18/2/2024
Number 97
Hi everyone in our Adelong Tarcutta Partnership and our fellowship friends. I do hope everybody is going ok and coping with life in general. We are well into the new year now, being February, with any holidays behind us, including the school ones. Someone said to me recently "It'll soon be Christmas!" I know we are not looking forward to Christmas, not just yet anyhow. Time flies, but we don't want it to go that fast.
We are now in the season of Lent. It is a time for us to prepare ourselves for Easter, so that when it arrives, we really know and feel what we are celebrating. Easter is a week earlier this year, with Easter Day on the 31st of March.
The weather has been pretty warm so far this year, and now dry. This is indicative of the El Nino they say we are in. This has an implication on our farms, and will determine when we sell and buy livestock, sow our crops, and change the water budget. Lambs born in Spring will be weaned by now, haymaking continues, as does cattle vaccinations. We pray for safety at the places where we work, good health for ourselves and families.
For us who may be experiencing financial stress, we pray for peace, wisdom, a solid hope, and easing of the burden.
As I speak to folk in our parishes, the cost of living is a big issue. Prices are increasing, but our incomes are not. Electricity and gas, other things like house insurance, car, machinery, and appliance repairs, are all getting so expensive. This brings uncertainty, and with it stress. As always "Our hope comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth." Psalm 121:2.
Psalm 70 is one of King David. Verse 4 reminds us of a great God we have, who always supplies. It says "Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let those who love your salvation say evermore, 'God is great!'"
CULTURE COMMENTS
(11/2/2024) “Should a father have been concerned that his daughter was sharing a dormitory with a transgender woman?” This question came up at morning tea. The answer is YES. It has been reported that when a father discovered his daughter would be sharing a dorm with a male student – who identified as female – he drove from interstate to Victoria to remove her from the school. I make 5 points –
1. The father should certainly have been concerned. His biological daughter was sharing a dormitory with a biological male. A newspaper said the father went to “extreme lengths” to remove his daughter. The father’s action was not extreme, it was normal.
2. A parent has a right to choose whatever private school they wish their child to attend. In our democracy, with freedom of choice, a parent has a right to choose whatever school they wish for their children. Also, whatever the concern a parent has, a school needs to be willing to listen.
3. A male is different to a female; you only have to consider how we are designed. There are people who are gender benders; this idea says that sexual identity is fluid, or even neutral. At the time of a baby’s birth, the nurse will sometimes declare “It’s a boy!” or “It’s a girl!” Celebrating male and female is what makes us human. "Male and female He created them." Genesis 1:27.
4. The gender-neutral movement will have consequences, such as mixed toilets, genderless sports, no mention of gender on job applications, gender neutral baby names, no women’s and men’s sections in department stores.
5. The parents of the students in the dormitory should have been notified of the situation. It seems some were not, including the father. The school does consider the privacy and welfare of students, and makes sure they are heard, respected and kept safe. And this situation needed good pastoral communication.
(11/2/2024) This question came up at morning tea in January - "Should Woolworths and Kmart and other businesses have stopped selling Australia Day merchandise?" The big business, with others, had decided not to sell the merchandise, because they say low sales do not warrant the stocking, and the Day is not as popular as it was. I offer 5 points -
1. Are Woolworths and others going "woke"? (Wokeworths). Let's hope the decision is not an attempt to impose woke ideology and to cancel our national day by stealth. Unelected corporate elites must not dictate what should happen in this country.
2. They had a moral obligation to sell it. They are an Australian retail chain, they make profits in Australia, all employees are Aussie, customers respect Woolworths. So they need to be a role model, and support Australia Day, and encourage others to do the same.
3. However, in our democracy, with free enterprise, private businesses can make their own choice on what to sell. If they decide not to stock it they don't have to.
4. Government, or anybody, cannot dictate what free enterprise sells. Free enterprise is supply and demand. It works very well without government interference. If a stick is thrown into the supply and demand wheel, it causes huge problems. We have seen this with coal power stations being forced to close and government imposing renewable energy.
5. We need Australia Day, it makes sense; we are Australian. We celebrate our wonderful nation, its achievements, that we are multi racial, successful, and most of all we celebrate our people. The majority of Australians want Australia Day. We must stand up and fight for it.
To read past Comments just click on this
link
St Augustine of Hippo was born in the year 354. He was a great theologian and Bishop of the church. He wrote extensively, and below are some quotes from his work -
- God is nearer to us than we are to ourselves.
- Take care of your body as if you were going to live forever; and take care of your soul as if you were going to die tomorrow.
- Because God has made us for himself, our hearts are restless until they rest in him.
- Pray as though everything depends on God. Work as though everything depends on you.
- God provides the wind, man must raise the sail.
- Trust the past to the mercy of God, the present to his love, and the future to his providence.
- If you believe what you like in the Gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself.
- The world is a book, and those who do not travel, read only one page.
- Right is right even if no one is doing it; wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it.
