Author: Jimmy Day

Our family has really enjoyed watching the Olympic Games. It’s been inspiring to see the results of the amazing dedication and hard work of sportsmen and women from many nations of the world. That’s what I always find staggering – the work, sacrifice, self-control, self-denial & training that goes on day after day for months and years leading up to an event such as this. And then, in a matter of seconds or minutes the event is over and only one person – the best of the best – wins the ultimate prize: a Gold Medal.

The dedication of these men and women is to be admired and emulated by those of us who live under the name of Jesus Christ. Why is that people will go to great lengths to win a temporary prize but not lift a finger to win something eternal? The Apostle Paul uses the Olympic Games of his day as a challenge that is still worth taking on:

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)

Running to win; strict training; self-denial and sacrifice – not popular concepts by any means! The majority will never live like this but they will admire those who do!

What I have believed and taught for years has finally been backed up by research – children are born believers!

I don’t have time in this blog to go into the theology of children and their eternal salvation.  If this topic is of interest to you listen to this message in the Answers to Searching Questions series in which I address the question, “What happens to babies and young children who die? – Do they all go to heaven?”

Now, back to my original statement – children are born believers!  The Age recently reported that “Infants are hardwired to believe in God, and atheism has to be learned.”  According to Dr Olivera Petrovich, an expert in psychology of religion, belief in God is not taught but develops naturally.  Her findings were based on several studies particularly one of Japanese children aged four to six, and another of 400 British children aged five to seven from seven different faiths.  The conclusion: “Atheism is definitely an acquired position.”

This has certainly been born out in my own experience over many years of teaching Religious Education to children in Primary Schools.  There was always the one or two kids who would be atheists but it was always as a result of what they had heard their parents articulate about there being “no God.”  All the other kids – including those from homes where no particular faith was adhered to – believed in the existence of God and were fascinated by discussions on spirituality and life after death.

What a huge responsibility there is in parenting a child – to protect this inherent belief in God and to nurture it into a vibrant faith that remains a strong foundation throughout the child’s life.  Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”  And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.”  (Mark 10:14-16)

What a huge responsibility there is in parenting a child – to protect this inherent belief in God and to nurture it into a vibrant faith that remains a strong foundation throughout the child’s life.  Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the Kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”  And He took the children in His arms, put His hands on them and blessed them.”  (Mark 10:14-16)

Last week Christie and I watched with fascination an excellent program on TV hosted by Jamie Oliver.  I’d heard about this controversial show and some of the feedback that had occurred when it was aired in the UK.  On this program Jamie demonstrated how badly battery hens and chicks are treated in British egg farms.  During one scene he showed how cute fluffy male chicks are deprived of oxygen and literally suffocated to death.  As the camera panned around the audience many were in tears at the senseless horror they witnessed with their own eyes.

During the program the stark truth dawned on many in the studio audience – and I’m sure on many of us watching in our homes:  this mistreatment of hens is going on all the time to provide us with meat and eggs and we weren’t even aware of it!  But now, thanks to Jamie Oliver, we are aware and we can do something about it!  Things are already changing in the UK and I would imagine some hard questions will be asked in Australia too – and rightly so.  Matthew 6:26 reveals that God cares for his creation including the animal kingdom.  Proverbs 12:10 says “A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal …”

As I continued to watch Jamie’s presentation I started wondering about what other horrors are allowed to go ahead unhindered even in our “civilized” society simply because people are unaware of what’s going on.  We are aghast at the treatment of hens, but what about the treatment of innocent babies in the womb who are terminated in their thousands right here in Australia?  What if society were similarly exposed to a program that demonstrated how cruel an abortion really is?  Of course it will never happen – it would simply be too horrific to watch.  But if we speak out for chickens shouldn’t we also speak out for vulnerable babies rather than pass laws that seal their doom?  After all Jesus said, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Australia has become the fattest nation in the world, with more than 9 million adults now rated as obese or overweight, according to a new report: Australia’s Future ‘Fat Bomb’ from Melbourne’s Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute.  The report shows that Australians now outweigh Americans and face a future “fat bomb” that could cause a vast increase in sickness, premature deaths and place a huge burden on our health system.

The latest figures show 4 million Australians — or 26% of the adult population — are now obese compared to an estimated 25% of Americans. A further 5 million Australians are considered overweight.

But soft bodies are not our only problem.  These statistics show that many Aussies also have soft minds!  In other words, we know what to do but we just don’t do it.

There is no lack of information on the importance of a balanced, healthy diet and regular exercise.  We all know these things are important but for whatever reason over half of us do little or nothing about it.  We lead sedentary lives; spend countless hours watching TV while snacking on unhealthy processed foods; and think that the five food groups are pizza, chocolate, coke, French fries and KFC.

On the flip side of this is another problem – obsession with body image.  In the last decade there have been approx 40,000 surgical procedures related to weight loss.  Fad diet books often fill the Top 10 most sold books and we are constantly bombarded with conflicting information about what foods are good and bad for us.  Many guys are aiming at the false ideal of looking like the cover model on Men’s Health magazine – after all, happiness is a six-pack is it not?  Women are confronted with pictures of skinny models and told they need to look like this as well.  What is rarely understood is how these people get to look like this in the first place – a combination of good genes, hard work, extreme dieting and airbrushed photos (that’s right, most of these men and women don’t even look like there own photo!).

The Bible teaches us to look after our bodies; after all, they are the temple of the Holy Spirit.  Learn to eat healthily.  Find an exercise that you enjoy – and that is age-appropriate – and do it 2 or 3 times a week.  But please don’t buy into the media image of the beautiful person.  True beauty is what emanates from the inside of you and it is that which will last forever – long after that beautiful body of yours has returned to the substance from which it was made – dust!

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There is an ongoing debate in politics as well as in the media about government funding of independent schools – and there have been a lot of misconceptions and distortion of facts.  In particular The Age has been running a campaign against funding for independent schools using phrases such as “a flawed funding model” and “generous funding to independent schools”.  In 2007, columnist Katherine Deveny put it more bluntly when she wrote, “private schools should not receive funding.”

What is often not mentioned is that the existence of independent schools actually saves the taxpayer money.  For example, one local independent school receives almost $3,000 of funding annually per Primary student and about $3,800 per Secondary student.  The average cost of educating a student in a government school in Australia is over $7,000 (Primary) and over $9,000 (Secondary).

In other words, every primary student at this local school saves the taxpayer over $4,000 a year and every secondary student saves the taxpayer over $5,000.  The combined 2008 saving to taxpayers from families attending this school will be over $13 million.

What needs to be made clear is that scrapping – or reducing – government funding to independent schools will increase fees thus forcing some families to send their children to government schools and putting extra stress on the public school system.  This in turn will cost the taxpayer more.  It would also reduce the education options for families and penalize people of faith who desire for their children to have an education that is consistent with their religious beliefs.

I believe it is the right of every parent to send their children to a school of their choice – be it government or independent, but please let’s not buy in to some of the tripe that is being served up currently by some politicians and media commentators.  It’s hard to believe they don’t have some sort of anti-faith agenda!

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Relativism!  It’s defined by Wikipedia as “the position that moral or ethical propositions do not reflect objective and/or universal moral truths, but instead make claims relative to social, cultural, historical or personal circumstances.”  Moral relativists hold that no universal standard exists by which to assess an ethical proposition’s truth.  To put this in simpler words, relativism is a “make it up as you go” morality.

We hear of an increasing number of examples of relativism weekly.  Relativism says…

  • Its okay to publicly display photos of a naked 13 year old girl, but it’s not okay for a TV personality to make fun of a female reporter.
  • It’s fine to allow a 12 year old girl to have a sex change; but it’s not fine to reveal the names of child sex offenders when they are released back into society even though the likelihood is that they will offend again and rob precious children of their innocence.

Relativism!  Let’s just make it up as we go.  It’s whatever feels right – or wrong – at the time.  In contrast to this the Bible gives an unchanging morality.  It’s these timeless truths that attracted thousands to Jesus in the relativistic Roman Empire of the first century.  It’s these same truths that still attract hundreds of thousands to Christ every week all around the world.

A final comment on the child sex offenders’ issue:  Derryn Hinch
continues to be a leading voice on this.  If you feel strongly about
this issue you can sign a petition on Derryn Hinch’s website:

http://www.hinch.net/name-them-shame-them/name-them-shame-them-rally.html

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The radio talk-back waves have been crackling with strong debate this week over a Sydney art gallery’s display of photographs by controversial Melbourne artist Bill Henson.  The 20 photographs are of a naked girl and boy believed to be around the ages of 12 or 13.  These photos have been seized by Sydney police and charges are expected to be laid.

The comments on the radio have been many and varied and this issue has obviously polarized the community.  There are a number of things that I find fascinating from this debate but I will focus this blog on two of them:

First is the call by Cate Blanchett, and dozens of other 2020 Summit delegates, for the Prime Minister to retract his criticisms of Bill Henson as they “damage Australia’s cultural reputation.”  And showing naked pictures of adolescents doesn’t do damage?  There is something even more sinister here when the so-called cultural elite want to gag free speech from those who disagree with them.  I applaud Kevin Rudd for his courage in taking a stand on this issue.  Political, church and other community leaders have a right and a responsibility to exercise a prophetic voice that speaks out for truth and righteousness.

The other issue is the justification of these photos by some people.  If a pedophile is found to have such images in their possession they are arrested and jailed – and rightly so!  In one interview these photos were described as “High Art” and that was used as justification for their legitimacy.  So the man or woman found in possession of photos of naked minors in various poses in alright as long as it’s in the name of high art?  The problem here is that we have a society where black and white are viewed by many as merely shades of grey!  That’s why I love the Bible and my Christian faith.  Some things are right – other things are wrong!  Thank you Mr Rudd for speaking out on this – please don’t let people silence you even if they do happen to be famous!