’ lives, and do good to others. He will reap a bountiful harvest and not lose heart. Christians are to be his special target of good works.

V 11–15: CHRIST’S CROSS Paul adds a note in this letter in his own handwriting. Although those who insist on circumcision will continue to persecute Paul, he is determined that his only boasting will be in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. That cross not only deals with his sin: it deals with his heart. It crucifies Paul to the world, and the world to Paul. It has become the instrument making him into a new person. Circumcision can never do that.

V 16–18: WISE WALK God’s peace and mercy rest on those who walk with God. The apostle, seeing himself as crucified with Christ, prays for the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ to be with the spirit of those who have received his crucial letter.

The reason for your life part 6 Elim Missions

Coming to the end of this year we have examined how Paul defends his purpose for living. 10 points:

1. Living with purpose keeps the important issues important.

2. Living with purpose leaves no concern for popularity.

3. Living with purpose can be taught but also caught from God.

4. Living with purpose is caught in the desert places.

5. Living with purpose builds your testimony.

6. Living with purpose brings confidence.

7. Living with purpose will have to be defended.

8. Living with purpose is a solid foundation.

Galatians 6

9. Living with purpose holds to personal values.

v1 forgiveness and restoration, not judgement and rejection.

Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.

v2 carry problems of others

Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

v3 get rid of pride

If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

v4 continually self-assess.

Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else

v5 be personally responsible

for each one should carry his own load.

v6 support someone else

v7-9 Don’t give up – sow well reap well.

v10 Use every opportunity to bless.

10. Living with purpose will be attacked, v17, you will be branded for Christ.

Conclusion:

So often we shy aware from self-examination and instead we analyse the circumstances of our life or people in our lives.

However if we become people who simply follow our purpose in life we will be led less by circumstance and people and driven by purpose.

Now is the time to put these principles in place. If we do, we will rise again and again over every opposition that comes our way.

Lets all sign up to be people of purpose.

 Part 1 Words for The Wise, Living the Gospel Empowered Life, Galatians 1

Part 2 Words for The Wise, Living in Purpose, Galatians 2 NIV

Part 3 Words for The Wise, The Fellowship of the Faithful, Galatians 3, English Standard Version (UK)

Part 4 Words for The Wise, From Slavery to Sonship, Our Status in Christ

Part 5 Words for The Wise, Galatians 5, The Fruits of Freedom