Monday PrayerCast, June 20th, 2022
News and Prayer Update.
It’s Monday morning the 20th June 2022 and this is the weekly look at what’s happening, and a little bit of perspective from a Christian standpoint.
Listen to the PODCAST HERE.
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Let’s start with our present financial crisis. The Guardian has reported that during the covid response, orchestrated by Westminister, and lead by the health departments of the so-called four nations, protective clothing, PPE, worth £4 billion was bought to stop NHS staff being infected with Covid. Where is it now? Well, it is being incinerated, because it is useless. The Commons public accounts committee which oversees spending by Whitehall departments, found that the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has £4bn Now think of that – not £4 million, that would be bad enough, but £4 BILLION pounds worth of PPE in storage which can not be used by frontline workers because it is below standard. The Dept of Health has told the PAC that it plans to burn the PPE, and that it has appointed two commercial firms who will dispose of 15,000 pallets of unused, unsuitable, wasted, Personal Protective Equipment a month. Add to that the cost of the useless ‘test and trace system’ – estimated to be another wasted £37 BILLION pounds, the money spent on furlough schemes, another £70 BILLION so that people could have a year on holiday, the millions wasted on unused ‘covid passports,’ and the mountain of plastic waste from thrown away face masks…
Now, that’s YOUR money and mine, going straight into an incinerator. That’s money that could feed the poor, rehouse homeless people, solve the problem of veterans living on the street, build new hospitals and pay for doctors and nurses. Every time you can’t get though to a doctor, or you hear the BBC talking about 24 hour waiting lists in A&E, or you can’t get a hip joint operation for five years, even though you are in agony – remember what they did with that money. And when you’re next at the petrol station, and your car is consuming £100 worth of petrol, and your heart is blaming Putin, remember that most of your gallon of petrol goes to the government in tax, and the price can’t be lowered, because the government needs that tax to pay for billions and billions of pounds of its own wasteful, profligate spending.
And talking about petrol prices, as I was recording this podcast, I looked at the price of Brent Crude, selling at $118 dollars per barrel. That’s 1.38% down on the previous day. The price has fallen. Road fuel at the pump, selling at £1.80 per litre. In 2008, when oil was last at a peak, the price of Brent Crude was around the same price, in fact its highest price that year was $145 dollars a barrel, yet in 2008, the price of a litre at the pump was around £1.20 to £1.35. Right now, petrol in Gibraltar is around £1.40 a litre, and they buy the same crude oil as we do. Some curious person might be tempted to ask, – why the difference, – where’s the extra 50p per litre going? Now this is not a competition! There’s no prize… But take a guess anyway… If you said – it’s going to the government… I think you may well be right. Let’s blame it on ‘global warming’ and call it ‘green taxes’ and we’ll say no more. Oh, and don’t forget the £4 Billion we’re burning.
On Monday last week, the Rt Honourable Anthony Blair, erstwhile Prime Minister of Gt Britain and Northern Ireland, was installed as a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, – up to now, the highest order of British chivalry. A petition containing over a million signatures objecting to this honour being conferred upon him, was rejected by parliament. The Sun reports that “Angus Scott, who launched the petition wrote that (Blair) had caused “irreparable damage to both the constitution of the United Kingdom and to the very fabric of the nation’s society”, and called for Sir Tony to be held accountable for “war crimes”. I agree.
The government response to the petition, was to set it aside on the grounds that the honour is bestowed by the Queen, alone. If so, both the queen and Blair should be ashamed of themselves, the queen for conferring any honour upon this obnoxious person, and Blair himself for his part in the Iraq war, his destruction of the UK, his role in dragging the morality of this nation into the gutter, and his litany of lies and deceit. Worldly honours are meaningless in the light of eternity, and this, now debased knighthood, will mean nothing, when Blair and his ilk stand before a holy God, to give account of their lives. It is a fearsome thing, to fall into the hands of the living God.
On Friday, 17th June, the Belfast Newsletter carried a report that the NI Secretary of State, Brandon Lewis, the man who has aggressively and wickedly promoted the culture of death in this province is ‘minded’ to offer women and girls abortion services over the telephone. The News Letter reports, “Brandon Lewis said provision for a telemedicine service was not currently in the Province’s abortion regulations but he was minded to add it. The treatment option allows women to take a medical abortion pill following a virtual consultation with a clinical professional.” I really don’t know what is wrong with this man; why he has so much hatred for unborn babies, but it seems that his wickedness knows no boundaries.
Well, it wouldn’t be like me to finish on a cheerful note! So. Have you made arrangements for your funeral? Most people here opt for burial or cremation, but over in the USA, there are more options, and when it comes to anything ‘eco-green and woke’ there’s nowhere can out-do California. So the American based website, Religion News Service is reporting that Californians might have a new option soon. Composting. Yes, after death, you can have your body turned into fertiliser, and used to grow crops or plants, which, after all, in Woke-land, are your main source of food. You could be literally, “Pushing up daisies!”
The idea is driven by California’s obsession with reducing carbon emissions, and apparently the number of people being cremated is contributing to climate change… RNS reports, “State Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, a Democrat who introduced the legislation, said this is another “sad reminder that we must legalise a more environmentally friendly option as soon as possible.”” The Catholic Church strongly objects to this latest green initiative. “Kathleen Domingo, executive director for the California Catholic Conference, said the process “reduces the human body to simply a disposable commodity. Using this method, Domingo said, “can create an unfortunate spiritual, emotional and psychological distancing from the deceased.”
Look, the body rots after death, and awaits the general resurrection, when it will be resurrected, and reunited with the soul. The real issue here is the obsession with ‘earth worship.’ Making a god out of the planet, so that even the dead are expected to comply with the climate change religion.
Links to all these stories are available so you can read and research them for yourself. Follow the weblink in the episode notes to www dot Semper hyphen Reformata dot com to learn more.
Today’s Grace Gem is from J R Millar. Many shrink from ministering to the poor, because they have no money to give. But money alone is the poorest alms ever bestowed! There are gifts which every true Christian, however poor, has to bestow — which are infinitely better than money. The apostles gave no money. They had no silver nor gold to bestow. Jesus never gave any money! We never read of Him giving a mite to any who were poor or in distress. And yet no man was ever such a lavish giver of beneficence as He. What Christ gave was loving service, pity, sympathy, compassion, tears and personal help. Paul wrote “If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames — but have not love, I gain nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:3
Find more inspirational quotes on GraceGems.org
Let’s pray…
Our dear heavenly Father, help us to see that all the honours of this world are meaningless to those of us who know and love the Lord Jesus for we seek no honour or recognition of our own. Our desire is that He might have the preeminence in all things. One day we know that every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that He is Lord.
Father, in these days when money is scarce, and people are fearful for the future, let us look to you for our comfort and our help, for you have told us that you will never forsake us. May we learn to help and bless those in need, and even when we cannot give money, to give love, to others as Christ has loved us. Forgive all of our sins, not because of any merit of ours, but because God’s justice has been fully satisfied in Christ, – in his atoning work on the cross. And accept our thanks we pray.
That’s all for now! Catechism class is tomorrow – Tuesday at 1pm, and there should be a sermon podcast on Saturday.
Don’t be discouraged, – let’s keep watching, and keep praying, for greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world…
The Salty Scrivener 