The perfect leader

“Forget democracy, let’s create a supreme leader.  I vote that we need a genetically engineered benevolent dictator”.  

Those are not my words, but the satirical writings of a Journalist, tiring of the recent ‘dirty politics’, Dot Com, et al.  And with one million eligible voters declining to use their democratic right last weekend, you would have to say there are many who agree with him.  It was a humorous read, but there is a serious here message too.  Even a democracy can end up as nasty as a dictatorship with power hungry leaders, and either system could work if you had perfect benevolent leaders or one perfect leader.  

Ah, now there’s a thought that resonates with every heart – if only there was one perfect leader you could utterly trust with everything, and somehow they had the ability to work absolutely everything for everyone, for the perfect good.  Well, I believe that perfect leader is coming. “For a child has been born--for us! the gift of a son--for us! He'll take over the running of the world. His names will be: Amazing Counselor, Strong God, Eternal Father, Prince of Wholeness.” 

Never let it be forgotten that we are living in a world that has cast out its King, Jesus Christ.  We are the direct descendants of those who joined to declare, “We will not have this Man to reign over us!” The heavens have received that King for a time, but while he is hidden from our eyes, this Living One is being made real to all who will believe and receive Him by the Holy Spirit, who is the Administrator of the King in His absence.  You cannot vote for this King, but you do get to choose Him now, or not.  

What will you do?

Stewart Patrick

Leader - Mangapapa Church

Published in the Gisborne Herald Saturday 27 September 2014

Stewart will be known by many for his earlier work with Youth for Christ, and has now been the leader at Mangapapa Church for the last few years.  He leads his church - God's church - with a strong commitment to the word of God as being the truth, and the importance of staying "in the vine".

The Ego and Poverty

Children are living in poverty in New Zealand. It is a problem. Politicians put capital letters on the words child and poverty and make the problem a minor political issue. The issue is put to the electorate. People vote, nothing is solved.

Our nation prides itself on being progressive and tolerant. The attitudes at the heart of our nation that make people tolerant and progressive are the same attitudes that allow New Zealanders to tolerate children living in poverty and secretly want to progress away from it towards a richer economic future.

Children have high dependency needs which often impact on the freedom of adults. This is not new. What is new in our society at every level is a thirst for freedom of the individual at all costs. It spawns all manner of greedy, pleasure seeking, ego-centric behaviour in adults which trickles down into the world of children. A child may go to school hungry because of this, another may go with every possible advantage money can buy but both may go to school unloved and unhappy, unable to learn. Something in our nation’s psyche needs to give if people really want to improve the lot of children in this country.   

Parents who claim to love their unhappy children have a glaring lack of knowledge about the nature and social responsibility of parental love. Governments and money cannot fix this, they have to work with it. Tolerance and progress are gods in New Zealand. These leave little room for the Christian God, a God whose son Jesus Christ taught that self-sacrifice is at the heart of all love and that freedom and happiness for all is not found in selfish behaviour but in each and everyone of us endeavouring to love others more than we love our ego.

Sue Jones

St. Marys Catholic Church

 Sue is a regular writer for Catholic publications in N.Z and is connected to the Wairoa parish of St. Peters and  St. Mary's in Gisborne.

   

Won by Love

Norma McCorvey is the Jane Roe of the infamous Roe v Wade case which, in 1973 legalised abortion in America. Poor, pregnant, uneducated, unskilled, a drug user and an alcoholic, Norma fell into the hands of two young and ambitious lawyers. They were looking for a plaintiff with whom they could challenge the Texas state law prohibiting abortion, and Norma signed on. 

Roe v Wade struck down the abortion laws of every state, and "legalised" the killing of millions of innocent children. Doe v Bolton was the companion case, signed the same day, and brought virtually unregulated abortion to all fifty states, making it legal for women to abort for any reason through all  nine months of pregnancy. Both cases were based on lies, and ironically, Norma never had an abortion. 

A mother of three, she entered a lesbian relationship,and for over two decades she worked in abortion clinics, seeing first-hand how abortion degrades women, while making abortionists "filthy" rich. But through the genuine friendship and unconditional love of Christians, and the unique influence of the Spirit of God, Norma began to change. 

At the time of her conversion she  repented deeply, and said, "I just want to undo all the evil I've done in this world."  Norma was baptised into the Christian faith a short time later. She  said, "The love I have found in God is a love that means more than the world means to me. It's a love I had to follow." In her book, Won by Love Norma writes, "It was so hard for me to believe that the Lord had forgiven me ... but gradually I have learned to trust His Word more than my own feelings." She continues, "If God can forgive Norma McCorvey ... He can forgive You." 

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all  wickedness." 1 John 1:9.

Julia Martin

Wife, mother, grandmother, Julia has been engaged in the battle for LIFE since the 1980’s. She believes human life is of ultimate implication because each one is created in the image of the Divine.