Bill Muehlenberg encourages us that we should and can "(turn) the world upside down"
On Turning the World Upside Down
9 June, 2009

We live in very dark times. This website provides hundreds of examples of the gathering gloom which is overtaking much of the Western world. As the West seeks to jettison all traces of its Christian heritage, it is heading down a path of collective suicide.

Times were pretty dark in the first century as well. Indeed, many parallels can be drawn between life back then and what we are experiencing today. Yet as difficult as those times were two millennia ago, we know that a small but dedicated band of counter-culturalists radically impacted their world.

Indeed, we are informed that the early church “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6, KJV).  The NIV, more closely reflecting the original Greek, says the early disciples “caused trouble all over the world”. Both renderings describe the powerful impact the followers of Jesus in the first century had on their surrounding culture.

Isn't it funny how even secular people know not to swear in front of kids, although they think otherwise around themselves.We ought to be like children, for of such is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 19:14). We ought to have integrity, and not think these things don't matter.

Swearing sending me potty

WHAT do you do when your child comes home from school with the smile of a cherub and the language of a wharfie?

I mean no disrespect to wharfies, but it's one thing to have colourful language fly out of the mouth of a burly bloke throwing a rope; it's another when those words fly out of the mouths of babes.

I'm not much of a swearer.

And certainly not in front of my children. 

That's not to say when I've sliced my finger cutting vegetables or smashed a glass on the floor I haven't let the odd word spring forth in anger. 

But I regret it instantly and tell my children to neither do or say as I do.

Double standards - Swearing sending me potty, Herald Sun

On Indians and racism, think about these things: we all descended from Adam and Eve - there is no racism; and in light of that, how should we live and act and speak given the political correctness of not being seen to be racist?

We're not the racists

IF we weren't so scared of seeming racist, we wouldn't now seem so, er, racist that even India is giving us lectures.

Amazing, that. India, which perfected the caste system and is plagued by Hindu-Muslim bloodfests, is telling us we're too prejudiced?

But we have only our own stupidity and grovelling self-hatred to blame.

After all, which nation has spent so much apologetic cash and sweat to persuade the world we are vomiting with racism, and which has been, on the other hand, too militantly anti-racist to point out who is actually bashing many of these Indian students?

Racism - We're not the racists, Herald Sun

Higher Distinctions: Discernment - Is it necessary that we voluntarily restrict ourselves in the movies and tv shows that we watch?

Kerrie Ternes, 1 June 2009

I believe that the biblical injunction to purity of mind as well as actions suggests strongly that we do just that, particularly when we sit down of an evening in front of the “box” to “go blob” for a little while, to reduce the stress levels after a busy day.

Is it OK to watch anything and everything that is on offer on television? I am of the older generation and fail to see the attraction of shows like Friends, How I Met Your Mother and others of similar ilk, which some of my (adult) children enjoy watching. I have on occasion sat with one of them to work out the attraction of a show that, however amusing the dialogue and situations are, the underlying messages are of promiscuity without consequences, marriage without due respect and easy and painless divorce, after which the two individuals involved are the best of friends.

Some good commentary on the use of discipline on children, with focus on a novel, "The Slap", which won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for fiction.

Oh, for the right to justified child slaps

James Campbell, May 24, 2009

IN my observation, modern Australian parents veer between indulgence and indifference towards their offspring.

On the one hand there are those who seem content to leave their children's mental development in the hands of the Wiggles.

This is a generation that appears to be being raised by the family DVD player.

Their parents will have no one to blame except themselves if in 20 years their children start naming their kids "B1" in honour of the biggest influence on them in their formative years.

On the other - much more annoying - hand, there are those parents who allow their offspring to dominate all social occasions, interrupting the conversation with their inane observations and demands for attention and food.

I am not a violent man, but sometimes beholding these children out in public - throwing tantrums and getting their way - my fingers start to itch.

Read full article at the Herald Sun