Monday Prayercast, 11th July 2022
News and Prayer Update.
It’s 8am on Monday morning the 11th July 2022 and this is the weekly look at what’s happening, and a little bit of perspective from a Christian standpoint.
We have to start with the resignation of Alexander (Boris) Johnson, the now former PM of the UK. Johnson apparently had ambitions as a child to the ‘King of the World.” He has always been an ambitious man, and such unrestrained ambition, always leads to corruption, as the ambitious man tramples over others to appease his own egotistical aspirations. In Johnson, that flaw is evident to all. He has had a checkered career in politics, marked with immorality, infidelity, poor decision making – but mostly his legacy will be as a serial liar. It had come to the point where no-one believed a single word he said. In his final days he was sending government ministers out on media rounds, to defend his integrity, and even as they were speaking, he was changing the narrative, inventing new excuses, and making his own cabinet minister, acting in good faith on what they had received from the PM’s press office, look like liars also. His own people, in his own party and in parliament were tired of all the mendacity and dissembling. He had to go.
The Bible tells us in Proverbs 29:2 “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan.”
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The question now remains, “Who will replace him?” Is there anyone who is seriously in the running for the job, among the main parties at Westminister who is not a pro-abortion, warmonger, and globalist? Will our next prime minister be even worse than Johnson? For Christians there is an important truth that needs to be grasped, that kings and rulers come and go, empires rise and fall, and governments change, and through all that change, there is one thing that is always constant – our God is still on the throne, and our allegiance is to primarily to him. In Isaiah 6, the prophet finds himself in a period of political instability, a time of great uncertainty, but as he worshipped in the Temple, he found reassurance of that great truth, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple.” Let’s remember that, and keep our eyes on Christ, who reigns, and before whom every earthly leader will one day bow, and answer for how he or she has discharged their responsibilities God has placed upon them.
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And with the exit of Boris Johnson our erstwhile Secretary of State for NI, Brandon Lewis has also gone. Thankfully. Mr Lewis was the uncaring, immoral man who shamefully introduced to this province the most liberal abortion regime in the UK, against the wishes of the majority of the people. He refused to listen to the people, and in his time as Secretary of State more human beings have been killed, their little lives destroyed, the most vulnerable people in society, – more killed than were killed by the IRA in 30 years of terrorism. We won’t miss Brandon Lewis, and we pray that his successor will not pursue Mr Lewis’s stated aim of commissioning more widespread abortion services on local healthcare trusts and hospitals.
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Moving on from politics to education. Northern Ireland’s schools were, 100 years or more ago, in the hands of the churches. The Roman Catholic Church still has its own separate education system, funded by the state, but administered by representatives of the church. The schools owned and administered by Protestant Churches were handed over to state control, and became the so-called ‘Controlled Sector.’ But until recently there remained in the state schools a vaguely Christian ethos, at least in religious education, and especially so in the primary schools, although even there, this has been fading in recent years. I can well remember being invited to conduct assembly at primary schools, and being free to teach the children biblical Christianity.
But like everything that is good and godly in our modern society, this has been challenged in the courts, by those who want Christianity and our Christian heritage expunged from every area of life, from politics, from government, from public debate and now from school. The BBC has reported that the High Court has ruled that the exclusive teaching of Christianity, and the predominance of Christianity in assembly, ie ‘worship’ in Primary Schools is a breach of human rights. The case was brought on behalf of a seven year old pupil at a school in Belfast, who is, according to the BBC, from a non-religious family. Apparently the child’s parents had expressed concerns that she may adopt ‘a specific worldview.’ The BBC reports, “Mr Justice Colton said the “unlawfulness identified requires a reconsideration of the core curriculum” in how it sets out the teaching of religious education (RE) and the provision of collective worship.” I suggest that the parents, to go to these lengths were atheistic activists with an anti-god agenda.
So, the way is now open for the teaching of ‘alternative worldviews.’ And what those worldviews may be, we do not know, but we can be sure they won’t all be wholesome. There always was the provision that a child could be withdrawn from RE, at the parent’s request. I disagree with the judge, who said, “Whilst an unfettered right to exclusion is available it is not a sufficient answer to the lack of pluralism identified by the court.”
When only Christianity was taught, non-Christians, would have found it simple enough to exercise that right, and I doubt if that would have led to bullying, especially when a number of pupils would be exercising that right. In the early 1980’s I lived near a popular and educationally excellent Roman Catholic Primary School, where a large number of the pupils were non-Catholics, who were treated sympathetically by the teachers, when it came to RE classes, and alternative activities provided for them. There were no complaints from the parents, that I’m aware of, and the school had a fantastic reputation. But when RE consists of teaching syncretistic worldviews, perhaps Christianity today and Buddhism tomorrow, it’s going to be lot harder for parents to find out what’s being taught and when, and protect children from damaging and spiritually harmful curriculum content.
But state schools in many jurisdictions are no longer safe places for children, and I suppose it was just a matter of time before the now secular state of NI fell into line with other godless nations. The way forward in education for Christians may have to be home schooling or church sponsored schools. I would expect that its only a matter of time before those alternatives are taken away also, in the relentless drive by the state to corrupt our children’s minds while they are still young.
The Christian believer will be praying for our children, and the Christian family will be teaching our children the doctrines of the faith, and a Christian worldview, and integrating them into the local church family. Ephesians 6:4 And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-62053430
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Today we have a Bible reading from Ephesians 6:1-9
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: 3 “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” 4 And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. 5 Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ; 6 not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, 7 with goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men, 8 knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free. 9 And you, masters, do the same things to them, giving up threatening, knowing that your own Master also is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.
Let’s pray…
Heavenly Father, we pray for our UK government at this time of uncertainty and change. Bring godly leadership to our land we pray, raise up politicians who are conscious of their responsibilities before God, and who will govern wisely. Turn back the rising tide of evil and wickedness, especially the badness that was inflicted by our last Secretary of State, the plunging of our society further into the abyss of profound immorality, for “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.”
We bring our children before you, Lord, growing up in this wicked world, where they are taught in society and in school to deliberately turn their back on the God who created them, and to break his laws. Watch over them we pray, and keep them safe, and bring them to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
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That’s all for now! Look out for a wide ranging and hard hitting conversation with Wallace Thompson the secretary of the Evangelical Protestant Society, tomorrow, Tuesday July12th at 1pm, where ever you get your podcasts. Catechism lessons resume in September, and there’ll be some bonus episodes, including some church history, during the summer.
Join us for worship, if you are free, each Lord’s Day morning at Ballymacashon Church, 78 Saintfield Road, Killinchy, Co.Down, at 11.30am.
Don’t be discouraged, – let’s redeem the time, and keep praying, keep our eyes fixed upon Jesus, for greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world…
The Salty Scrivener 