The Truth of It | Ep. 48

g'day i'm martin isles and this is the truth of it and on today's program i am going to be talking about coronavirus vaccines whether or not it's a good idea to make it compulsory yes i'm actually going there secondly i'm going to move into some comments made by aussie rocker nick cave about cancel culture mercy and bad religion which i think are very insightful thirdly i'll be talking about parenting tips but not from me from my actual parents they even wrote the segment so look forward to that and i'll be closing out with some analysis of mark latham's parental rights bill in the new south wales parliament at the moment and what a magnificent step forward it is to finally uh have someone speaking about that issue and getting some legislation on the agenda some of you will have been expecting me to deal with the resurrection this week particularly from an apologetic standpoint i started to work on the segment and i realized it's actually a bigger segment i'm going to do a whole segment just on apologetics the uh the putting to proof the christian faith and some of the pillars of apologetics in the christian faith look forward to that it actually needs a little more work and it's become a little bigger so i will be doing that next week but on with the show [Music] but firstly today i want to talk about something that i didn't mention in the introduction because it's going to be brief but it is actually a call to prayer for those of you all around the nation about something which is really serious in fact it may be the most serious thing that i've observed in this job and really in my lifetime from a legislative standpoint here in the australian capital territory where i am right now and some of you might think well that's not particularly relevant who cares about the ict it definitely is relevant because they're trying to set a precedent here that they can take around the nation there is a national move as i have said in previous episodes for something called lgbt conversion therapy laws please ignore the name of them it's really got nothing to do with what they actually say and contain besides which that sort of thing isn't happening in australia at the moment anyway there's more going on in this picture but really here in the act they're introducing a bill of that nature which is utterly diabolical they did the consultation largely in secret they brought the bill in we've had some legal analysis of that bill it has thrown up all sorts of horrific things three examples are these firstly we found out that a school that is set up with a religious ethos and teaches that there are only two genders is at risk of being investigated by the act human rights commission for conducting conversion therapy practices so all faith-based schools and institutions on that basis and others are in serious trouble secondly parents parents who counsel their five-year-old boy that he's a boy despite him saying that he is a girl or that he wants to be a girl could be subject to criminal proceedings at the age of five so if a parent does anything less than affirm what a child says about their gender identity as young as five they could be subjected to criminal proceedings thirdly a church minister teaching a biblically orthodox view of sexuality could be exposed to a conversion practice complaint and similar fate to them there's a wide range of other consequences they're for parents for families for health practitioners for people of faith i don't have the time to go through them all but you get the picture this is really very serious uh this is frankly uh just it's persecution actually of people of faith what they believe their families and their churches and all sorts this will set a precedent for other states victoria's yet to have their bill put in south australia uwa places like that so it really does matter now we put the call out and the number of people who have contacted their mlas their local representatives here in canberra has been astounding they have heard from hundreds and hundreds and hundreds perhaps thousands of you and it has made a massive massive impact so thank you for those who have done that so far those who haven't heard from us yet you know stand by your phones because this week you will get an opportunity to do the same if you don't just ring them yourself to make your voice heard it's made an impact we have the government now reaching out to faith groups trying to reassure them now they're not they're not changing anything really of any substance and so it's not working but you see the government suddenly starting to be concerned and sadly i have to say and they won't like me saying this but the opposition have not been brave enough to stand up and oppose this bill they're not the origin of it but they haven't been brave enough to oppose it and that to me is astonishing because we did some polling or others did some polling and 72 of canberrans even in progressive canberra oppose the bill so it's a no-brainer to vote against it frankly and we haven't been able to get them to have that moral courage just yet so what i really appeal to you all to do is if you don't live in canberra if you live around the nation and you live around the world please pray about this because it really matters and perhaps it can be helped in one even with prayer and secondly if you are in canberra make that contact or if you hear from us to get the opportunity through the week our volunteers are making these calls please participate because this really does matter we are making progress and i'm sorry to start on such a dour note but it really really is an important one for us anyway having said that i'm going to move on to topic number one vaccines coronavirus vaccines should they be compulsory should they not be compulsory i'm actually going to go here because it's topical and i don't particularly like talking about this but people will expect me to talk about it and may even want me to talk about it and hear my thoughts given what happened this last week so we know that oxford university are one of about 160 170 odd people around the world trying to develop a covert 19 vaccine the government's entered into an agreement to get 25 million doses if those trials prove effective in people and the prime minister told 3aw radio in melbourne that it would be mandatory people freaked out as a result of that and the medical establishment said it would probably mean lower uptake because people would become suspicious if it was mandatory and the prime minister has backed away the government's backed away and so on i don't know whether it was just a slip of the tongue or whatever i don't know all the motives in there and i'm not going to cast any aspersions but i just want to say it's good i'm happy about that that he's backed away because the question arises should the vaccine be mandatory and i think this can be answered regardless of whether you are anti-vax provax or something in between i am not anti-vaxx and i say absolutely that this should not be mandatory with matters like this we must always turn the issue into a question of principle to find out whether it's a good idea the issue at hand is simple as saying well can we stop coronavirus through vaccinating people and you know should we get everybody to take the vaccine because it's important it's something like that but the principle at work the broader principle that this the precedent this creates for actions in the future is really something broader it goes like this it is should governments forcibly inject people with medicine against their will is that a good idea is it a good idea to set that precedent to create that possibility and as a question of principle the answer has to be no and it must be no because coercion like that sets a bad example that's a principle of coercion an example that could be abused tyrannically in the wrong circumstances in a very serious and severe way now many people scoff at that many people can't see the logic in that many people are are very happy to keep up more and more power for their governments and give them these precedence in times that are good like these times that we're in now um you know for times of freedom like the ones we live in at the moment to some degree but you know those people who don't have concern over this they are ignorant of human nature or they haven't thought carefully about human nature they haven't thought carefully about they're ignorant about the nature of power itself and their ignorance of history the only reason it seems far-fetched in australia today is because we've lived in unusual times for quite a while now unusual times brought about by something of a historical anomaly which is the society of people who believe in broad personal freedoms and limited government power and they have diligently and zealously fought for those values for centuries i assure you if we give away that diligence and that zeal it will not be long before those old changeless forces i mentioned the true nature of power that it corrupts human nature itself that it is corrupt and takes advantage of power for wrong ends and historical norms the fact that societies mostly have been more tyrannical than free those things it won't be long before we just revert back to the inertia of those things and the drag of those things you need to be fighting against those things to keep the principle of freedom alive that's a historical anomaly it's unusual it takes people power and you know everybody doesn't matter whether you're hard left it doesn't matter whether you're hard right it doesn't matter whether you're in between everybody believes that there are evil people who strive for power and in fact that might even be a feature of many evil people that they do strive for power and sometimes in history at different eras in free societies and democratic societies into whatever the society is all kinds of societies all parts of the world sometimes they get that power and the important thing therefore is this the scope of power when they do get it needs to be such that when someone does get it the damage they can cause is minimized and that damage you know that the scope of that power can be limited by rules but it can also be limited by expectations it can be limited by what people are prepared to put up with because of course the expansion of power happens slowly and sometimes people need to act sooner than they do to reject an expansion of power forced medical treatment and injections really is not a good place to be when evil people are in power as continued to happen and has happened throughout history and for these reasons the government should pursue all alternatives first we haven't tried voluntary indeed voluntary vaccination i would imagine would be taken up by the vast majority of people in the present circumstances is it even necessary to do mandatory why go there other strategies to manage the virus need to be tried first see how we go with voluntary and also see how the virus goes it doesn't one of the questions i can't get answered by the way is the fact that even in somewhere like sweden which is effectively no lockdown they had some measures but not many um you know and they had one of the the worst death rates per million population in the world still 99.95 percent of people survived and you know you know it's not over yet i know but gosh they're through the wave and i sit there and i go well hang on is that even a pandemic this is the crazy thing no one's answering these questions no one's you know you're mostly getting shouted out and told that you hate people all the rest of it and no one's answering the questions is there really a broader picture here that we can look at which makes the idea of mandatory vaccination seem just like full-on overkill but you know above all broad personal liberties and limited government power is important for the long-term security and peace of any society it really is now two footnotes to make to what i just said the first one is the government's actually made the situation harder for themselves because they've got behind a vaccine from the oxford university crew that has a genuine ethical problem attached to it as i said i am not anti-vaxx indeed i am and i'm sorry for those who get upset by this i'm quite pro-vaxxed in most cases in the sense that i think vaccines are a marvel of medical technology and that vaccines you know you think of things like polio you think of things like diphtheria you think of things that have you know diseases that have ravaged young children and people uh prior to the invention of vaccines which have helped to eradicate those diseases has been an extraordinary thing and so vaccines pose a great good in many circumstances but but there are some vaccines and the number of them is mercifully small in australia which are genuinely different i can certainly see how they attract legitimate ethical questions in fact it's not that they actually do let's just face it they do attract ethical questions because the research and development process with which help create them makes use of cells which are historically associated with abortion they do not contain aborted fetus cells there's a lot of misunderstanding on that and people who just aren't reading sources correctly or whatever but the research and development process associated with them um uh or this research and development process um that created them is associated with cells which originally some decades ago originated from aborted fetuses now that's the most succinct way that i can put it without an entire segment but you see how that this class of vaccines is an ethical flag because say in 1962 an aborted fetus uh some some tissue from that fetus was used to to to develop a cell and then that cell's been replicated for many decades many millions of times and here we are ages later and you're buying these cells off the shelf but way back they came from an aborted fetus that's the problem it doesn't go into the vaccine but the vaccine is developed with the help of it and that is an ethical problem and the government's chosen oxford university vaccine is one of those offending vaccines like i said in australia for many there is an ethical alternative because these cell lines don't just come from fetuses they come from vegetables they come from tissues of animals and humans and all sorts and so you get plenty of different kinds of vaccines there's a few where there's no alternatives but sadly this oxford university vaccine is one and so it kind of makes it really difficult uh of all the you know the bad luck this particular vaccine which is most advanced they happen to have chosen this hek 230 something 234 or whatever cell line which um you know ultimately traces its origins way back to the 1960s uh with an aborted fetus and electively aborted fetus so that is a real shame now second footnote um some people have objected to my comments in this vein because they say that they're not you know it's not christian analysis it's not you know it's just politics or it's just right wingism or something like this okay let me show you that in fact it is christian analysis um and i'll deal with that you know um in about 60 seconds broad personal freedoms and limited government power is the best guarantee that we have as christians that we can live authentically christian lives without interference okay in first timothy two the apostle paul calls on us to pray for the governing authorities why well he says so that the godly life might be a life of peace i guess that's a kind of religious freedom right so we live godly lives all the things god calls us to do and we do it peacefully that's the prayer but why does that matter is that because we care about ourselves because we just want the government to get off our backs and you know it's all about individualism no not at all it matters because god desires all people everywhere to come to a knowledge of the truth matters for the sake of others now all of that is straight from the scripture first timothy 2. now a godly life what is it well it's a life in which we're lights in the world and we're seen as such publicly a godly life is a life in which we're the salt of the earth we're fighting against compromise and evil and the decay that it creates in society a godly life is a life in which we raise our families in the fear of the lord a godly life is a life in which we serve our churches a godly life is a life in which we're good witnesses to christ in our lives it's a life in which we evangelize and you know what that means if we're free to do that if people uh if that godliness is free and unpunished and uninhibited in society at the the government's not getting in the way and not passing laws to make it illegal and to limit and contain it if that's all good well what that means is that people come to a knowledge of the truth and are saved which is god's desire as paul says in first timothy 2 that's why the prayer is even being made because our lives are godly and they are left by the governing authorities to be lives of peace and other people see encounter and hear the truth and whenever a government gets too much power and we're seeing this today more and more i regret to say one of the first things to come under pressure is the godly life whether in our families our preaching our public witness the words we speak the values we hold dear everything from you know all these new sort of woke laws like hate speech laws which is a misnomer they're not about hate speech or conversion therapy laws which is a misnomer they're not about conversion therapy one of the effects they have is to place pressure on these very things you know the truth we speak uh the christian lives that are being lived um they attack and undermine those very things and so do you know what freedom matters keeping the government in its rightful place matters it really does and i believe the freedom to conscientiously object on pro-life grounds to those small number of vaccines that are ethically dubious or for which there is no ethical alternative whether you personally ultimately agree with that ethical objection or not and christians fall on both sides because when you go into the into the into the research and development stuff it's all there's a lot to work through and you know the biotech industry is big and it doesn't just deal with vaccines it deals with all kinds of medical treatments which we all encounter all the time and they're all tainted sadly by this kind of thing but right regardless of where you fall on the issue the ability to conscientiously object on pro-life grounds matters it matters and so therefore freedom does matter and that is i believe something that every wise christian when it comes to governing authority really needs to be concerned about so that was the truth of it about whether or not a covert 19 vaccine should be mandatory okay next up i'm going to talk a little bit about uh australian rock star nick cave of all people particularly what he has said about cancel culture he's liking it to bad religion and he said some really interesting things about the christian virtue of mercy as it relates to cancer culture the question is is nick cave right is nick cave wrong or is he a little bit of both well have a listen to this extremely interesting take which went up on his website and replied to a question from a couple of fans he says this mercy is a value that should be at the heart of any functioning intolerant society mercy ultimately acknowledges that we are all imperfect and in doing so allows us the oxygen to breathe to feel protected within a society through our mutual fallibility with without mercy a society loses its soul and devours itself yet mercy is not a given he says it's a value that we must nurture and aspire to without mercy society grows inflexible fearful vindictive and humorless and i would say it grows self-righteous because when you're unmerciful it means you're self-righteous you have a high view of yourself a low view of others narcissistic and proud and you know when he says society it's important to note something we often say society to relieve the pressure and blame others but society just means all of us this is how we become without mercy we become these things when mercy is not valued that's how society changes because it's just a collection of us as people and as far as i can see he says cancel culture is mercy's antithesis isn't that interesting he says political correctness has grown to become the unhappiest religion in the world it's once honorable attempt to reimagine our society as a more equitable in a more equitable way now embodies all the worst aspects that religion has to offer and none of the beauty moral certainty and self-righteousness shone even of the capacity for redemption again interesting no redemption it has become quite literally bad religion run amok now this caught my eye this commentary because he bases his critique of cancel culture on a virtue that you really don't hear about very often these days and it is mercy and it is i don't know with what he thinks bad religion is or whatever he doesn't go into detail but it's interesting that mercy is a very very very christian virtue it's a virtue which you hear about very little for example in all my life i have never heard a person described in ordinary conversation as a merciful person i've heard people described as gracious as good as kind as loving as hospitable as compassionate as moral i've even heard a man once described as righteous i have never once never heard a person say hey you know joe over there the thing about joe is that he's a very merciful person it's never happened it's a quality that's it's almost otherworldly it's not very normal it's not really a part of our lexicon so you say well what is mercy this strange virtue that we seem to know so little about which doesn't come up in conversation well psalm 103 holds the key it's a great psalm let me read it to you or part of it it starts this way the psalmist says bless the lord o my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name bless the lord o my soul and forget not all his benefits what benefits you might say well who forgives all your iniquities who heals all your diseases who redeems your life from destruction who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies the lord is merciful and gracious slow to anger and plenteous in mercy he will not always chide neither will he keep his anger forever he has not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities for as the heavens are high above the earth so great is his mercy towards them that fear him as far as the east is from the west so far has he removed our transgressions from us like a father has compassion on his children so the lord has compassion on them that fear him for he knows our frame he remembers that we are dust as for a man his days are as grass as a flower of the field so he flourishes for the wind passes over it and it is gone and its place acknowledges it no more but the mercy of the lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his righteousness unto children's children how does the psalmist describe god's benefits to us mercy forgiveness redemption mercy is a foreign concept in many ways because it is a concept that is of god it's a virtue that is god's it's not of men and women he is its source he is the one who operates that way the definition of mercy is actually in that psalm in a nutshell he's not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities for as the heaven is high above the earth so great as his mercy to those who fear him that's the definition of mercy it is the quality in god whereby he does not deal with us in response to what we deserve his actions toward us are not primarily based on what we've earned who we are what we've done or how we have treated him his actions are based primarily not on who we are but they come from the fullness of who he is there's another psalm you know where it says he says what is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you visit him there's a question i think it's psalm 8 i should know that it's a question and the answer to that question is no that is to say it's the wrong question the correct question is who is god that he is mindful of us or that he visits us because it comes from the fullness of who he is which includes infinite mercy it is not based on what or who we are do you know imagine that imagine being a person not a god but a person who does not react to people according to how they have treated us who does not answer a person according to how they deserve to be answered who does not feel in our heart to relate to an individual in reply to how we should how they should be related to based on how they behave as human beings that is precisely how we relate to people that is precisely how we deal with people that paradigm is baked into our very dna it informs our everyday life and our everyday relationships it's just how we are wired you know if god had dealt with us that way we would have absolutely no hope at all none i'd i'd already be in hell and so would you he would not be merciful by waiting for judgment day because we don't deserve it he would never have been merciful by visiting us as the psalmist said in the lord jesus christ he would never have been merciful by offering us the salvation of our souls that is the definition of not dealing with us according to our sins and iniquities but differently he wouldn't be patient with us every single day as we read instead he redeems our life from destruction instead he is slow to anger instead he does not reward us according to our sins instead he forgives and this was the conclusion he does it always he never falters from everlasting to everlasting the psalmist says and we as people you know something and nick cave is right about this we will never be truly merciful until we have some sense of this our own need of mercy and the mercy we've received jesus said blessed are the merciful but he didn't say that before he had said blessed are the poor in spirit those who have seen themselves and found themselves to be bankrupt and found themselves relying on god's mercy poor in spirit bankrupt in themselves relying on god's mercy nothing in their hand they bring but they simply cling to christ it is that person who can engage with this world with mercy as the mercy of god is first applied to them and then applied through them you know nick cave was right he said mercy ultimately acknowledges that we're all imperfect that's actually crucial as i just was saying and it's it is only people who can see that about themselves who are truly equipped to show mercy to others now is he right to call out cancel culture go as far as to say that it is mercy's antithesis and therefore incapable of redemption and all these other good things do you know i believe that he is i really do cancel culture is basically and i've dealt with cancer culture in a previous segment search the youtube channel and you'll find the segment but it's basically an overreaction someone has said something right and what they've said is not politically correct so the cancel culture mob they take offense or they get upset about it for some other reason and what do they do right they do not target the speech they do not target the idea they do not target what was said they don't fight speech with speech they don't um they don't fight lies with truth or offense with rebuke or error with fact that's not what they do they don't go after the speech at all they go after the person they get them sacked they strip their professional accreditations they expel them from institutions they go on a witch hunt against the person and they ruined them and they keep on ruining them until the job is well and truly finished think of you know peter ridd think of drew pavlow think of his rafale for three recent australian examples but if you noticed how they still haven't quite been able to leave israel full out alone one year on not his ideas his person his person they hate the fact that he actually got a job somewhere in the world it's an overreaction to deal with people without mercy there is many a self-righteous and unforgiving political movement afoot today in fact they are everywhere it spoke volumes to me for example when greta thunder gave her famous speech and the phrase that people picked up on i noticed was how dare you do you know that was not the phrase that really jumped out and hit me the one that hit me was this we will never forgive you but it seemed that few people cared about how serious that statement is or the culture shift that it represents no redemption no mercy and that is the horror of a post-christian age the hatred of unforgiveness it's a cancer that will grow and is capable of literally anything cancel culture could just be the beginning if this continues and i guess in such times the other worldliness of mercy becomes more and more apparent we find it in god we don't find it in this world but those of us who know this mercy can and must make it known to others through the pattern of our lives and that is a challenge to us all to quote jesus be merciful as your heavenly father is merciful that is the source and actually you know it's the least we can do we who as the psalmist said have received of all his benefits chief of which there in that psalm is his mercy that was the truth about cancer culture and mercy and really you know what it means cancel culture and christ have very little in common okay next up something a little bit different this is parenting tips and you say martin what the heck would you have to say about parenting tips well these are not parenting tips from me these are parenting tips from my parents and i'm not kidding it's been a slightly weird thing to me but in recent times i've had a number of people make a request to me in different forms for insight from my mum and dad about being parents i had dinner with dad and mum recently in queensland and i mentioned this fact and we sort of had a chuckle and kept talking but the conversation came back to the issue and i read them out a couple of these requests from different sources and um it kind of got to them and they decided well maybe we should help and then i said well maybe you could write down your top 10 parenting tips and i'll do a truth of it segment on that and so they did it wasn't actually 10 by the time you amalgamated moms and dads got the overlaps and all that it ended up being 15. um but you know uh i'm going to faithfully deliver those points today in response to popular requests now there's a few preliminary notes to make firstly my dad and mom are obviously happy happily married christians and their tips are very much coming from that position there are those who are in more complex situations single parents and you know the only christian in the family and those sorts of things most of what these tips say most of it is still completely relevant there is and there is a particular tip for you guys at the end which my parents felt to add secondly these tips really are about having a young family or people who are prospective parents or people who are looking you know at relationships that it's that sort of phase in term of terms of tips for teens you know being parents of teenagers these principles are not irrelevant at all uh but you know that might be a segment down the track if this is well received and finally you might ask and plenty of you watching this will be like who's this martin bloke we don't care about this martin bloke or his parents i appreciate that completely and the question then becomes what are their qualifications to give these tips um well had six kids in in six years um and one passed away as an infant the remaining five uh i'm one i'm the youngest um all very very strong christians um and uh established and successful in life uh at least i think that must be true at least something seems to be what people have seen and and mentioned because they've also got 10 grand children so far but a big part of their life has been talking about this very issue many people ask them for their advice many people seek their counsel on this very thing and so there must be something about their lives and the way that they have run their families which has attracted that kind of inquiry and made them such a significant part of people's lives in um you know issues of marriage and family and raising children and all the rest of it but having said all that there's my little preliminary spiel here are my 15 tips top 15 from dr and mrs isles my dad and my mum and they're great tips by the way and that's why i'm presenting them i got them on the paper and i was like oh yes this is good so first here's tip number one judges chapter 13 verse 8 the prayer of samson's parents before he was born they prayed oh lord please teach us what we are to do with the child who will be born this is the prayer that my parents prayed before each of us kids was born to ask god how to rear each child and they both wanted me to emphasize the fact that it says us they went on to say your marriage relationship needs to be right because you must be one in the task of parenting it is a joint effort and agreement is essential on intention purpose goal and important aspects of raising children but although the goal is joint the roles of father and mother are different fathers do things mothers cannot do and mothers do things fathers cannot do children need both that's the first tip we joint and ask god to show you how to raise the child second the father must be the source of love in the family my dad wrote this the father must be the source of love in the family as he loves his children's mother the mother is the supply of love in the family she disseminates it to the family circle and wins the hearts of the children i think it's beautifully put third this is also from dad he says fathers take responsibility for your family because scripturally the buck stops with you from ephesians fathers bring your children up in the nurture and admonition of the lord it is the father who receives this responsibility which includes enabling the mother to do what he cannot do the backbone of the family is dead too many fathers simply won't be what they ought to be sometimes mothers won't let them but more often it is the former provide strength authority stability and direction in your family fourth this is from both what they're all from both that's been compared and contrasted and amalgamated and some of these are blended points fourth understand that god gave you your children he entrusted them to you to guard them and guide them and bring them up for him scripture says children are a heritage from the lord it's important not to think so much that they are your creation but that they are his creation and they belong to you they are not that they belong to you but that they belong to him when our children asked where did i come from we answered from the heart of god on the day of judgment god is far more likely to ask you what you have done with your child than to find out how successful important or powerful you were fifth establish the authority of scripture in the whole of family life always ask what does god say and make that the clear standard decision making is never ultimately about peers psychology expectations of others or the will of a child it is always ultimately god said to establish what is right and the importance of always doing what is right is vital which makes me reflect actually this was common you know we'd ask questions a lot as kids and um dad's answer sometimes was well where's my bible grabbing my bible and he just opened it up and said let's see what does it say and he turned to a bit and he'd read it with us he'd say right what does this say and then he'd ask us to explain it to him and then that would be the answer to the question um i remember one particular moment of course as a kid you remember this because it's um it's uh it relates to obedience to parents and if those sorts of things stick into your mind but i remember dad sitting around the dinner table and he read the verse uh we're reading we're going through ephesians and he read the verse um children obey your parents and the lord for this is right and he just asked the question he said he said why why does why is it important to obey your parents and uh we sort of looked at each other and someone said because you'll get us in trouble and he said well that might be true but but no tell me again then you read it out again he said he said he said why should you about your parents we had a few cracks at this uh and then eventually we got it because this is right and then the question came well why is it right because god said honor your father and your mother this is the first commandment with a promise and the authority of scripture was always established as you know the moral compass and the fact that if you found out what the moral compass said you you just did it you just did it because it was right thing it was a good thing to do and it would work out um that's a was a big part of life anyway sixth they say pray together and together is underlined every day for guidance and patience wisdom and understanding in your parenting listen to each other's prayers that's important only one has the answer to all your problems and that is god seventh when it comes to character this is a bit intimidating when it comes to character you cannot expect your child to become what you are not or behave according to what you lack they read you long before they listen to you they remember what you were long after what you have said is forgotten you know that's important i always actually do reflect on that um my parents were role models first and foremost they were role models and i got to say i never as a kid so unusual to see anything from mum or dad that was you know not um morally impeccable i've never to this day ever seen my parents have a fight not once never exchange a crossword not once uh never you know i could go on and that just sounds crazy i know and people go really what rubbish no that's true they were examples first and foremost and took that so seriously and it's true you remember who your parents are far long after what they've said is forgotten so powerful anyway i'm not embarrassing anyone in the family by saying some of these things um uh eighth am i up to eighth yes eighth never make idle threats keep your word absolutely be careful what you say and always always follow through it's interesting you know um the importance of somebody's word in scripture is so vital i think in james chapter five after james has given all these principles of wisdom for life and then he says but above all he says and you think oh crikey after all this what could possibly be so important and he says do not do not make an oath you know uh and uh and and you think really and the whole point of that bit is to say let your word be your word your yes be yes and your nobi no um and i think mum and dad are probably pulling on that principle of scripture that your word really matters and if you make a threat follow through if there's a punishment promised make it happen um and i know that as kids if there was something like that done we knew for sure that there was no way out um you know the word of mum and dad mattered uh it meant something um but of course our whole salvation rests on the word of god and so you know our word also matters in all facets including parenting uh moving on where were we up to ninth never argue with your child there you go i do see a lot of that actually um parents just having these sort of verbal spats with their kids and getting answered back and answering just just as a disaster tenth pray every day for your for and with your child remember the bi read the bible with them read stories with them and i do remember mum actually wrote that first and um i cannot remember a time in my life i can go back to my earliest memories of going to bed at night and i cannot remember a time when mum didn't when i didn't pray with mum she always did that every evening eleventh be a whole family it shouldn't be a matter of dad living his life kids having their life mum having her life primarily your life is your family life twelfth all forms of evil and wrongdoing must not be overlooked whether swearing stealing lying temper willful damage etc discipline must invariably follow the bible speaks of a rod of discipline not to necessarily speak of beating but to make it clear that correction is an essential part of being a that said distinguish between wrongdoing with motive and genuine mistakes wrongdoing demands correction mistakes demand patience especially when the child is young lest you demoralize them 13th mum says uh absolutely avoid peer pressure from or with other mums stick with your own god-given convictions and be unashamed to do so um i don't know she didn't write this down but she made the point that she thinks that's gotten worse with social media mums groups and things like that with just pressure peer pressure into mum pressure uh and she says that that's just not a good idea to succumb to pressure and she gave several examples of moments when she just had to stand up for what she believed in and not succumb to that pressure 14th communication with your child is important that's it nice short one and finally mum wrote this one she said do not put your baby into daycare if there is any possible way not to no one will ever love your child like you do and it has been given to you to rear and to love as only a mother can childhood is short don't miss out on it and you will spend the rest of your life reaping the rewards and the child god gave you you will give back to him it's extraordinary so there's 15 tips from doctor and mrs isles or martin's parents now i said that there was something additional for those in challenging situations of family breakdown or non-christian spouses or the myriad of things which these days disrupt family and dad and um have spent a good part of their lives supporting people in those sorts of circumstances all my life i've been aware of that and first they note that the principles mentioned are largely the same you know establishing authority of scripture praying for and with your child living by example all that kind of stuff they say that that's the same but there is no way around the fact that it's harder parenting is hard full stop and parenting alone is harder and there's a fact of life there's no point pretending that it's otherwise but they wanted to mention a couple of scriptures and i've got them written down here and the first one is and my god will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in christ um and you say well even the need of a parent with an absent partner even the need of a parent without a christian partner uh even the need of a childless woman who wishes that we're weren't so all sorts you know you could all these various things um that that are difficult in families well my parents referenced isaiah 54. for your maker is your husband the lord of hosts is his name the holy one of israel is your redeemer the god of the whole earth he is called sing o'barren one who did not bear break forth into singing and cry aloud you who have not been in labor for the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married says the lord now that's pretty that's uh there's a particular future context for the nation um of israel in all of that but it comes back to this the promise is made in that specific context with that specific metaphor because that is something that god can in fact do he can be the husband to the single he can bring about more children for the baron in other ways not biological but in other ways he can do all sorts of things he can mend those broken things as part of this fallen world because he is god and that is the extent of his great power and that's why that metaphor makes sense that's why that promise future makes sense so yes the needs of people with all sorts of personal circumstances who fear the lord can be met by a god who supplies all our needs there you go a segment built basically around with some editorializing by me which i hope is okay uh straight from my dad and my mum and uh maybe i can convince them to do some tips for parents of teenagers down the track for some time if there's feedback to that effect and if you guys like it now that is the truth of it about uh i think it's the truth about parenting is that too much to claim no it's not the truth of it about being a good parent now i was going to deal with mark latham's parental rights bill but i am right out of time because i have a clock down there which is ticking down and i talked far too much in the last segment and so i've hit the limit so i'm going to delay that one until the next episode when i will also be talking about the resurrection and apologetics i'm mark niles and that was the truth of it hey thank you so much for watching if you liked what you saw then make sure to hit the like button if you want to never miss another video again make sure to subscribe or you can right now watch more videos right here cheers

Channel: ACL – Australian Christian Lobby

Views: 37,734

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Id: 06zryY65Qac

Length: 44min 30sec (2670 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 22 2020