The Example of Guido de Brès

I was reading about Guido de Brès - Author of the Belgic Confession earlier this evening.  This is one of the confessions that the Reformed Church of New Zealand holds to. When I picked up my JohnMac Bible later on, looking for some good verses to put in a Birthday card, I thought I would read Romans 8.  The second half of Romans 8 is an absolute goldmine of encouragement for Christians.  Here's a few excerpts...

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Guido de Brès understood these truths, and he lived by them.  He persevered with preaching from the Bible in secret, and in great danger.  Below is a description of his persecution and ultimate martyrdom by the Roman Catholic authorities. (You can read the entire brief biography at this page )

de Brès spent the first part of his captivity in a prison in Doornik, where he could receive visitors. Many of his visitors, however, were enemies who came to taunt him. But just as was the case with the apostle Paul (Philippians 1:12-14), Guido's imprisonment became an occasion for him to witness to the truth. When a princess, along with many young court ladies, came to mock, and the princess said in horror at Guido's heavy chains, "My God, Mr. de Brès, I don't see how you can eat, drink, or sleep that way. I think I would die of fear, if I were in your place," Guido responded: "My lady, the good cause for which I suffer and the good conscience God has given me make my bread sweeter and my sleep sounder than those of my persecutors." And, then, still responding to the princess, "It is guilt that makes a chain heavy. Innocence makes my chains light. I glory in them as my badges of honor."

Soon Guido was transferred to Valenciennes and thrown into a dark, cold, damp, rat-infested dungeon known as The Black Hole. In spite of the cold, the hunger, the horror of this hole, Guido wrote a tract on the Lord's Supper and letters to his friends, his aged mother, and his wife. A letter to his wife is an especially moving testimony of his faith.

My dear and well-beloved wife in our Lord Jesus.
Your grief and anguish are the cause of my writing you this letter. I most earnestly pray you not to be grieved beyond measure . . . . We knew when we married that we might not have many years together, and the Lord has graciously given us seven. If the Lord had wished us to live together longer, he could easily have caused it to be so. But such was not his pleasure. Let his good will be done . . . . Moreover, consider that I have not fallen into the hands of my enemies by chance, but by the providence of God . . . . All these considerations have made my heart glad and peaceful, and I pray you, my dear and faithful companion, to be glad with me, and to thank the good God for what he is doing, for he does nothing but what is altogether good and right . . . . I pray you then to be comforted in the Lord, to commit yourself and your affairs to him, he is the husband of the widow and the father of the fatherless, and he will never leave nor forsake you . . . .
Good-bye, Catherine, my well-beloved! I pray my God to comfort you, and give you resignation to his holy will. Your faithful husband, Guido de Brès.

Guido was publicly hanged on May 31, 1567 at the age of 47. He was pushed off the ladder while comforting the crowd which had gathered and urging them to faithfulness to the Scriptures. His body was left hanging the rest of the day and buried in a shallow grave where dogs and wild animals dug it up and consumed it.

- from www.prca.org

Romans 8:35-39 reads...
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That pretty much covers everything... Nothing can separate us (Christians) from God's love - whatever befalls us; even if we should die, it is God's will - and for good, so we have nothing to worry about.

A Burden in Your Hands

...is the name of a song by Christian band Underoath.  They're pretty alternative; not everybody's cup of tea, but the lyrics for this song about abortion that they have written, A Burden in Your Hands - are so true.

Confusing and scared
there is a decision made with this choice
a child has to pay
She puts it's life in her hands,
and then she destroys it's only chance to become someone in life
You should of thought about the baby before you had sex,
because you have destroyed a gift from God
You kill,
you destroyed
Never will this baby be able to grow up or show it's love
You'll never hear it say I love you, I love you
God does not give you the privilege to carry a child for nothing
When you kill,
you destroy that child's dreams and hopes
How innocent a baby is... how can you put it to death?
What if you were aborted...
you could of never had life
And now you make a choice to take this child's life
because it is a burden in your hands
A burden in your hands
Destroyed out of convenience
They put an end to your life
because you're too big a burden
and one that they can not have
So they take your life before your first breath
When will it stop, the killings continue
Babies die everyday because of a pro-choice made
Helpless and innocent they are put to death
Then why did the parents choose to plant a seed and then destroy it?
Pray for the people who are killing the kids of tomorrow
How desperately they need Jesus Christ in their hearts
So they take your life
because you're a burden in their hands
Destroyed out of convenience
They put a end to you life
because you're too big a burden and one that they cannot have
So they take your life before your first breath,
so they take your life before your first breath.

Yes, it's hard-hitting, uncompromising and confrontational.  But this should be no surprise, seeing as it is a song about the biggest holocaust of all time; the silent holocaust which dwarfs all the other genocides and natural disasters in the history of the World, put together.

Coffee Part 4

Read: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

"Yeah.  You know how our sceptic tank caved in with the rain.  Yeah, we're gonna get it filled in, need to dig a bit of a hole to sink another tank mate."  Brian chuckled again, "haha, you're having a pretty rough run of it aren't you".  Blimmin rain, how much could a phone take? The other day it had come up saying "cannot read SIM card" - he was always giving the thing a hammering, maybe time for a new phone. "Yeah" he responded.  "How does say, Tuesday, no... Monday next week sound?"  They agreed on the date, "alright, look after yourself" came the Rural-Auckland drawl again.  "Yeah, see ya".

He sheltered the phone in his hands, drying it on the underside of his jacket, slipping it into his right-jeans pocket.  His hand ran over his left pocket and his eye twitched as a strange, sullen smile lit up his face.  Shoving a hand into each pocket and hunching his shoulders, eyes down he made his way down the rough gravel road.  The rain was annoying but entrancing; the steady drum of the rain on the back of his jacket, the regular stride as his boots muddied the clear puddles of rain-water.  Looking ahead down the path into the misty oblivion he could make out the old dog-kennels.

The wire door of the second dog-kennel was hanging open.  Looks ok, pretty dry.  He sat down in the little doorway of the kennel - it was just high enough to let him sit back in the kennel without having to bend his neck.  He sat for a while, motionless, silent, taking in the scene before him.  There was dead-man's hill, hard to make out with low-clouds obscuring it's soaring peaks a matter of meters above sea-level.  A few forlorn looking sheep huddled together by a clump of trees near the newly erected fence at the bottom of the hill.  He could hear the water rushing down the water-raceway.  Resting his shoulder against the side of the door-frame he pulled a packet of smokes from his left-pocket.  He flipped the lid of the box open and pulled out a cigarette between his forefinger and thumb.  That smell, heck, what is it?  He dropped the pack down beside him, proceeding to pull out a lighter from his other pocket.  Leaning back into the kennel for shelter from the early-morning breeze which seemed to be driving the rain down south, he lit up.  Breathing in steadily as the cigarette caught light, he breathed in the smoke and then exhaled.

Closing his eyes he grinned wanly, teeth clenched together.  They'd kill me, yeah... He slipped into a subconcious stream of thought, cycling through a large number of unpleasent scenarios in the space of a few seconds.  He looked ahead blankly, taking the occasional draw from his smouldering cigarette - his mind otherwise unoccupied.  His chin resting on his chest, the cigarette held loosely between fore and middle-finger, he felt the threat of a post wake-up sleep-in overcoming him.  Sitting up sharply, he flicked his flickering cigarette out into the wetness.  Yawn.  He stretched his arms, massaged his shoulders a bit and then pulled out another cigarette.  One for the road.

What the heck.  A gold-coloured Nissan Sentra was parked out in front of the house.  They must be back already.  He strode quickly towards the house, pulled off his jacket and hung it on the peg in the sheltered area by the front-door.  Must be about time for a coffee.  There was good music playing as he opened the door.  Sarah Brightman's O Mio Babbino Caro was playing on decent volume to do the song justice.  Yeah, a bit early in the morning, but real good.  "Hi!" Lizzy's eyes lit up with a very-much-awake smile.  He grunted good-morning as cheerfully as he could, and moved over to throw a log on the fire which was starting to burn down.  "What's the smokey smell?", Jane was pouring coffee from the perculator jug into four retro cups which were lined up on the bench.  "Oh, yeah, motorbike playing up..." his voice trailed off as he quickly changed the subject.  "Pretty decent music, isn't it.  I really want to know what the words mean."  Lizzy walked over to where Barry lay, sprawled out on his duvet infront of the fire, kicked him cruely in the ribs, and without missing a beat replied.  "Yes, that would be so cool, but I want to learn how to sing it as well, it would sounds so great!"

Barry rolled over and pulled himself up onto one elbow as he accepted the cup of coffee.  "Brian get back to you?"  Barry, he always had his mind on the job... "Yeah, he gave me a call just before.  We're going to get it sorted on Monday, should be good."  He pulled himself up out of the chair and walked inconspiciously over to the fridge, opening the door innocently.  With the skill aquired over many failed attempts, he poured a respectable amount of cream into his coffee.  "Aye!"  Barry shot him a pleading look.  Here goes for nothing.  He screwed the lid tightly on the 300ml bottle, and threw it over in Barry's direction - not reckoning for Jane's closet wicket-keeping skills.  “Hey! this is for the sconnes this afternoon! Lizzy, look, he’s stealing our cream!”  Oh boy.  Apologising profusely but with a sparkle in his eye, he offered restitution by way of cleaning up all the dishes from all the mess the two of them made.

A well-aimed, tightly rolled-up tea-towel, damp from drying dishes hit him in the shoulder, making him slosh his strong creamy coffee over his hand...

A Tradition of Infant Genocide

As we sit around our warm living-rooms this Christmas opening presents, reading letters from distant friends and relatives, and filling ourselves with all kinds of extravagant delicacies, let us be sure not to forget just how privileged we are.  In a society now more than ever conditioned to embracing the culture of death, we must count ourselves fortunate to have survived.

When Pharaoh, king of Egypt realised that the enslaved nation of Israel was growing bigger and stronger, he employed two methods - one after the other, in an attempt to cut down on the Israelites' population growth.  Pharaoh said the the Hebrew midwives, When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live."  The midwives trusted God however, and disobeyed Pharaoh, claiming that by the time they got to the women, their babies were already born.  Pharaoh stepped up his assault on the people of God, with an evil command... “Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.” - Exodus 1:15-22
As we know, Moses escaped the fate of so many other baby boys at that time; he was adopted by the Princess of Egypt and later came to lead the people of God out of the land of bondage, and into the Promised Land.

Approximately 1,500 years later when Herod, king of Israel heard of the birth of Jesus Christ, he immediately ordered all boys aged two and under to be put to be killed. He hoped this way to be able to have Jesus killed and thereby destroy Christianity.

[King Herod] sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying:
“A voice was heard in Ramah,
Lamentation, weeping, and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children,
Refusing to be comforted,
Because they are no more.”
- Matthew 2:16-18

Again, God ruled over this situation and baby Jesus was rushed off to Egypt until news came of the evil King Herod's death, at which time Joseph, Mary and young Jesus moved back to Galilee.

And today in the country that our National Anthem declares is Our Free Land, more that fifty babies are being systematically murdered everyday.  Worldwide, 120,000 unborn babies have their lives brutally cut short by the machine that is abortion.  It will come as a surprise to most people, to hear that the abortion rate in Russia , for instance, is 60 abortions per 100 pregnancies.  As in the past, so to in our time, it is widely acknowledged that abortion is wrong, that it does indeed take the life of an innocent child.  However, this truth is forcibly ignored for the sake of convenience, and an end which is seen to justify the means - however awful or immoral.

Whether a baby is killed before it is born (abortion), during birth (partial-birth-abortion), or after birth (infanticide), it is unquestionably wrong. I struggle to even put these poor words together; how can my mind even begin to grasp the unbelievable horror of abortion?  You can disagree with abortion, but to leave it at that is unthinkable.  2009 is just around the corner.  I encourage you to make a New Years' resolution to stand up for the helpless innocents , to do whatever is in your power to bring an end to this greatest injustice in the history of the world.

"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." - Albert Einstein

A Christmas Meme

I was tagged by Isabella and the Editrix so I suppose I'll give it a go..

Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your family and friends.
Okay, here's what you're supposed to do, and try not to be a SCROOGE!!!
Change all the answers so that they apply to you.
Then tag a whole bunch of people you know. Tis the Season to be NICE!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Definitely wrapping paper.  If it's a girl, wrap it nicely and put a ribbon on it.  If it's a guy, just mutter something incoherent and shove your gift into their hands.  Newspaper is good too.

2. Real or fake tree? Real trees are best, but perhaps fake ones have a lower long-term carbon-footprint? ;)

3. When do you put up a tree? Sometime in December; and it isn't me, it's the others in the family.

4. When do you take it down? Early January...

5. Do you like eggnog? It's overrated.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? That's going back a bit far... I can't remember.

7. Hardest person to buy for? Dad

8. Easiest person to buy for? Probably Lydie or Si

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Nope.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? You can't beat a good ol' fashioned Christmas card.  I made an eCard for Christmas in 2007 , but as a rule, just say no to eCards as they are usually ridiculously overdone.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I've had bad ones, but I couldn't pin one down in particular - anyway, you might be reading this, and that wouldn't be any good would it!

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Those Magnificent Men and their Flying Machines

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? About a week before the first day of Christmas.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Always .

15. Favourite thing to eat at Christmas? Chocolate Santas, ham & mustard sandwiches, cherries.

16. Lights on the tree? Yep.

17. Favourite Christmas song? Oh Holy Night, O Come, O Come Emmanuel, Silent Night and What Child is This (No, I didn't copy you , they are my favourites!)

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Sleep.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Sorry to burst your bubble there, but neither Santa nor his reindeer exist.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? A star of wonder.

21. Open presents on Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning of course.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? The many different ways that retailers capitalise on Christmas with cut-throat time prices, to compete at this important time of the year.

23. Favourite Ornament theme or color? Blue stars and silver streamers hung over a nice Christmas tree would look pretty flash.  Or the other way round, maybe a touch of gold too, a gold star at the top would be nice.  Definitely stars, candy-canes and not too much colour.

24. Favourite for Christmas dinner? Sleep off Christmas-lunch.

25. Favourite Decorations? Real holly would be nice!

26. What do you want for Christmas this year? I just want opportunities to speak up for the unborn, and also to share the Gospel with people.  Anything else is yeah, ok...

I don't know anyone I should tag, I think everyone I know who would do it has done it already...

Santa Fail

check out more failures at FailBlog

Prolife Christmas Video

The latest video from Prolife NZ

The Unravelling of the Electoral Finance ACT

In response to the many erroneous claims that have been made regarding Rodney Hide's feeling towards my complaint against his yellow jacket, here is an excerpt from Hansard today...

Hon Lianne Dalziel: Can the Minister advise whether the ACT Party has requested that the repeal bill contains a retrospective provision to annul the ACT Party supporter’s complaint about the Hi-de-Hi! jacket that has caused the Hon Rodney Hide to be embarrassed and has led him to concede that the public had a right to be furious about what was nothing more than a stunt?

Hon SIMON POWER: I can advise the member that I have no knowledge of such a request.

Hon Rodney Hide: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. There is a requirement under the Standing Orders that questions are to be factually accurate. I was furious, but I was not furious with the supporter of the ACT Party—I love them all. I was furious about that crazy law that Lianne Dalziel and the Green Party passed.

- Excerpt from Hansard, 16 December 2008, Question 9

Even if the Electoral Commission were to fine ACT up to the maximum of $50,000, it would be worth it. The public has been able to see just how pedantic and restricting the Electoral Finance Act is, to freedom of speech in election year.

All Pretty for the TV

Welcome to the fresh new look for StarStuddedSuperstep.com The new design is less cluttered, and hopefully, easier on the eyes. Have had a pretty solid break from blogging - about time to get back into it.

Tag!

Right, I've been tagged by Trevor and Scrubone.

The rules are:
1. Link to the person who tagged you
2. Post the rules
3. Share seven random or weird facts about yourself
4. Tag 7 random people at the end of the post with their links
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. My first run-in with the police occured when I was about fourteen-years-old. I was dressed in black, wearing a balaclava and weilding a full-size medieval sword. I wandered down the driveway, scared a couple of ladies across the road, and then headed back to the house. Sure enough, a few minutes later a couple of armed policemen walked down the drive and found my balaclava hanging on the sword which I had stuck in the ground. Scared doesn't even begin to describe my feelings as I saw them coming down the driveway. They told me not to do anything like that again, but didn't give me too much of a hard time.

2. My sibblings and I often make elderflower champagne. This time we put elderflower berries in the recipie. The stuff was undrinkable, and the 1.5L PET bottles swelled up like you wouldn't believe. We blew them up in the back-yard. We got a board, stuck a nail in one end, and rode over the board on our bikes to pop the bottles. The sound was ear-shattering, louder than your uncle's .303 anyway. The next morning we came out and there was a dead rat lying by where we'd been blowing up the bottles.

3. My internet avatar is Gerry (Matt Damon) from the movie Gerry (2002). The guy in the background with the star on his t-shirt is also called Gerry (Casey Affleck). It is one of my favourite movies and is directed by Gus Van Sant.

4. Whenever I go to Auckland, I love the smell of the Pennyroyal which seems to grow wild up there. I never knew what it was - it was so mysterious, but now I know, so I can even have a cup of Pennyroyal tea - Mum grows it out in the garden.

5. Most V I've had in one day is 1.2L. That was Friday 14 November, the last day of our pro-life stall at the A&P Show.

6. I use two monitors. Could never go back to just one. Dual 19" widescreen Viewsonics.

7. I virtually never watch TV. What a waste of time.

I'm tagging: Lydie, Jono, Theresa, John, Simeon, Liz, Michael

Electoral Commission Targetting ACT

The Electoral Commission has ruled that Rodney Hide's yellow jacket jacket was potentially in breach of the Electoral Finance Act and has passed the matter on to the police. If the police decide to prosecute Mr. Hide, he will face a fine of up to $10,000, while the ACT Party will also face a fine of up to $40,000. What I find intriguing, is that the Electoral Commission has ignored all the other complaints that I have submitted regarding possible breaches of the Electoral Finance Act by other political parties. Below is a short summary of each of these complaints.

1. Greens campaign website carries no authorisation statement - 26 August 08
The Green Party's (now defunct) campaign website address was www.votegreen.org.nz. For a screen-shot of the website, click here (as at 11:30pm, 25 August). It is very clear from this screenshot that there was no authorisation statement on the website - which, is encouraging people to vote "for or against" a political party. The response from the Electoral Commission can be summed up in this extract from an email I received, "...the url [www.votegreen.org.nz] did not appear on the page itself, and indeed would only have appeared in the address bar (which you control, not the Green Party) when you typed it in." Such a response is very subjective; the matter deserved further investigation rather than simply a *clever* answer from the Commission.

2. National campaign video - 10 October 08
The Electoral Finance Act states that authorisation statements must be visible and readable. The authorisation statement at the end of National's latest campaign video on YouTube did carry an authorisation statement at the end, but it was very fuzzy, and impossible to read, and thus breached the act. The response from the Commission read,

"We have considered the YouTube page and note that while the promoter statement on the video was blurry, did think that it was just readable, at least on the monitors we are using. In addition, at the top of the page on which the video appears is a National Party banner with an eminently readable promoter statement (a copy of which I attach). This would conclude the matter from our perspective."

This response ignores the fact that on the page for viewing the video, there is no authorisation statement. As for the statement being "just readable", that is pathetic.

3. Labour Online advert - 10 October 08
The Labour Party purchased a package of Google adverts - one of the most common adverts you will see online. The breach is detailed here at the Don't Vote Labour blog. In this instance, Labour has placed a Google Ad which promotes the Labour party, and yet carries no authorisation statement. The Commission's response to this complaint was,

"As you will be aware, the Electoral Commission's primary focus in its role of overseeing political party advertising in election year is assisting participants to comply with their obligations under the law. As you point out, Labour Party google ads now contain promoter statements. In light of this we will not be taking further action on this matter."

It would be better if the Commission would tell us what is really going on. They are in fact, assisting participants to comply with the law - so long as they are not the ACT Party. I have made more than just the three complaints listed above. However the Commission has demonstrated incredible leniancy with these other parties, offering trite reasons as to why they had decided not to pursue what were quite obviously potential breaches of the new Electoral Finance Act.

Herald of Lies

I need to respond to the false reporting in the Herald over the issue of my complaint to the Electoral Commission about Rodney Hide's yellow jacket.

1. The Herald claims that Mr. Hide and I planned my complaint to the Electoral Commission together. "Act leader Rodney Hide's indignation at the Electoral Finance Act is nothing but a jacket jack-up." - 5 Nov 08. This claim is completely without founding, and categorically untrue. Both Mr. Hide and I have told the media that neither of us spoke to the other about the complaint at any stage. Further, I did not discuss the complaint with any member of the ACT party until the story came out in the Dominion Post on 5 November. Interesting to note that the then Prime Minister Helen Clark was quick to misrepresent the incident, claiming that it was a "stitch-up" and saying, "Act complained wanting their name to be kept out of it, so that they could create a fuss around the Electoral Finance Act." - 5 Nov 08.
I emailed the editor of the Herald, asking him why the Herald was not being truthful. All he could say was "Thanks for your email. We stand by our story". He had no answer as to why his newspaper had lied about myself and Mr. Hide.

2. Following the news of the Electoral Commission handing the case over to the Police, the Herald states that I "proudly posed in photos with a yellow-coated Mr Hide and posted them on the internet." - 4 Dec 08. The Herald is certainly doing its best to live up to its maxim, "never let the truth get in the way of a good story". It may seem inconsequential, however the Herald has intentionally spun this sentence in order to make me appear ridiculous. Fact is, I posted one photo of myself and Mr. Hide on my blog (not multiple photos as the Herald states) - and who's to say that I "proudly posed" with him?
It is also unprofessional, and potentially unlawful of the Herald to not only take the photo from my blog and post it on their website, but also to neglect to reference its source.

It would appear as if the Herald is quite willing to sacrifice truth for the sake of a sensational story, and in doing so, are attempting to compete with the tabloids.

Inspiration on Wheels

Sixteen-year-old Aaron has invented a sport that he calls "hardcore sitting" - using a wheelchair to perform moves more often seen done on skateboards or BMX bikes. - Telegraph